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While we believe that every worker is worth their weight in gold, realistically, going down that route can either end you up with money as tall as you are or broken and missing all your bills with the latter being the heavier reality.

This is a struggle for many virtual assistants. They base their prices on what others are asking from their clients.

But this is completely wrong!

Why? Because those other VAs may be asking way too low just to get clients. If you copy their style, it may not fit you right because you have other factors that they may not have. This is both impractical and unfair to you.

For example, you don’t know how much their cost of living or how much they need to deduct after they have received payment.

Remember, everyone has bills to pay, responsibilities to meet, and dreams they want to invest in. But these vary from person to person.

So you must price according to what you believe is fair on your part first before the clients.

As Filipinos, it’s hard for us to think we can charge more than what others are charging because, culturally, we must conform to the demands of the society.

But that will only leave you poor and frustrated because you’re just getting by without enjoying the fruits of your labor.

This article is a guide for you so that you can price accordingly to what you need as well as be confident in asking it from your prospective clients.

A healthy balance is all that’s needed

However, you decide to price yourself make sure that everybody in the loop knows what’s being charged for what, how much you’re worth, and the client is getting the value they expect from you.

Here’s how you can customize your pricing for you and your client to be comfortable.

Remember, as a freelancer, you cannot get the same benefits a full-time employee gets from their company which includes holiday pay, sick pay, maternity leave, free training, guaranteed work, and security.

Here are a few ideas on how to charge for your work.

Get a healthy profit from your hourly work

Simply put, a fair margin where you will earn and the client will not go bankrupt.

You can try this formula:
x minimum rate + 25% = your rate/hour

A healthy profit is something fair for both you and your client. Charging too much will mean an obese profit — which is basically an unhealthy way of earning your income.

The way to get to this scheme is to check the average rate an assistant earns in an hour in your locale and then add a 25% profit on top of it.

This way, you can earn a fair amount of income without squeezing your client for way more than they can provide.

Let them know that that percentage will cover for the value you will provide and the additional research and time to put into doing the work for them.

Charge by the project

Most clients will be familiar with this payment scheme.

This may look like a simple payment method but this will allow you to create a timeline that will be beneficial to how you work and set the expectation of your client on what you can deliver for a specified timeline.

Creating the expense breakdown for this type of rate will be like charging by the hour.

But you have the luxury of setting the amount of time you will spend on each project on a daily basis.

This way, you can better disseminate and allot your time for other work and things you need to finish for a client or set of clients.

This will benefit you more than the client because this way you can see the deliverables you need to accomplish by the end of the day.

This will also ensure the both of you that you are agreeing on the set things you need to accomplish at the given period for the set rate.

Only, be reminded that you will, on occasions, get the pricing wrong or you may undercharge for some projects. Take note of those mistakes and make sure that you won’t make the same mistakes again.

A retainer

If you haven’t had any experience of working in an agency or company before, a retainer may be a term you may be familiar with far from the virtual assistance industry.

But in essence, a retainer is a fee that a client pays you for a certain month for a billable amount of hours per day.

This payment scheme works best for clients you’ve been working with for a long time. Since they’ve come to trust you and see the value you give to them, it’s like stepping up the relationship to another level and committing a longer-lasting relationship with one another.

It is important to note that you must write contracts for every project for your security. You can also use this to give yourself a reminder to finish the project on or even ahead of time.

So, what do you think? Which one would work best for you? Let us know in the comments below which one you would implement for your next project and why.

Honing your skills with ON-PH

We have regular pieces of training and seminars geared toward helping virtual assistants get ahead of their game. This is not to create competition. Quite the opposite, actually.

We want to create a community of sharing and giving to help every Filipino virtual assistant out there.

If you’re interested in this bid, join our Facebook group and get updated on the latest news and schedule of training.

Have you had experience in hiring a remote staff? What were the reasons you took that road? Let us know!

What’s in it for us? What’s the catch?

You have reached this part! You really are interested!

Simply put, the joy of knowing we have helped change a life through the skillsets we have is enough. We’ve been through a lot and we believe it’s time that we share it to the next generation. If there’s any catch, it’s that we want you to tell a soul. We want to reach every VA who wants to elevate their skills and land better clients and get paid more for their efforts.

If you want to talk to us about things, join our