Include your currency when quoting

Recently a team member quoted a client for a job and she secured the work.  However only a couple of days later another member advised she’d also quoted for the job but had been told that someone else had given a much lower quote and secured the work. She couldn’t work out how someone could do the work for such a low fee.

I began asking questions to see what had transpired to ensure that all was in order and it soon became apparent to me that the VA who quoted ‘low’ was in fact from another country and the $$ she quoted was in a different currency to the other VA and also to the client. So then I had to make sure the client was aware what currency the quote had been in so there were no misunderstandings.

Being a Virtual Assistant means we are working with a global client base – not a national client base, and it’s really important that when we respond to job requests from clients that we make it clear what currency we’re quoting in and what timezone we’re working from, to ensure that time frames are suitably met and clients don’t get a rude shock finding the quote was very different to what they thought it was and that perhaps the work was going to arrive at a later time than they had expected.

I encourage VAs reading this post to start including their currency and timezones in quotes, particularly when the client is from another country – just so there are no misunderstandings. It’s hard to discuss or argue the point after the work has been completed – much better to get it sorted out prior to the work being started.

Kathie Thomas

Kathie is the former owner of VA Directory and is former past President of the Australian VA Association. She founded the Virtual Assistant industry in Australia in the mid 90s, having already been operating a home-based secretarial service. Today the VA industry covers a multitude of office-based services for clients worldwide.