Should You Hire Virtual Assistant on Retainer?

While some virtual assistants accept one-time projects, most prefer ongoing arrangements with their clients. The benefit, from the virtual assistant’s point of view is obvious – a more predictable income stream and a more even workload.

But is there any real benefit for you, the client, in establishing ongoing relations with your virtual assistant? After all, you will be committed to paying for a certain number of hours per month, whether you use them or not.

First of all, here’s what prompted this post:

Very occassionally I get a request from one of my clients to edit content for her articles or a blog. Now, I’m going to stop right here to explain a bit about editing:

According to Wikipedia, editing is the process of preparing language [...] through correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications in various media. It then goes on to mention that this process requires creative skills, precise methods and an establishment of relationship between an author and an editor.

But let’s get back to this client of mine. As I said, she contacts me about once every couple of months with a small, usually under 500 words, piece that she wants me to jazz it up (since she believes her style is a bit too plain), format for Internet readers and optimize for keywords. Which all sounds like copy-editing, except she also wants me to add more content to her original articles.

As pleasant as she is and as interesting as writing for her gets, I kind of dread her quote requests. The simple reason is she is always taken aback by the price tag. The original quote request is just an opening salvo in a series of e-mail inquiries into why is my quote so high “for such a tiny project that wouldn’t take but 10 minutes”.

And so now let me say this – there is no such thing as a 10-minute content writing or editing project. Here’s why:

Regularly writing for a client allows me to constantly learn about their business, target audience, stylistic preferences, competitors, and a miriad other things that combined help me create a unique and engaging copy.

I continuously absorb information from blogs, tweets, articles, etc. in my client’s niche. And listen in on conversations that otherwise would’ve bored me to death, ask questions, take mental notes. I spend a lot of time listening and learning FOR my client.

In ongoing relationships, such learning is done incrementally each day. In one-off projects, most of this learning and listening work has to be done upfront. That’s where the sticker-shock comes in.

 This is true not just for writing, but for other types of work virtual assistants do. That is part of their value-added approach – they come to know you and your business, internalize your goals and strategies, and reflect it in their work.

It all sounds lovely – loyalty, committment, knowledge. But how would it affect your bottom line? Is retaining a virtual assistant for long-term work going to improve your ROI?

Even if you outsource infriquently, you will benefit from ongoing relationship if the tasks you plan to outsource

• are creative AND continuous (i.e. copy writing)
• cannot be easily codified with a set of operating procedures (i.e. e-mail management)
• require following procedures that are unique to your business (i.e. social media)
• benefit from continuous monitoring, improvement, feedback

But what if you retain a VA for a certain number of hours each week or month and do not use up the hours? Wouldn’t you be losing money?

Many VAs have retainer packages that allow for a very low weekly hours. For example, mine starts at 5 hours a month or about an hour each week. I’m yet to find an entrepreneur who don’t have enough going on to keep an assistant busy for an hour a week.

So if at this point you only send work to your VA on as-needed basis, consider switching to a retainer option. Some steps to follow:

1. Decide whether the tasks you typically outsource fit the criteria listed above
2. Ask your VA what’s her minimum for retainer packages
3. If the minimum number of hours is more than what you currently use, see what else can you outsource to your VA to make up the difference
4. Ask your virtual assistant for her input on how she can help you achieve your goals

Technorati Tags: virtual assistant, outsourcing, content writing

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1. 5 Reasons to Hire Virtual Assistant
2. Avoiding Virtual Assistant Outsourcing Disasters
3. 10 Social Media Tasks You Can Outsource to Virtual Assistant