There are many things you need to take into consideration when deciding on the rate you want to charge your clients. consider these four things: experience, services offered, competitors, and target market.

First, the rate you charge is based on the amount of experience you have. If you have many years experience in the corporate world you should take this into consideration when deciding on what rate to charge.

Second, the variety of services you offer plays a great role in the rate you charge your clients. If you offer a wide array of services you could charge a higher rate than someone who is only experienced in one field of service. For example, someone whose services include word processing, desktop publishing, bookkeeping, website design and maintenance will be charging a lot more than someone who only provides word processing services. Another thing to take into consideration is that certain services, such as web design, are charged at a higher rate than, for example, word processing.

Third, you will want to research to find what your competitors are charging their clients. You can do a research online to check the rates of competitors in your area as well as worldwide. It’s really not that hard to do. You can start out by entering Virtual Assistant in your search engine and go through the many different websites listed.

Finally, you need to take into consideration your target market.When you decide on a target market, you will then need to decide what your clients within that target market are willing to pay for your services. For example, if you will be offering services locally, you will need to determine what price your potential local clients will endure.

Rate Range

When pricing your services you need to keep in mind that the rate can range from $25-$95 or more based on experience. The average rate of service being charged ranges from $30-$35. Please do not price your services too low. Clients will wonder whether you have the experience and skills needed to provide the services that they require.

Standard Hourly Rate vs. Monthly Retainer Plan

There are also two ways in which you can charge your clients. Clients can either choose from the standard hourly rate or a monthly retainer plan. The standard hourly rate is what some clients will choose at first when they hire you in order to determine whether your services are Others will decide to sign up with a monthly retainer plan which basically is a set number of hours per month offered at a discounted rate. Monthly retainer plans can either be purchased in advanced by your client or you may choose to invoice them.