A recent survey of 350 virtual assistants determined the following:

• Most virtual assistants are women (98.2 percent of participants)
• 81 percent are located in the U.S., predominantly in California, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, and most international VAs are in Canada and Australia.
• The largest number of VA participants began their businesses in 2003.
• Most operate as sole proprietorships as home-based businesses.
• 86.7 percent have an active Website.
• Annual gross revenue was $26,519 in 2003, ranging from $760 to $280,000. With the top and bottom 10 percent removed, top income dropped to $52,000 and the average income was $19,800.
• Partitioning part-time and full-time VAs yielded widely differing results in income, with part-time VAs averaging $13,813 and full-time VAs averaging $38,759.
• VAs expect to gross 28.5 percent more in 2004 than they did in 2003, with part-time VAs expecting to earn and average $17,678, and full-time VAs expecting to earn$41,834.
• VAs participants support between one and 116 clients each month, with an average of 6.6 clients per VA. Removing the outliers - top and bottom ten percent - drops that number to 4.7 clients per month.
• VAs work an average of 5.4 days a week, with an median of 40 hours per week worked. However, it was found that part time VAs work about 20 hours per week, while full-time VAs average about 47 hours per week.

The full survey is available for purchase here.
Source link for information used in this post.
Image source.

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"When you're good at something, don't do it for free..."
-The Joker

Well now that's very interesting. Thanks for posting Tess.

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Shari
Internet Marketing Virtual Assistant
Modern Marketing Support

This is way interesting!! Food for thought

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Winslow Girl Virtual Assistant
www.winslowgirlva.com
Taking Virtual Assistance to the Next Level

I thought it was interesting to see a quick and easy graph like that - it really does show you how far and wide we are spread in terms of fees but I find it equally interesting (perhaps not surprising) that the majority of VAs are women...

Also, gives an interesting (and realistic) perspective on just how much TIME and effort goes into a practice!
SO many people take this up because they think it's like four hours a day typing on their computer and they're going to 'make it' but it's much more than that and this study brought light to that fact.

Point in case: we work hard!!

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"When you're good at something, don't do it for free..."
-The Joker

Definitely interesting.

Thank you for that information. As a disabled worker I work with support form my states Vocational Rehabilitation Department and they are always asking for more information on virtual assisting statistics!

John Runer

Robert is actually updating this survey as there are a large number of VAs in Australia and other areas that did not get to participate. I'm sure you'll hear of the available update.

Kathie M. Thomas

A member was just asking about industry averages, so I thought I'd bump this up for anyone who's not yet seen it

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"When you're good at something, don't do it for free..."
-The Joker

Thanks, Tess, I enjoyed looking at this. Makes me think of a nagging question I've had: is there a difference between Virtual Assistants and outsourcing? If so, what is the difference exactly?

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Mary H. RuthVirtual Writing & Communications
http://www.writingVA.com

Well, to my understanding: anyone who sends work outside of their own company is essentially outsourcing, so any client who works with you is outsourcing. Any process or service you subcontract out to have done is outsourcing.

Offshoring is when you go outside the country to outsource the work you need to have done.

I hope that helps clarify!

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"When you're good at something, don't do it for free..."
-The Joker

Thanks, Tess!
Not to complicate matters, but is it true that in spite of the definition you just articulated, when you say "outsourcing" people think of the phone bank in India that does support for their computer?
Or they think of sweatshops in Taiwan or something?
Am I imagining this?
It's certainly true that what we do seems to fit the definition of outsourcing, but I wonder if there's a confusion in the public mind. Because there really is a big difference here ....

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Mary H. RuthVirtual Writing & Communications
http://www.writingVA.com

AWESOME thanks for the info. Just what i needed and was looking for.

Yes, definitely - I would agree that as a general rule people associate the term with exactly the kind of situation you refer to (offshoring, or offshore outsourcing). Particularly with people writing books that propose entrepreneurs and business owners 'outsource' to a VA for '$5.00 per hour' - there's NOwhere in the States you can find effective competent help at that price...elsewhere, certainly.
Yet another thing to work a bit of education and outreach about when talking to clients and potential clients

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"When you're good at something, don't do it for free..."
-The Joker

Tess is absolutely correct in stating people are looking for the $5.00 VA -- even in the US and other countries; and get quite upset when we quote our rates in the $50-$75 per hour range. What these lookers don't understand, often, is that they are not only purchasing time, but experience, knowledge, resources and often a support network of other experienced VAs, too.

It's an "education" thing -- and when many entrepreneurs promote offshoring at substandard rates (rates they wouldn't accept themselves nor be able to survive off of), ill-informed entrepreneurs jump on the "I want quality service at cheap prices" bandwagon, which can make it difficult for even mid-range priced VAs to survive.

This is an industry-wide challenge, and one we are beginning to address and need to continue to address before this misconception becomes even more widespread.

It is definitely one of the topics we will be covering at the upcoming Online International Virtual Assistants Convention.

I just had another experience with someone who wanted me to write 500 word articles for $10. This was actually a fellow VA, tho I don't know where she's located exctly, but it's somewhere in the US.
Y'know, this actually hurts my feelings ... what kind of product can she really get for $10, and if it's satisfactory am I in the wrong business? Cuz it takes me about an hour to write 500 original words (is that very slow?) and I just can't survive on $10 an hour.
What gives here?
VAs provide their own office and equipment, not to mention entire business setup and marketing, and offer specialized skills. We charge only for time on task. Because we are skilled, we produce more in less time. I truly believe we save business owners money.
What I want to know is, who is offering services at $10 per hour in the US and are they 1) producing quality work and 2) supporting themselves?
Kinda upset about all this at the moment ....

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Mary H. RuthVirtual Writing & Communications
http://www.writingVA.com