Just as their business is beginning to grow and thrive, solo business owners and entrepreneurs start to feel pulled in a million different directions and zapped of their innovative energy. Small business success can feel like a double-edged sword! More orders to fulfill, more meetings to take, more emails to answer, a windfall of prospective clients now interested in your offerings... all while current clients, customers, and patrons need attention. You need help!

In most cases, hiring a virtual assistant makes the most sense. A virtual assistant can help with daily and recurring tasks to substantially lighten your load. By offloading some of your to-do list items, you will be able to stay energized and focused on growing the company and increasing revenue. 

Hiring help is a smart investment in your business. 

But while the idea of becoming less burdened feels invaluable, most budget-conscious managers operate with exceedingly tight margins and wonder if they can afford a virtual assistant. 

The good news is that it is absolutely possible to find a great virtual assistant that completes tasks while staying within a pre-determined budget - regardless of how large or small that budget is. 

For example, maybe your small business can afford to outsource tasks with a budget of $2,000.00 - $5,000.00 per month. Wonderful!  Or, maybe your business is only comfortable allocating $200.00 each month to have work completed remotely.  Great!  There IS a virtual assistant whose rate can fit every business’s needs.

So… how much will a virtual assistant cost you? The short answer is, it depends.

FIRST, ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS

The key to getting the maximum return on any virtual assistant investment - however big or small - is first knowing two critical things:

1. What tasks will the virtual assistant complete?
and
2. What level of virtual assistant expertise is desired?

The Freedom Makers Task Audit Quiz is a terrific tool that can help you figure out what taks should be outcourced. If you know you need help but are not sure what to delegate, the free Task Audit, our a conversation with our team, will help you determine what-to-do list tasks a virtual assistant could handle remotely. 

Once the priority for help has been determined, you next should consider what level of expertise and experience you feel comfortable with. 

The best way to answer that question is by understanding the factors that go into the pay rate of a virtual assistant. 

A WIDE RANGE OF RATES

ZipRecruiter, the California-based employment marketplace, shows that the national average for a virtual assistant living and working in the United States is $35.00 an hour. But if you search Google for “virtual assistant pay-rate,” you will find a range of rates from as little as $3.00 an hour to as high as $85.00 - $100.00 an hour. 

Why the large discrepancy between hourly rates?

The simplest explanation is that virtual assistants have widely varying costs based on a myriad of factors such as:

• the location of the virtual assistant
• the tasks the virtual assistant is hired to do
• how experienced the virtual assistant is 

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

Virtual assistants living internationally charge the range of hourly rates on the lower end of the pay scale. It is possible to find inexpensive virtual assistants who live outside the United States and are employed by companies that outsource their workers remotely on an hourly basis. These overseas virtual assistants are often less expensive to hire due to lower living costs in their home countries. For instance, a virtual assistant living and working in countries such as India, China, or the Philippines often charges as little as $5.00 an hour for some of the same services virtual assistants living in the United States would charge $18.00 - $25.00 to execute. 

International virtual assistants are typically efficient, experienced, and educated. They are also available during all hours due to time differences, which can undoubtedly be advantageous to get work done around the clock. An additional advantage is that international virtual assistants often celebrate different holidays and can sometimes continue or complete work when American holidays are being observed, and most businesses are closed. 

However, sometimes there are downsides to hiring an overseas VA.  Language differences that manifest in communication difficulties, connectivity problems, security concerns like privacy and data breaches, as well as vulnerabilities surrounding intellectual property can become barriers that prevent a successful relationship when employing international virtual assistants. 

When engaging a virtual assistant who lives and works in the United States, you are typically hiring an independent professional who is a citizen or authorized to work. They will pay annual state and federal taxes by filing as a 1099 worker. While this increases their compensation rate, the hourly rate of an independent contractor is still significantly less than a full-time employee’s rate would be. This is because business owners do not have to provide employee benefits like medical or dental healthcare or paid vacation leave. Similarly, a US-based virtual assistant also typically has and pays for their own computer equipment, software programs, and internet service. These costs are often included in the virtual assistant’s hourly rate. However, that rate remains less than that of an employee hired to work in a traditional office environment. 

WHAT TASKS WILL THE VIRTUAL ASSISTANT DO?

