Virtual Assistant Advantages
We are familiar with the advantages rendered by virtual assistants. Their assistance saves time and ensures lesser effort from our side. Their involvement in our work does not mandate the need for any sort of equipment. There are no taxes levied or incurred. Nor are there any payrolls. Besides, we only pay when we use their services instead of having to pay an entire month’s salary. To hire virtual assistants is a task that is hassle-free, with so many being available online.
Now comes the main question. Is a Virtual Assistant affordable? What is the general virtual assistant pricing structure? Can we have more detail on virtual assistant rates of 2019?
Factors To Consider
To begin with, it never pays to make assumptions. “Expensive” is a word with very subjective meaning, different for every second person. Clients may have businesses with identical natures and target markets, but that is where it ends. When you hire virtual assistants, you make an investment. It is a new expense you have to prepare yourself for. There is nothing fixed as far as the virtual assistant pricing structure is concerned. Rather, it is based on several factors.
Experience:
Virtual assistants with loads of experience are going to charge big. This is unlike the ones with lesser experience as all that they are trying to do is get their feet in the door.
Type of Service:
If it’s a service that involves a lot of effort, charges are bound to shoot up. It is very important you carefully consider what you ask for while evaluating rates.
Deadline:
Virtual Assistants under pressure to deliver within stringent deadlines are going to cost more than assistants under less pressure. The reason being, they are expected the produce the same quality within lesser time.
Work Environment:
It is a fact that people hard to work with end up paying more as VA’s generally take a disliking for them. Since virtual assistants are generally remote workers, they charge employers who try to run roughshod more as compared to flexible employers who understand the perils of remote working.
Rates generally begin at $15 an hour with virtual assistants also charging up to $30 per hour, $45 per hour and the highly experienced ones even quoting up to $100 per hour. When you hire virtual assistants, you need to be mentally and finally prepared for this kind of virtual assistant pricing structure unless it shocks you.
Some Virtual Assistants also work on a monthly retainer. That is, they would rather take their fee in the form of a monthly salary after a rough estimate of the number of hours and number of weeks they will be clocking in for the client. When you hire virtual assistants, prepare yourself to be quoted as a one-time project fee. Some assistants follow this kind of virtual assistant pricing structure as they find it very suitable and convenient. This would have 50% of the fee being paid to the assistant upfront and the remaining 50% remitted after project completion.
Virtual assistants with specialized skills will definitely charge more. Assistants possessing certain coveted skill sets such as graphic design, copywriting, technical support and market research will normally charge more than what a VA would do in routine circumstances. Also, just because a virtual assistant comes cheap does not necessarily guarantee that the service delivered will be right up there in terms of quality and satisfaction. That is again a grey area that companies looking for virtual assistants must consider carefully.
Renowned resource staffing companies such as Virtual Employees have a set model as far as sourcing virtual assistants to clients is concerned. So clients signing up more or less know what they are signing up for. Contrary to this, the same cannot be said of elsewhere as companies looking for virtual assistants must ensure they do not get overcharged.
Virtual assistants working in renowned companies generally use a time tracking software to keep a track of the number of hours being spent on a particular project. The features in such time tracking software allow the virtual assistant to run reports that provide a breakdown of how the hours purchased by the client were spent by the assistant. The reports can be shared by the assistant at the end of each week or month, whatever way the client feels comfortable with. Virtual assistants can also be made to maintain daily logs, to share details regarding day-to-day work done.
As mentioned earlier, if the task is a specialized one, the virtual assistant is bound to charge higher. For data entry related projects, virtual assistants charge anything between $6 and $25 per hour depending upon their level of expertise. Virtual assistants in possession of necessary skillset to perform data mining related tasks charge from $12 per hour and depending on their expertise in the domain can charge up to $50 an hour. Photoshop virtual assistants begin charging from $10 an hour and can charge up to $20 an hour.
Virtual assistants good at marketing are more often than not in huge demand since they know how to increase the sales of a product online. These professionals earn from $15 an hour up to $50 an hour. Assistants skilled at managing databases and working on CRM software are generally tasked with creating, managing and updating databases. Their earnings are estimated from $10 an hour up to $40 an hour. Virtual assistants good at writing, editing and proofreading can earn up to $15 an hour depending on their level of expertise.
Conclusion
The information given above makes it pretty clear as to what a virtual assistant will cost companies when they set out to hire some. Depending on the expertise sought and the experience of the virtual assistant, the fee is decided accordingly. For mundane and simple tasks, charges are nominal. They are generally high in cases where the kind of expertise sought is generally not that common to find. The information shared above will help companies reading it identify and hire the relevant virtual assistant.
