Help with prices

[steffk]

How do you do charge your clients??

I have the opportunity to help a local business with the marketing and I have no idea what to charge! Can anyone help me please? They currently don't do much of anything so I will most likely do their social media, build and distribute a monthly newsletter (mail and electronic), sell add space on a city map they are making, work on flyers for them and help distribute, the whole deal! They are an art gallery and often have events going on and featured and new artists that they need to advertise about on a regular basis.

So should I charge hourly? a monthly rate? A fee per event? I really have no idea how to charge or what rates to charge. Currently I do this for another business (plus some other administrative type things) and they just pay me a monthly rate. I don't think their budget will be quite as big though plus it will be strictly marketing.

Any suggestion you can offer me will be GREATLY appreciated! Many thanks!

[kathiemt]

Most VAs charge hourly Steff but some charge per project or perhaps might set up a monthly retainer system for xx number of hours.

The actual rate can vary a great deal - it depends on the cost of living where the VA is located, their currency and their experience and skillset. So I can't recommend a rate that is right for you but I can suggest you check out Nina Feldman's site which has a pricing tool designed for the industry. Virtual Assistant Recommended Books Publications and Software That should help you considerably.

When I first started I rang around secretarial services in my area to get an idea of ballpark figures - many won't give that to you if they know you're 'competition' but I would ring up with a fictitious job asking for a quote. I found that many were very similar and that helped me with a ballpark hourly rate and I went from there. That was over 16 years ago and I'm still working as a VA today.

[steffk]

Kathie I just realized you are the same person I just talked to on your intro thread.

Awesome advice here! Thank you so much for your help. The project(s) have taken a different turn since I started and now it seems I will be doing a monthly newsletter for several businesses to send out their events for that month. A community calendar of sorts. So now I get to charge each business a monthly fee for putting their events in my email I will send out for them.

I know it is going to change and evolve from there but that is what we have going on so far.

Thanks again for your advice!

[puresheri]

Hi,

I am looking for a job to work from home and I readed your post and I would like to know how it works, what do I have to do to start to work from home. I don't want a job that I have to pay to start the job. Hope to hear from you soon.

Cheryl

[kathiemt]

Steff, you're most welcome. I've been a VA for over 16 years and watched the industry grow from its birth. I love the industry and it's allowed me to be home for my 5 daughters as they grew up.

Cheryl, do you want a job or a business? If you're wanting to be a VA then in reality you're wanting a business. I think you may be confusing paying membership fees to VA networks for paying for jobs, which is not the case. Many of the VA networks help their members build their businesses and do a lot of the marketing and advertising for them, to draw in clients. Running the networks take up a lot of time and helping individual members can take up considerable time too, not to mention all the resources the network owners put together for members. Their time needs to be recompensed and the membership fees are usually quite low in comparison to other industry associations.

However, if you're looking for a job then perhaps you need to be looking at sites that actually engage employees. I'm sure there are probably some listed here - I haven't explored the whole forum yet. This role was listed a short time ago.