Have you ever worked with a virtual assistant (VA) before? If you have, I wonder if you can relate to either of these situations?
“I was working with a VA but I didn’t have enough stuff to fill the hours she needed.”
“My VA was great until she raised her rates. I didn’t want to pay higher rates for basic tasks.”
These are two of the most common challenges I hear when I talk with prospective Virtual A Team clients.
Why is it that these are such common struggles? I have a couple of thoughts.
Package Hours
Many virtual assistants require you to buy packages of hours. These packages typically start at 10 hours per month. That would be fine if they had the skills to do a LOT of different things.
Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as a VA who can do it all. Most VAs have a few basic skills and will struggle with anything beyond those skills.
They often fear losing you as a client if they tell you they aren’t good at a particular project or task. Instead, they struggle through, giving you a halfway acceptable result at best.
If they do admit they aren’t up to a task, you are left to find someone else or do it yourself. But you still have hours left on your package. You’re now stuck trying to find work they CAN do to fill the hours you’ve already paid for.
It ends up being like a gym membership. You pay for it but don’t always use it.
I Need a Raise…
Don’t get me wrong, it is completely reasonable for a VA to expect a price increase every year or so. However, if your VA jumps from $35 an hour to $50 overnight, there is a reason to question.
A VA may raise their rates for a few different reasons. Perhaps she didn't realize the full cost of doing business and had to adjust to stay profitable. While this makes sense, it isn’t fair to her existing clients.
Most VAs are not skilled at running businesses. They don’t always make decisions that a business owner would make.
Sometimes, a VA learns that she is more skilled at online business management. She finds that she no longer wants to do the hands-on work. Unfortunately, online business managers (OBM) tend to get paid higher rates. Her decision may leave you paying an OBM rate for VA level work if you haven't changed what you give her. Here’s a great article on how OBM’s are different than VA’s.
The Solution
Virtual A Team has come up with a great solution for both of these challenges.
The agency approach with tiered pricing.
Virtual A Team is an agency for virtual services of all kinds. We have specialists from just about any area of work you can imagine, as long as it can be done remotely.
When you start work with Virtual A Team, you are assigned a Director of Stuff You Don’t Have Time To Do (Director for short). Your Director is in charge of your team. He or she will be your primary point of contact. They work with our team to ensure that your projects and tasks are being handled by the best person for that task.
If you have videos that need editing, your videos will be edited by a video editor, not a general VA. If you have research you need done, a general VA will do that work instead of a high-end copywriter.
And that’s where tiered pricing comes in.
Tiered pricing means you only pay for the skill level required for the task. Each tier has a rate associated with it and a list of tasks that may fall into that tier.
Tier 1
Think of this as your most basic tasks. Tier 1 will include things that can be repeated easily or skills that are very common.
Examples of Tier 1 tasks:
- New client/vendor set up
- Online shopping
- Sending thank you cards, birthday cards/gifts
- Scheduling appointments & meetings
- Manage inbox/respond or delegate responses as needed
- Business card entry & follow up
- Customer database clean up
- Research
- Social media posting (basic content, no major management)
- Newsletter management (sending provided content in an existing format)
- Return calls
- Manage and assign meeting minutes
- Data Entry
Tier 2
Think of this as your department head. Tier 2 will include project management as well as tasks that require a little more skill or thought.
Examples of Tier 2 tasks:
- Writing blog posts (content writing)
- Blog management (including finding images, SEO optimization, posting and comment moderation)
- Newsletter management (content creation, template creation)
- Writing e-books
- Editing emails, blog posts, etc...
- Wordpress maintenance and backup
- Social media management (finding or creating content, growing audience, manage reputation, manage ads campaigns)
- Social media group moderation
- Document creation and formatting (e.g. Training Handbooks and Informational Flyers, PDFs)
- Graphic design
- Client invoicing
- Speaking engagement research/coordination/outreach
- Tech support
- Product launch support
- Live webinar support
- eCourse formatting
- HARO pitch submission
- Basic Infusionsoft support
Tier 3
Think of this as your specialist. Tier 3 will include tasks that need someone with a high level of knowledge and/or special programs to complete the work.
Examples of Tier 3 tasks:
- Creating autoresponders
- eCourse development
- Website development
- Marketing materials
- Bookkeeping
- Payroll
- Video editing
- Podcast editing & production
- Advanced Copywriting (Copy designed to sell)
Tier 4
Think of this as your EXPERTS. Tier 4 includes tasks that require someone with certifications or who are highly knowledgeable. There are fewer of these individuals available so they typically command higher rates.
Examples of Tier 4 tasks:
- ClickFunnels support
- Infusionsoft campaign review/creation
- LeadPages set-up and integration
- Social Media Advanced (Paid Ads)
What it looks like…
Let’s take a look at a common first job Virtual A Team is hired to handle, kickstarting an email newsletter. Typically, if you were to hire a general virtual assistant (GVA) to do your newsletter, you would pay a flat hourly rate. Your GVA may be good at writing the copy but she may not know how to lay out the email for best results. Or maybe she doesn't know how to do the custom graphics that help to brand your company. And there might be a steep learning curve as she learns your specific email management system.
Here’s how Virtual A Team would approach this project.
Step 1: Client/Director meeting
The first step is to meet with your director to discuss the details. This meeting is billed at Tier 2 - Project management.
Step 2: Audit
A team member will audit your existing email list and templates to see what needs to be done and what can be reused. Billed at Tier 2 - Email management
Step 3: Director to set up the project
Next, your director will use our project management system to set up the details and assign each of the tasks to the right team member. Billed at Tier 1 - Setup and Assign Tasks
Step 4: Create Email Template
Do you need an email template for your newsletter? Our graphics team can get to work creating something specific to your desires. We focus on what currently works best for various industries. Billed at Tier 2 - Graphic Design
Step 5: Writing
While our graphics team is working on your newsletter template, our writers will get to work writing a few emails to re-engage your existing list. Billed at Tier 2 - Content Writing
Step 6: Re-engagement emails
A GVA (or your director) will then put all the pieces together. We will send out a couple of emails for the re-engagement. Billed at Tier 1 - Newsletter Management Basic
Step 7: Ongoing newsletters
Some of our clients prefer to provide content for their newsletters. Once the set up is complete, entering content and sending out the newsletters is billed at Tier 1 - Newsletter Management Basic.
Other clients prefer to hand off almost the entire process. They may give us a “theme” for the newsletter but then ask that we expand on that and create something meaningful. This would be billed at a combination of Tier 2 - Content writing/Graphic Design and Tier 1 - Newsletter Management Basic.
Your Director will be checking in on the various team members throughout the process. He or she reviews work before sharing it with the client for final approval. This ensures that the entire team is working cohesively and with one brand/vision in mind.
While the behind-the-scenes seems a bit overwhelming; you, as the client, only need to work hands-on with your director. No need to keep track of multiple team members, projects and deadlines.
And the best part, you only pay for the skills required for the tasks.
Ready to switch to the Virtual A Team approach?
Give us a call to find out how this would look for your business.
