Loading ...Dear Gritty VA:
I’d would like to find some hourly rates/pricing tables for Virtual Assistants by state. I would like to know comparisons so I can be better prepared. Do you have anything like that? –AC
This is a great question, not because I’m going to answer it in the way you might expect (although I think you’ll still find my response helpful), but because it gives me another opportunity to discuss value and Virtual Assistants.
Every year since 2006, the Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce conducts an in-depth annual survey of Virtual Assistants… not secretarial services; not virtual staffing agencies/VA teams; not web designers; not transcriptionists; not bookkeepers; and not every other kind of business out there that insists on calling themselves a Virtual Assistant when in fact they are not.
Ours is the ONLY Virtual Assistant industry survey to do that. You will find a couple others out there purporting to be “Virtual Assistant surveys” that in my opinion are meaningless crap. They’re crap because they include anyone and everyone who calls themselves a Virtual Assistant, regardless of the fact that they may not be actual, true Virtual Assistants and may only be telecommuters or some other completely different kind of business. Our survey is strictly and specifically for those who are intentionally in the business of continuous (not transactional), collaborative administrative support.
How on earth could results collected from literally anyone and anyone without any kind of discernment whatsoever yield any kind of meaningful, relevant, representative, helpful information for Virtual Assistants? They can’t, and that’s why they are crap. And they are especially crap when they are conducted by industry outsiders and those who aren’t even Virtual Assistants who don’t understand what Virtual Assistants actually are and are driven purely by financially motivated self-interests.
Those surveys don’t help anyone in our industry, especially when the information is skewed or doesn’t accurately represent the real industry of Virtual Assistance. How is including in the survey someone’s part-time telecommuting subcontractor who isn’t running a business of their own and who charges $7 an hour reflective of Virtual Assistance? How does including web designers, bookkeepers and all kinds of other non-Virtual Assistant businesses that are project-based with completely different business models help the solo Virtual Assistant who works in a monthly, relationship-based model? They don’t!
Those other so-called Virtual Assistant surveys also don’t help our industry because they give out incorrect data to the media and others who are in a position to educate (or miseducate as the case often is) our marketplace. Why any true Virtual Assistant would participate in them is beyond me as they are only contributing to the very problems and misunderstandings with clients they constantly complain about.
So, that’s why the VACOC endeavored to conduct a legitimate, meaningful, specific and relevant annual study that would not only give our industry real, more accurate, professional and representative results, but also yield clues to where business knowledge is lacking in the our industry compared to other service professions and how Virtual Assistants might step up their game.
You can get each year’s full survey report at our Virtual Assistant Business Forms Store, or you can download the 2008 Virtual Assistant Industry Survey Highlights Report from our home page which gives you the important meat and potatoes information (it contains about half the information included in the full survey results reports).
Now, once you get one of the surveys, you will find information about what rates Virtual Assistants are charging, how much money they’re making annually, where they are from, etc. However, we don’t extrapolate results based on who is charging what in what state, and I’ll tell you why.
We don’t do that because it doesn’t matter. First and foremost, the VACOC, the organization I founded, is committed to helping Virtual Assistants be better business people. If something isn’t consistent with that core tenet, then we aren’t going to talk out of both sides of our mouth and provide information that we think isn’t helpful to Virtual Assistants, or worse, may harm them or lead them down paths that aren’t going to be successful.
Specifically, your rate should not depend on what state you live in. You have no geographic boundaries when it comes to finding and working with your target market and ideal clients. Your value is your value. It doesn’t change because you or they live in Timbuktu, Ohio. Your value is based on the need you fulfill for those clients in your target market, the problems you solve for them (and what that’s worth to them), and how your work allows them to move ahead in their businesses.
Look at it like this: If your work allows a client to write that that book, create those passive income streams, get more speaking gigs and ultimately make more money, that’s your value. So don’t shortchange yourself!
Geography and what others are charging is of no relevance to you or your business. It has no bearing on how to smartly price your service. You, your business, and what you offer to your target market is going to be a unique value different and separate from any other Virtual Assistant. That value is going to be the same no matter what the geographic location so never use that as an indicator in setting your fee.
