Virtual Assistant Rates and Elance Work

Can a virtual assistant (or any other virtual professional for that matter) get decent work from Elance or is it just a waste of time? That’s not a rhetorical question, but something that’s being actively discussed on various forums and blogs. I am particularly interested in reading all the negative comments which basically revolve around the following issues:

1. Rates are too low;
2. Rates are too low;
3. Rates are too low.

The blame is then distributed between “overseas providers” and “the clients that asks for low-ball bids”. 

Well, I’m not going to talk about the “overseas providers” just yet.  What I really want to address is the low rates for virtual assistant work whether through Elance or not.

I might go against the grain here, but I don’t think that virtual assistant’s hourly or other rates should be determined based on the cost of living figures. You know, I have this ideal dollar-amount in my head (if you’re curious, it’s $100 per hour) that I’d love to charge for my work. I arrived at it by adding up all the bills I have to pay each month and dividing the total by the number of hours I can devote to my social media support business (ok, so I rounded it up a bit to max out my Roth IRA). However, my real rates are much lower than that. Why?

Because realistically, the work that I do does not cost $100/hour or even $50/hour for that matter.

There are plenty of good five-cent cigars in the country. The trouble is they cost a quarter. What this country needs is a good five-cent nickel. Franklin P. Adams

I just can’t say it any better than this Franklin P. Adams guy, can I? The problem, it seems, is that many of the VAs who complain about low-ball rates and many of the VA gurus who insist that VAs must charge $$ per hour are the equivalent of 5-cent cigars.

Excel data entry, article submission, basic blog setup and maintenance, etc, etc – these are all services that are very basic, don’t require advanced skills and frequently don’t allow for much optimization. In fact, many can be automated to a large degree. Sorry, but word processing, bulk mailing or fielding phone calls/e-mails is not worth $20-30 per hour. And neither does blog commenting, Wordpress blog installation or many other services.

But hold on, won’t you bring some invaluable insights and improvements into your client’s word processing or article submission tasks that would justify your rates? Most of the time, you probably won’t. First of all, the tasks are too simple, straightforward and limited to begin with. There’s also a bigger issue – do your improvements really work FOR YOUR CLIENT. Meaning does your client make more money or achieve their goals quicker because of your suggested improvements?

But what about the added value of a long-term relationship? In my experience, Elance clients (and non-Elance clients as well) expect the following from partnering with a virtual assistant:

1. Assigned work gets done on time and to quality standard
2. Detailed status reports and time-sheets are submitted regularly
3. Virtual assistant is reliable and attentive

But really, these are such basic customer service expectations that charging more for them is like having an ice-cream shop charge more for staying open late on summer weekends or for offering a variety of flavors and not just vanilla and chocolate. In short, these are the same basic 5-cent expectations.

Here’s the VA rates advice I’m sick of hearing:

You are not a secretary, you are a virtual support specialist! Your services are valuable! -  honestly, I’m yet to see one good explanation of how a virtual assistant is SO different from admin or marketing assistant in skills, experience or knowledge to warrant double or triple the hourly rate. And as for all the talk about long-term partnership, the owner of an ice-cream shop I frequent does not charge me more because she knows me by first name and remembers our family’s favorite flavors. In fact, she gives me occasional discounts because of that. Again, these are basics of customer service. 

You are not an employee, you are a business owner now! - this argument, when used to justify higher rates, is so illogical that it makes me cringe. True, as a self-employed you have certain new expenses to worry about. But demanding higher rates just because you’re not an employee is kind of like selling $20 burgers just because you chose to build your restaurant in the most expensive part of town. Can you do it? Yes, but these burgers better be something special.

By accepting low rates, you’re showing your desperation and letting clients use and abuse you - there’s some truth here, but only if the value that you offer is greater than the payment you receive. If you’re selling 25-cent cigars for 5-cents, you are indeed a dummy and quite possibly a desperate one.   

Again, the solution here is not to play the blame game, but to look at the what you offer and how you offer it and then determine how much you offer it for. And if turns out your services, the way they are right now, aren’t worth as much as you thought they might (or as much as your rate calculations worksheets tell you you must charge), then it’s time to either get a regular job or upgrade your offerings. But please, just stop blaming others (that’s an employee’s mind set, after all).

True, Elance and other such sites, have their share of unreasonable-ness. There’s some (ok, a lot) of “the lowest bidder gets the project” attitude and good old fishing around for advice. But it’s not much different in non-Elance and offline world.

Related posts:

1. Offshore virtual assistants – Myths and Realities – Part 1
2. Virtual Assistants Add Value to Client’s Business
3. Get Great Articles Without Going Broke