Small business owners can hire US-based virtual assistants to assist with an incredible variety of tasks. Each area of service has a range of pay rates that are affected by the experience of the individual virtual assistant. For example:

• Administrative Services: A virtual assistant hired to do clerical, recurring tasks like data entry, maintaining contact lists, answering emails, handling customer service inquiries, etc., is typically paid between $17.00 - $22.00 per hour.
  
  
• Financial Services: A virtual assistant hired to prepare ledgers or balance sheets, handle invoices, manage bill payments, etc., can be paid between $17.00 - $30.00 per hour.

• Executive Services: A virtual assistant hired to assist with the scheduling of project management, to help organize company events, to assist with business proposals, to manage customer relations databases, develop and employ SEO strategy, etc., can earn between $22.00 - $50.00 per hour

• Creative Services: A virtual assistant hired to write, edit, do social media management and posting, graphic design, website creation & management, etc., is usually paid between $22.00 - $60.00 per hour.

• Niche Career Services: A virtual assistant hired to do paralegal work, medical coding, real estate transactions, etc., can earn between $22.00 - $70.00 per hour. 

Rates will vary depending on the region of the country the virtual assistant lives in, whether the task is a one-time project or a recurring one, as well as how quickly the job needs to be completed. 

EXPERIENCE AND KNOW-HOW

Many virtual assistants used to work in the corporate environment as full-time employees, while others may be recent college graduates or professionals that have decided to change careers. Because they are looking to get their foot in the door, they are often willing to work for lower rates than their experienced contemporaries. 

The more specific the skillset, the more a virtual assistant is likely to charge. Virtual assistants with years of experience in niche career fields like real estate, paralegal work, accounting, or medical coding will cost more because they have extensive training, certificates, and sometimes even advanced degrees in their field. Likewise, the more experience the virtual assistant has with the administrative, executive, or creative task they are hired to perform - even more routine tasks like calendar scheduling and email management - the higher the rate they might expect. 

This is because experience increases efficiency. Seasoned virtual assistants will often have a deeper understanding of the software platforms required for their work and can draw from a more extensive toolkit. However, less experienced virtual assistants might be more creative. They may also be more eager and willing to train up on new, emerging platforms to best learn their field and serve their client. All virtual assistants, regardless of experience, strive to complete their tasks with efficiency so that they provide ultimate value for the business owner. 

Budget and what level of expertise the business owner is most comfortable with will ultimately determine how much help can be afforded. For example, if there is money in the budget for $200 per month, and a manager desires a seasoned professional, the business might only be able to afford to pay for 3 hours of help each month. However, if a manager is willing to hire someone just starting out or changing careers, they might be able to pay for 5-6 hours of help each month. 

This is where an agency like Freedom Makers can help. Freedom Makers maintains a pool of talented, vetted VAs and matches the best-qualified person for the job that needs to get done with the desires and specifics of each individual client. 

WORK-PAYMENT STRUCTURES

Business owners also have flexibility in how they structure payment for the virtual assistant they hire, which can help with fluctuating budgets and cash flows. Some options for payment methods are: 

• Self-Reporting/Hourly Payment: The virtual assistant works at an hourly rate for as many hours as necessary to complete the job. 

• Task-Based Payment: The virtual assistant is paid an agreed-upon rate for each blog written, minute transcribed, client contacted, etc.

• Project-Based Payment: The virtual assistant is hired to produce a product such as a website update or newsletter and is paid upon the completion of the product.

• Time-Block Payment: The virtual assistant is hired (or retained) for a determined number of hours each month or week and receives an hourly rate for each hour worked after that. This is perhaps the best option available for both the business owner and virtual assistant because the virtual assistant is guaranteed a certain amount of work, and the client is guaranteed the help. 

By choosing the proper payment structure for your specific needs, you can get the most value from your virtual assistant. 

SO… HOW MUCH DOES A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT COST?

The answer is: the amount a virtual assistant will cost is exactly what you can afford! 

Thanks to the wide range of factors that determine each virtual assistant’s pay rate and the flexibility that exists when determining payment structure, as well as the fact that a virtual assistant can be hired for as many or as few hours as needed, there is a talented, hard-working virtual assistant for every small business that needs one. To get the most out of the virtual assistant that you choose, you should know what tasks they want to outsource and what your budget is for getting that work done. 

Once those two questions are answered, the sky is the limit for the value a virtual assistant can add to any business!