Hello everyone again

I wanted to know what the average pay rate VA's are charging these days. And does it change depending on the type of job one is doing? Since I am new to the VA industry, I will be doing basic admin work. Nothing to do with web design or any of that yet.

Thanks!

__________________
Leslie Marshall
www.SecretaryAssistance.com

Leslie:

I'm sure you'll get lots of good advice on this question, but two of the biggest determinants of your rate are going to be experience and specialty. A VA with two or three years of experience is going to command a much higher rate than a newbie. And a VA that specializes in social marketing, bookkeeping, or legal services will be able to charge a much higher rate than a generalist. With that being said, I've seen rates for experienced specialists as high as $80/hour, while rates for generalist newbies could be as low as $25/hour.

HTH!
Deb

__________________
Deb Howard Greenleaf, Certified QB ProAdvisor
Virtual Bookkeeping & QB Consulting

Thanks Deb for the great info. I have 5 years experience as an executive assistant and have done some social marketing as well.

__________________
Leslie Marshall
www.SecretaryAssistance.com

My best suggestion is that you search for one of the calculators on this forum that helps you determine your rate structure. There is a good one here.

__________________
Lily Chambers, The Virtual Office Goddess, LLC
Author "How to Do Your Own Small Business Bookkeeping"

There is no average pay for this industry. There are guidelines available online to help you do the math for what's right for you.

When you consider that the industry is global so that means many different countries with different currencies, and then there's the education levels, background knowledge and experiences (some have only 5 years office/admin experience and others have over 40), the type of services VAs are providing - some are doing wordprocessing, some transcriptions, bookkeeping, internet research - there's no way you could charge the same hourly rate for each item. And of those who do transcription work, some charge by the typed hour, some by the audio hour, some by the audio minute and some by the page.

It's soon easy to see why there could never be an 'average' for charging out your services. If you look locally to where you live as to what the annual income would be for what you do in the corporate world and then work backwards with Nina's tool mentioned below, then that will help steer you closer to the mark.

Nina Feldman has a spreadsheet that will assist you at http://www.ninafeldman.com/resources.htm#ptools. I also have a similar exercise in a book I wrote for the industry a few years ago and that works well too.

Originally Posted by kathiemt

There is no average pay for this industry. There are guidelines available online to help you do the math for what's right for you.

I would also agree with Kathie that there are far too many variables to consider regarding VAs to have any sort of 'average' to go by.

The rules of the forum also prevent us from discussing specifics of hourly rates:

Direct discussion of rates (ie - dollar amounts, etc.) is not allowed. General questions are OK (ie - hourly vs. per project).

Good luck!

__________________
Kate V. Kerans
Kerans Virtual Assistance

I´m a newbie too looking for pricing help. I´ve been asked to do something which is outside my previous experience - and that is putting two websites onto free directory listings. I can do it - but am I too slow? It´s taking me about half an hour per diectory for the two sites - one of which is easily placed and the other more obscure. I haven´t been able to find any information about rates / time taken except that "it´s time consuming". Can anyone help me out here?
Sheila M

Originally Posted by Office Goddess

My best suggestion is that you search for one of the calculators on this forum that helps you determine your rate structure. There is a good one here.

I used this one and im cheap lol it says that i onlyneed to charge 14.17 to make my target lol. i think ill be charging more then that. thanks for the link.

Hello Everyone,

There is one more consideration I want to add to this discussion: your ideal client.

I'm a VA subcontractor for a woman who provides VA services to major corporations. Previously, I've only worked with micro businesses or small businesses. What I'm learning is that corporate mindset is very different from small business owners.

Corporations who hire VA's have their focus on getting work done easily, quickly and reliably. They don't worry about the HOW of the job as much as the outcome. When I work on a mailing, I provide a finished list of what was mailed, when and to whom (but I don't have to account for the steps to get to the end). They look at cost but not price, and as long as the price is reasonable, it is not the first concern.

Small business owners are different. Often price is their first concern. Small business owners have cash flow issues and often want accounting for every hour worked. In addition, small business owners tend to think that they can (and should) do it all themselves. They look at my price and think "Gee, I could do that myself for free". They need to be convinced that letting someone else do the work will not decrease quality or control, and that their business will be stronger when they get some of their craziness off their plate.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that if your ideal clients are corporate, you can charge a different rate than if your ideal clients are small businesses. I can't give you a dollar amount of difference, but keep this in mind when pricing.

Julia

Hi Julia!!! Interesting post. I just started my VA business and my target clients are Small Business and Independent Professional. You made a good point and it is something to keep in mind.

Thank you!

__________________
Jessica Gonzalez
JYG Virtual Assistant