Are you stuck on creating service packages for your Virtual Assistant business?
You’re not alone. It’s one of the questions I get asked most often – how to create service packages.
Virtual assistants know that when we charge clients for a package of services, we all benefit.
Trading hours for dollars is not a bad business model, but there are downfalls to it. One of those downfalls is that you max out how much money you can actually earn. Because it is based solely on your time, and you only have so much time, you hit an earnings ceiling, and sometimes that happens very quickly.
Or, if you choose to work 60 to 80 hour weeks to earn more money (which some VAs do!), you will soon suffer from burnout. And then you will lose clients, and your income will go to ZERO!
Sounds dramatic, I know, but it really is true.
Anyone who has charged by the hour before knows that this is exactly what happens.
So. We talk about packages.
But there seems to be a lot of mystery around how to do it. Or at least how to do it properly.
I moved my clients to packages so long ago that I sometimes forget that someone taught me how to do it!
So now I’ll teach you!
Here is how you start to build a service package:
1. Write down all of the things you do for your clients. All of them. Go back as far as you need to in your records to figure out what services you offer.
2. Write down all of the services you offer on your website (ie that you tell people you offer).
3. Go through both lists and start to categorize the tasks that are on them. Think of categories like organization, business correspondence, marketing, networking, list building, client communication, payment processing, wherever you find a common thread – that’s a category. Some services offerings/tasks can be in multiple categories.
4. Now that you have gone through your services, go through your client list.
5. Write down their business info: what they do, who their clients are, and what types of things they need support with (whether you are doing those things for them presently or not).
6. Start to categorize your clients as well. Who do you really love to work with? What do you love about them? Who do you prefer not to work with? Why not?
7. Finally, have a look at the lists of things that you created that your clients need support with. Are there other things you could be doing for them that you are not currently doing? (Keep in mind this is not a wish list, but an actual ‘I have experience doing this and I could offer it to them right away’ list).
Now you have your pieces!
Take your categorized service listings and apply them to your favourite clients.
To build the packages, start with basic items (ie a regular newsletter) and then add on other complementary services (services that build on one another – ie social media posting of the newsletter, article marketing, blog post, etc.)
Voila! You have basically created a service package for a client that you love to work with.
Don’t worry if those examples aren’t on your lists.
You can build a client care package, a list building package, a social media package, a graphics and web package, a bookkeeping package, a general admin package, a calendar management/follow up package … any service you provide can be packaged if you just think about what you can put with it to enhance it.
Now, from there, you need to decide what your prices look like. I suggest starting with a basic package price and then adding on additional services to come up with premium package prices as well.
For now, start with building some packages and in my next blog post we will talk about how to price them.
What you should do next:
I have a system that will help you understand what your billable rate should be, and how to build great pricing structure from that. If you need help to get yours on paper (or post its!), have a look at my self study program How to Package Your Virtual Assistant Services which is part of my monthly training vault The Virtual Vault. which will walk you through the steps to do it for yourself.