4 Signs It’s Time to Raise Your Virtual Assistant Rates

Every online service provider reaches a point where they need to start charging more for their skills. But, how do you know its time raise the Virtual Assistant rates in your business?

Once you have a few clients under your belt and you’re rocking and rolling in your online business, the idea of raising your service pricing is scary!

There are a lot of factors and thoughts that come into play:

• What if all my clients drop me and hire someone else?!
• Will they think I’m asking for too much money?!
• How do I even go about telling them I’m increasing my rates?!
• How much should I increase them? Will I be charging too much?!

I get it. There’s a lot of factors to consider.

What I’ve found though, is that understanding when you should be increasing your prices is so blurry – a lot of online service providers it off for way too freaking long.

That’s why I’m sharing a few surefire signs that it’s time to raise your virtual assistant rates. So you know when it’s officially time to bite the bullet and be like Nike and do it already.

#1 You feel burnt out around your work + your clients

If you’ve felt this before, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

You can reach a point in your client work that you start to feel resentment around the tasks that you’re completing for your clients.

This can look like a lack of desire to get on your computer in the morning, putting off certain tasks for longer than you should, and more.

Feeling burnt out and resentful towards your clients themselves can also come up around this. If you dread holding meetings with them or they are pushing your work boundaries to a point that makes you uncomfortable – It might be time to make a change.

Choosing to raise your rates can give you a new sense of energy around your clients and the tasks your completing when this happens. It’s similar to when you get a raise in a traditional 9-5 job.

You generally feel more appreciated, valued and motivated to work hard for the income that you’re earning. It gives you that little oomph that you might need to feel rejuvenated.

#2 You are giving your clients a true ROI

Are your clients making more money as a direct result of working with you? Then you need to charge them more money!

Here’s the catch with this one: You have to be able to give very clear and measurable examples of how your clients are seeing a return on investment (ROI) in working with you.

Examples of measurable ROIs for your clients:

• Increased website traffic as a result of your new website design
• Higher number of product sales as a result of your paid ad campaign
• Building out a passive income stream for their business by launching a successful online course
• Providing back-end support so they can increase the number of clients they can work with by 20%

The common thread amongst all of these examples is that you can point to any one of these and show how your support made a big change in their business as a whole.

If have points like these as to why you deserve a rate increase, it’s going to be hard for clients to justify their reasoning as to why they don’t think you deserve it.

#3 Your calendar is booked out

Congratulations on filling your client roster! Go you, business bestie! This is a huge milestone that so many of us work incredibly hard to hit.

The downside?

Once you hit it, you end up turning away money when those new inquiries come through your inbox and you have to turn them away.

Once you reach the point of having too much work to handle or a waiting list of potential clients – It’s time that you raise Virtual Assistant pricing.

Because if your support skills are so in demand that you can’t shake clients off of you, you’re probably not charging enough already. Clients know that they’re getting a deal when they work with you, so they’re pounding down your door like it’s Black Friday to get it.

The best part about being in this scenario is that you have a whole list of clients that are probably willing to work with you at your higher rates, too. So even if your current clients decide to stop working with you, you can confidently move on to the next person and make more money.

#4 You’ve improved and/or grown your skills in what you do

You learn a lot on the job as you’re working with clients online, whether you realize it or not.

That means that your skills grow year after year. If you’re keeping your rates the same for several years in a row, you aren’t getting paid what your skills are valued at anymore.

Another situation where this comes into play is when you take it upon yourself to invest and grow your skills in a certain area.

Let’s say that you purchase and complete a course on Search Engine Optimization to create better ranking blog copy for your clients. You have more value to bring to the table now and your skills are more specialized.

That means that it’s probably time for you to raise your rates. You have a proven example of how you are adding more to your client’s businesses, and that’s an easy way to justify a rate increase.

Remember: Raising Virtual Assistant rates is normal

Above all else, remember that you are a business. Businesses increase their rates on a consistent basis. (um, hello inflation!)

I do truly believe that if you are considering a rate increase, you need to feel in your heart that you deserve more. You’ll feel more confident in your decision to share your rate increase with your clients and be more accepting of your client’s decision if they decide not to move forward.

In my experience though, raising your rates almost never turns out to be as big of a deal as we make it out to be in our heads. If you are working with high-quality clients that value you and that you care for deeply, they’re usually excited for you. Believe it or not!

If some of your clients say no, don’t take it personally. Most of the time, it’s just not about you but just a business decision.

There’s always another client waiting to work with you.

Is it time for you to raise your Virtual Assistant Pricing? I’d love to hear from you!