Re: Requiring a Minimum Number of Hours
Sounds like this would work well if you have clients who consistently use the same number of hours every month or if you are mostly gaining new clients who pretty much know how many hours they want or need every month.
I've mostly found that my clients appreciate the flexibility of knowing that whatever hours they purchase whenever they purchase them, they have those hours to use regardless of the time period it takes them to use those hours. I think it really depends on the client, the services you are providing and how you prefer or need to set your own policies. I think currently with Virtual Assistance still being a fairly new industry and with the current economic climate, that many small biz owners and entrepreneurs might be a little less inclined to want to be locked into a minimum number of hours.
I also subscribe to the belief that if a client pays for the hours then should get the hours they paid for regardless of whether that happens in 30 days or 60 days. One of my best clients pays for 40 hours at a time. Sometimes she uses that in 30 days when she's really busy and sometimes when she's not as busy it can take 45-60 days. I believe she appreciates my flexibility and the convenience that I offer as an alternative to hiring an employee. If she felt she was locked into a certain number of hours each month then perhaps she might choose fewer hours overall in the long run just to be sure she wasn't paying for hours that she did not use.
As virtual assistants we often promote ourselves as the flexible or convenient option to hiring an employee, however I feel that requiring my clients to use a minimum number of hours in 30 days is somewhat contrary to that. Again, this is just my own personal belief and it works well for me. I completely understand and support other business models that work well for other VAs and for their own personal situation. As VAs, we each have different types of clients and our businesses are set up to support different industries so it only makes sense that what might work for one, may or may not work for another.
I guess my point here is that if you are considering implementing a minimum number of hours then to carefully consider the ramifications this may have with your current clients as well as future clients. Please post back and let us know how your clients reacted to your approach.
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