Does anyone offer services at a flat rate? What would you say are the risks of offering a flat rate for multiple services.?

Thanks for you input.

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Monique Terrell, CEO
Sparkle Professional Office Services, LLC
www.sparkleofficeservices.com

Originally Posted by Monique

Does anyone offer services at a flat rate? What would you say are the risks of offering a flat rate for multiple services.? Thanks for you input.

A lot depends on what your services are. If you have something that you know exactly how long it takes everytime then flat rates would be great. I don't offer that type of service.

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Lanel Taylor, CVA ~ Virtual Bookkeeper
Taylored Office Solutions
Custom fit solutions for all your office needs.

Do you mean a per-project fee for certain tasks?
We generally bill hourly but as we've gotten more certain of how long it takes to do specific things we've created flat rate (per-project) pricing for just a few of our services.
The danger comes in either over or undercharging - you want to be sure you're offering the client a fair value for whatever it is they're paying for as well as being compensated for your time/work.

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I was thinking about flat rate per hour for all projects no matter the service. And, thanks for your input.

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Monique Terrell, CEO
Sparkle Professional Office Services, LLC
www.sparkleofficeservices.com

I have tasks of similar skill level, knowledge grouped together and charged at a similar rate. So I have multiple rates depending on what it is I am doing and who it is I am doing it for.

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Kylie Short
Tilda Virtual Services - Making virtual personal

I charge for £xx.xx per hour for any service, this is billed in 15 minute incrementals after the first hour.

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Julia Neal ...because we ♥ admin!
http://julianeal.wordpress.com

I mostly do administrative tasks and research. I charge the same rate for all my services. If you have special kind of services like web design or bookkeeping, maybe you can have a different rate for that.

I doubt that I'll ever charge a flat rate, although I have considered it for certain projects. If I had charged my client a flat rate for the project we're currently working on, I would have definitely lost out since it's been ongoing for several months and, at the moment, there is no end in sight. I feel that, charging hourly, I'm doing myself more justice because I probably would have ended up charging much less if I had quoted a flat rate. I already feel guilty at how much this project is costing her, especially since it is a personal thing and not a B2B type of project. But she's not batting an eye and she wants it done, so....

Plus, if I had charged a flat rate, that money would probably already be gone and I'd still be working my butt off...lol

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Stephanie
New VA in the research phase :daisy:

I think flat rate is ok, but you have to be really careful how you phrase your contract. Make sure you set out exactly what the flat rate covers and include an escape clause for yourself.

State your assumptions on how you will receive the information. For example, if you quote $x to prepare a mass mailing you want to be clear that the price reflects that you'll get the information in a usable format that has already been reviewed for completeness and duplication, requiring minimal effort on your part. Also state the number of letters, etc.

Throw in a "projects not meeting the above specifications could result in a higher price, to be discussed prior to work commencing" statement and you should be ok.

Personally I think it's better to quote a not to exceed (NTE) amount as a flat fee with a check-in at the 50% and 80% completion mark.

For example, for the same mailing you could do a "The project is expected to require the following in time/materials (insert your estimate) and should not exceed (use this as your buffer). If, at the 50% and 80% review points it is found that the NTE estimate is insufficient to cover the cost/time of the project (as a result of scope changes or delays through no fault of the VA) a revised quote will be submitted for client approval before work can continue."

You should be tracking your time anyway so it shouldn't be a problem. But this way the client gets a semi-fixed price and you get some protection from a crazy client that changes the letter 500 times.

Alternatively you just charge higher for fixed price stuff knowing that on some projects it'll take you 2 hours and on others 10 and in the end it will wash. Just make still you're still tracking your hours to make sure that your average time for those projects isn't higher than what you are charging for.

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Amanda Moore
Virtual Assistant
VagabondetteVA Blog

I'm thinking of adding a service that I would like to do at a flat rate. However, I think its important that I go through the process at an hourly rate a few times to get some type of average as to how long it would take.

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Tamika R. Johnson, MBA, Principal
administrative partners, llc
www.administrativepartners.net | http://adminpartners.blogspot.com