Are you thinking about hiring your first virtual assistant but worrying about the cost? You’re not alone. Hiring a virtual assistant for the first time can be stressful, especially if you don’t know how much a virtual assistant costs.
In this guide, we’ll break down virtual assistant rates and costs so that you can know what to expect. We’ll give you tips for hiring a virtual assistant too.
This blog post may be helpful if you’re hiring or if you’re about to set your virtual assistant rates.
How Much Does A Virtual Assistant Cost
Virtual assistant fees can change from one VA to another. Depending on their location, skills, or experience, they could charge more or less.
Personally, I like to pay my virtual assistant a fair amount. To me, the location doesn’t matter. But, I insist on having native English speakers on my team (because I’m not, and I need people to help with my English when needed).
In the English market, there’s more competition, and rates are usually lower than if I’m looking for someone who speaks a different language and there are fewer candidates available.
There are different types of virtual assistants, and their services can influence their rates. Keep reading to learn more.
Virtual Assistant Types
You can’t expect to pay the same rate if you’re hiring someone to format blog posts, source images, write newsletters, handle social media, or design graphics.
While some virtual assistants do many different things and can help you with multiple tasks, some virtual assistants specialize in something specific.
For example, I offer SEO services, and SEO is usually a service that costs more. Not only do I need to have expensive SEO tools to do my job, but finding good SEOs is hard – and the rates are higher as a result.
The same applies to other services. You’ll likely pay more if you’re hiring a virtual assistant specializing in email marketing who can guarantee epic results.
Virtual Assistant Skills
An excellent virtual assistant should have multiple skills if you want to have someone who can do it all. That said, you can also have a skilled virtual assistant who has specific skills like video editing and so on.
If you’re searching for specific skills, you may pay more.
If your budget is limited, you could teach your virtual assistant yourself (as long as you already know how to do things).
Virtual Assistant Experience
Hiring a virtual assistant without experience is cheaper than hiring someone with years of experience. Personally, I prefer to hire people with a little bit of experience, but I tried hiring people without experience in the past.
As a result, I needed to train them more and spend more time teaching the basics. My goal was to save time, so it wasn’t a good fit for me. But, it was the case for my first couple of hires. It didn’t work out long-term.
Virtual Assistant Availability
Another thing to consider when hiring a virtual assistant is their availability. Do you expect them to be available at all times, or only on certain days? If your virtual assistant work for other people too, they may not be available full-time.
Depending on your needs and their availability, their rates can differ.
Virtual Assistant Tools
Finally, some virtual assistants already have access to tools and software. They might charge more because you won’t need to invest in tools for them to use.
If you have to provide all the tools and software for your virtual assistant, their rates might be slightly lower, but the total cost could remain the same.
Now, let’s see how much you can expect to pay a virtual assistant.
Virtual Assistant Rates
There are three main types of virtual assistant rates. You could pay per hour, package/retainer, or project.
Let’s talk about the main differences between the three.
Per Hour
My favorite way to pay a virtual assistant is per hour. It’s easier for me to evaluate my budget for a virtual assistant knowing how much I’ll pay per hour. You can also give them a maximum of hours to use to stay within your budget.
Usually, you can expect to pay anything from $10-50 per hour, depending on their skills, availability, and experience. To me, $20 is a fair amount per hour.
Per Package/Retainer
Many virtual assistants prefer to offer monthly packages or retainers to know how much money is coming into their business.
It could be a package of hours to use within the month (for example, 5, 10, or 20 hours per month) or a package including deliverables.
For example, social media managers or Pinterest virtual assistants can offer packages with a fixed number of posts on Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.
Depending on your needs, prices can differ.
To give you an idea, I pay my Pinterest designer between $200 and 300 per month, and I pay an agency who takes care of my Google Web stories for a few hundred per month.
Per Project
Finally, you may want to hire a virtual assistant to work on a specific project. If that’s the case, paying a VA per project might be the best option.
For example, paying per project could be better if you’re working on a freebie or an ebook.
How To Hire A Virtual Assistant
If you’re ready to hire your first virtual assistant, follow the steps below.
- Make a list of tasks you’d like to outsource to a virtual assistant.
- Think about the budget to allocate to virtual assistance.
- Think of ways to make things efficient for you and your business (communication, availability, etc.)
- Write down your SOP (Standard Operating Procedure).
- Write a job description and decide where you want to list your job offer. (I love using Facebook groups for virtual assistants or bloggers.)
- Create a Google form for applicants, including relevant questions about your industry or business. Make sure to ask their virtual assistant rates inside the form so that you can filter out the ones above your budget.
- Reach out to the potential candidates, and schedule calls with those who could be a good fit. During the call, talk about payment, contract, and additional fees.
- Hire the virtual assistant of your dream and schedule another call to train them.
Final Thoughts On Virtual Assistant Costs
We hope our guide to virtual assistant costs and rates was helpful to you. Make sure that the person you hire fits your brand values and has enough skills/availability to help you grow your business.
Want to learn more about virtual assistance? Read one of the following blog posts:
