Do The Math
Belinda Sandor
Leading Women to Start, Grow, and Scale Successful Virtual Assistant Businesses | Speaker | Coach | Amazon #1 Best Selling Author
When you’re a Virtual Assistant, you have a lot of freedom. You get to decide when you work, how much you work, and what you want to charge for your expertise and time.
But in order to hit your financial goals, you need to do a little math.
Let’s say you want to earn $50,000 a year doing Virtual Assistant work and you want to bill (not work) 25 hours a week for 50 weeks a year.
Based on that information, here’s how to calculate your hourly rate:
50,000 (revenue) divided by 1,250 (yearly billable hours) equals $40 (your hourly rate)
It’s pretty easy math, but a lot of Virtual Assistants don’t take the time to do this and they’re not sure why they’re not making more money.
To find your number, start with your revenue goal and adjust your billable hours and rate until you hit the balance you’re looking for. That’s where freedom comes in.
Once you know these important numbers, there are a few things you’ll need to do:
- Make sure that all of your clients are paying this rate. It might take a little time to adjust to raising your rates if your current rate is a lot lower, but raise your rates with new clients and create a plan to carefully and thoughtfully raise your existing clients as soon as you can.
- Make sure you’re billing the number of hours every week you need to reach your goal. That means that you need to create a steady stream of client work and make sure that you spend enough time at your desk. I check my billable hours several times a week to make sure I’m on track for the week.
This is the method I used when starting my Virtual Assistant business 10 years ago, and the result is that I’ve reached my revenue goals every single year. Once you “do the math” it will become clear what adjustments you need to make in your business to hit your goals as well.
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A business workflow and productivity expert with 25 years of experience, RocketGirl Solutions Founder Belinda Wasser is hired by small businesses on a contract basis to act as their part-time, “business manager.”
In addition, she is the Founder of the VA Connection, a professional online community with the goal of educating and connecting independent virtual assistants around the world. Join her free online classroom here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevaconnection/