I was just curious if any of the VA's out there that charge retainers to their clients would be willing to answer some questions for me in a PM.

I currently have just a few clients that pay by retainer, and that was early in the game, because the client requested it, it was easier for them. I have other clients that I bill hourly, and usually it's a greater struggle. I have a client that just sent out a letter of recommendation to his database on my behalf, and if I happen to get responses from anyone, I want to make sure I have just a few options of retainers in place. So any input or ideas for amounts based on services that anyone can give me via PM, I would really appreciate it.

Thank to all,
Kailu

Kailu,
I think generally retainers are based on an hourly rate, with preferential discounts often given for more hours contracted in any given month...not so much based on services (that would be an invoicing nightmare I imagine)

So, if I usually charge X per hour for project work but I want to motivate clients into retainers then I'd offer 10 hours a month at X per hour minus X%) 20 hours a month at $X per minus XX% (a better savings for hiring out more hours), and so on and so forth...

Try taking your regular hourly rate and then devise a couple of packages based on set numbers of hours, 5, 10, 15, whatever you want to market or make available. Then decide what percentage of the hourly rate you'll be 'discounting' for those securing each level of your retainer packages.

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Kailu,
I recommend checking out different VA's websites for how they set up their retainer packages. I know that some VA's will group a set of services together and charge a flat fee per month for those services but this would require that you have a client that knows exactly what they want and that they are still willing to commit to a certain number of hours since as Tess said you'd still be basing your charge on an hourly base rate but you might offer a small discount based on how many hours or how much service they are committing to.

I think the key is to not focus on the price so much with the prospective clients but to work on selling them on the total value and outcome of the services you are offering them, i.e. what are they ultimately getting for hiring you...more time, professional services, expertise.

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Kimberly
Facebook Marketing Magic!

Tess and Kimberly:
I have been struggling with perspective on this, reading my VA book, etc. & I think I understand the perspective, not to mention I clearly have more clients working from that perspective. My original thought was to have 6-8 clients that I work for exclusively, but I see the value in offering different packages based on a flat hourly rate for set hours.
Kailu

Well you can really do both - cater to your select group of clients - and offer them retainer packages based on whatever works for you.

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I have a client who has committed some of his projects to me and the first project I did last 13 days, with alot of phone conferencing to get the project together. If I charge the hourly rate industry rate it becomes too costly for the small business. Could someone advice me on how to charge for payment. I wanted to offer a project rate.

Let's use the hourly industry rate as an example. The project consisted of 61 pages, 20 pages of statistics included, scanning was also involved.

Thanks.

Sherrie