I get amazed by the (thankfully small) number of people who contact me looking for, and I quote ‘
I could do with a good inexpensive VA. My experience with them has been poor. Would appreciate your advice on this score.
My response to this person was:
Re ‘inexpensive’ VA. Not sure what you mean by that exactly. I don’t have any on my lists who charge what the Asians charge but I do have Virtual Assistants in 11 countries, all English speaking and writing and depending on their cost of living, their rates can differ considerably.
I’m sorry your past experience has been poor – it is really important for us to have a clear idea of what type of work you want done so we can ensure you get a good match for that need.
If you’d like to email me and let me know what you are looking for, then I can facilitate looking for the right VA or VAs.
Her response back to me was to ask if I had anyone from India on my list. Obviously she’s looking for someone who charges $5 or less.
All I could do was reiterate that my team come from a mainly corporate background, are highly skilled and need to charge rates that relate to their cost of living, i.e. they are not going to charge only $4 or $5 an hour when they live in a country that won’t support that kind of very low income. I’m positive she does not live in a similar country and would not survive on those rates herself. Why does that mean we have to accept such low rates. Does she consider our work to be so lowly? And yet she has obviously had a bad or poor experience on the VAs she’s engaged previously. Isn’t there a connection there somewhere?
Sandra Worseling says
Hi Kathie, I agree with everything you have written. You know the old saying? “You pay peanuts, you get monkeys”.
Marietjie Steyn says
Hi Kathie, what an exceptional post, thank you. I think a lot of people are from the opinion that VAs are the “cheap” outcome to their administrative needs. Isn’t it because lots of articles and blog post state something like “Virtual Assistants – A Low Cost Solution to Office Administration” or “A virtual assistant can do just about anything for you, from investment research to booking movie tickets, and their rates can be as low as $5 per hour”? Wow, I cannot even imagine that VAs in South Africa should even consider quoting $5/hour.
Kathie Thomas says
Yes Marietjie, and most of the people who write those articles really have no idea or knowledge of what our industry is about. They see or hear something and start to write about it. It’s amazing how far incorrect information travels. Kind of like a rumour you know? Those things travel fast too.
The reality is we are a low-cost solution when business owners look at how much they earn per hour versus the time they need to spend on admin stuff. Makes sense for them to outsource it so they can be earning whatever their hourly rate is, instead of working on stuff that isn’t income generating but necessary. However, many seem to equate the need for admin support with ‘cheap’ labour. I wonder what their business is really worth to them and whether they truly want to invest in it?