It’s interesting seeing posts on social media from time to time, asking for an ‘affordable VA’. The operative word being ‘affordable’. And this can mean many things, depending on where you live, what currency you work with, and what you’re currently earning yourself and so on. It’s really quite relative, isn’t it?
What people really need to think about is how much time they’d like to free up so they can continue to build their business. If you’re spending 2-10 hours a month on admin, bookkeeping and other things to maintain your business and it’s keeping you away from income generating activities, then the reality is you can’t afford not to have a VA. I have hanging on my wall, a prompt I got from Warwick Merry some time ago that says: Are you Marketing, Selling or Servicing? If not, then stop what you are doing and do one of these three things!
Put it this way. If you’re earning $50 per hour for what you do, then you can afford to engage a VA for at least $35 an hour and use that now freed up time to generate more income for your business. Surely engaging a VA for around $70-$105 (2-3 hours), allowing you to earn $100-$350 is a plus for your business? I’ve put a higher amount there because what you can achieve in 2-3 hours is most likely completed in much quicker time by a VA. It’s quite possible they’ll free up to at least 5 hours of your time which is a much more useful way of getting your admin work done. Imagine what you can be doing with 5 extra hours in your business!
Now, depending on where the VA lives and their experience, their rates could be lower or higher. Just as yours could be too – I’m just giving examples. So when you’re inclined to think ‘I can’t afford to engage a VA’ (or whatever service support you need) consider how much you could be earning if you were able to hand over work that needs to be done but could be done more efficiently and quickly by someone else. The real question is ‘Can I afford not to have a VA?’
Worth thinking about isn’t it?
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.
Gail Lockyer says
Thank you Kathie – shared it on my FB. I got a client from a similar blog I wrote some time ago called “what’s your time worth” and it really resonated with them.
Kathie Thomas says
Hello OVA Virtual. In some cases, yes, that can work but there are also issues like Intellectual Property, someone’s database, and even bookkeeping that needs to be retained within the country and under local laws. While some things can be outsourced successfully offshore, there are other things that can’t be. And not all businesses need to be operating 24/7.
Many clients want to keep things within their own shores and my article above was written with those people in mind.