Pricing Your Virtual Assistance Services
Pricing your virtual services takes a lot of thought and there isn’t one perfect game plan out there to help you figure it out.
If you ask 5 different people how to set your prices, you are sure to get 5 different answers, so before you determine how much to charge for your service, you should ask yourself the following questions:
- How qualified are you to do the services you are offering?
Don’t offer website design or graphic design if you have no idea about HTML code or working with Adobe InDesign templates . If you have a portfolio of websites you have developed or graphic design work that rocks, then you are definitely qualified to offer those kinds of services with a premium price tag.
- Do you consider yourself an expert in the service?
Meaning, have you done this particular service successfully and can you really walk the walk and talk the talk with confidence? Never over promise and under deliver on what you can do. That never ends well, and can ruin your professional reputation quickly.
- Does your service require any sort of certification or special training that other VA’s may not have?
Having a degree in business accounting will definitely qualify you for accounting work over someone who may just be good with numbers. Having a keen understanding of Powerpoint or Excel can also put you into a higher earning bracket over someone that can just get by with basic commands of MS Word programs.
When setting your prices, you should know how much money you need to make each month. It would be smart determine a monthly budget and see how much money you will need each month to live. Then break that number down like this:*
Monthly cost of living = $3k
What I’ve got to earn each day (we’ll take an average of 22 days per month) 3k / 22 = $136.36 per day
$136.36 per day / 8 hours a day = $17/hour.
This is just an example, so your financial situation could be different when figuring out what to charge by the hour.
* monthly budget formula -from the blog of Reese Ben-Yaacov
Some VA’s will offer project pricing for the work they offer, but project pricing is not recommended for a new VA just starting out. You are better off charging an hourly rate until you get a bit more experience and build up your client base.
When you provide a quote for a project you have to be able to provide pricing that makes sense. That means that you know exactly how long it’s going to take to get the work done. You’ll get there with experience. Once you are confident in your abilities in turning around the work, it will be easier for you to offer project pricing.
Here’s a great quote to remember as you work through figuring out what to charge;
“Price is what you pay, value is what you get” ~ Warren Buffet
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