Should I Hire My Virtual Assistant on an Hourly or on a Project Basis?

This is one of the most common questions asked about hiring a virtual assistant and it really depends on the circumstances of your own business. Although it can be beneficial to work with someone on an hourly contract, the majority of entrepreneurs I have talked to found this process tedious and annoying. In fact, sometimes I think it's very frustrating to work with someone on an hourly basis because you feel compelled to look at the amount of work they did during a particular week to see if you think it might have actually taken them that amount of time.

Using Time Trackers

Some virtual assistants will even use work trackers to verify and show you how long they spent on a particular task, but I feel like setting up an hourly contract initiates a bad relationship between the employer and the virtual assistant. It just calls for the employer to question whether things are actually being done or taken that long requires extra administrative time to actually look at these time cards and determine if they are accurate. And it also could lead to a bad virtual assistant just trying to take advantage of you and getting used to billing you 10 hours a week of work whether they are actually doing it or not.

Project Based Fees

This is why increasingly I recommend that people use a project based fee for the virtual assistant. So if you have the same recurring tasks that need done on a weekly basis, perhaps you come up with a set fee that the VA would be paid when all of those are complete. Let me give you an example from a virtual assistant that I have hired to work on a store where I sell educational lesson plans. Every week she is responsible for participating in a certain number of Pinterest parties, reviewing a certain number of lessons, creating lesson plan covers, and providing feedback on lessons that have problems as well as making general suggestions.

This makes things easier because she knows what she's responsible for every week, but there's also an easy way for me to check whether the work is actually being done or not. If you offer a set fee for a certain number of tasks, both you and the virtual assistant are clear about that. Now if the virtual assistant ultimately feels like he/she is working way too many hours for what that project translates to be, that's a separate conversation for the two of you. But it's really beneficial to have some kind of guideline where you both are being held accountable to this list.

It also helps you budget because there is the challenge in an hourly project of giving someone information and then realizing that it took them ten times longer to do it than you thought it would. Unfortunately, if you are being billed hourly, you are on the hook for them either eating up most of the retainer you already paid or having to pay for way too many hours when you shouldn't have. This way when you use a project base instead, you know exactly what you are responsible for and the employee is driven to success base within a specific reasonable time frame. Projects are dragged out for much longer than they need to be because the employee knows exactly how much money they are going to receive for it.

Coming To An Agreement

A lot of people like working on hourly based contracts because they think it's going to be easier. But truthfully, for budgeting purposes, it's actually easier if your virtual assistant works on a project basis. You know exactly how much to spend, and if new tasks are required you can adjust the amount if necessary. You are not hit with any sudden bills of, "Oops! I accidentally spent five more hours on this than we talked about", and the instructions are also more likely to be clear. You are likely to come up with accountable, numbers-based activities they are responsible for, or certain projects.

It might become more general as you work with a virtual assistant as far as the tasks they complete every week on a project basis. But you can initially start out with saying, manage social media campaign, post five posts on Facebook and seven posts on Twitter. It's really easy to check if that was done at the end of the week. And then you're also not wondering, "Wow, they really spent two hours doing seven posts on Twitter? That's ridiculous!"

The Real Goal - A Great Relationship

So come up with a reasonable project based number that you and the VA are comfortable with so that you can eliminate these problems. This can make for a great relationship between a client and a virtual assistant when it's done right. But not enough people know about it to be familiar with implementing this process from the outset. You should have clear expectations for your virtual assistant and likewise, they should have clear expectations of you. So do yourself a favor and use project based payments for the time being. Whether you're just starting out or whether you've already begun working with a virtual assistant, using project based payments can be beneficial.              

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