Cost
Virtual assistants, at first glance, charge more for their services than the standard hourly rate for an employee in your office. Since virtual assistants are business owners, they need to cover all of their own costs, which include supplies, hardware and software, expertise, and overhead. Once the cost is broken down in that way, you can see that the average virtual assistant is not charging much more than that hourly employee would be receiving.
In addition, there is the consideration that as a virtual assistant, I pay for my own insurance and retirement; you are not responsible for sick or vacation pay; no workman’s compensation; and no social security taxes to pay. I already have all of the skills and knowledge I will need to handle your administrative tasks, so you won’t be spending time and energy training me, and you won’t even need to make room for me in your office.
In the six years that I’ve done virtual assistance work, I have never had a client’s monthly bill exceed $800. Most of the time, the average monthly expense is between $200 and $500. Remember, as a virtual assistant I only charge for time on task, so it is highly likely that the monthly cost to you would be low.
In the past I have had clients who needed as much as eight or so hours a week and as little as two hours a month. It all depends on what your individual needs are. The bottom line is that it is virtually guaranteed that you will spend a lot less on working with a virtual assistant than you would in hiring even part-time help.
So what does an hour of my time cost you? I charge a flat fee of $35 an hour. The only cost to you, in addition to my hourly rate, is the cost of postage (only if you use me for mailings). If you need me to work on your tasks for, say, three hours a week, then your monthly cost would be $420. That is one quarter of what it would cost to hire a part-time employee at $16 an hour.
