Hi Mary,
Sorry to hear that you've had a bad experience. I agree that $10 for a 500 word article is an unrealistic expectation and I am surprised that request is coming from another VA. My first question I guess would be how much does that VA charge for
their services and what is their experience as a VA? We all know of people who have hung up their 'VA shingle' and really haven't done their homework. They either have an unrealistic expectation of what kind of income they will generate or have obviously spent no time researching the industry and the amount of work owning your own business entails.
Another point to keep in mind is that often you will see such bids on Elance and other sites for individual projects exactly such as this for ridiculously low amounts. I had subscribed to an outsourcing site to see if it could garner me any work and I found myself exactly where you were, how could anybody expect to make a living at those rates? My suspicion would be VA from countries like India would be the answer and the popularity of such an idea has grown substantially in the last year due to Tim Ferriss' book,
The 4-Hour Workweek.
While it is upsetting to get requests like this repeatedly, I would try not to take it personally or as an attack on your own skill set. You, as a VA, have a set of skills that is valuable and just because others don't price you the same, certainly doesn't mean that you are not worth it! Another point to keep in mind is that you are targeting a certain client that
will pay for your rates and it sometimes takes some time to tap into that market. Until then, when you get these requests, simply draft a suitable response turning them down and your reasoning why (a great opportunity to educate others on VA's and rates) and move on to the next one.
Hang in there, I know its frustrating to encounter this, especially if it happens repeatedly and easy to find yourself questioning yourself. It's also discouraging, but bite down (as I have to occasionally
) from your immediate whatthe?? reaction and just say, "
Next!"
I hope this helps and good luck!
