Charging low rates to get the client/job!

Charging low rates to get the client/job

What actually do you achieve by doing this?
1. You can get the job, YES
2. Is it worth your while doing the job at the low rate?, NO

No it is not. With each job you do you need to know that job is worthwhile to do, you need to have proper rates set up and remember you are running a business.
If this is just a game to you and you are doing this just to earn a little extra, it’s still not worth it to you as you are not being paid for your worth, you are seeing money, but what can that money buy for you from that task. What about your skill, experience and time you have spent doing the job, is that worth nothing to you. Going in at the lowest rate is not going to make money for your business, it sure want make profits. You will be running your business at a loss and is that the way to do business, not really, every good business person will tell you there is a need to make money to run your business.

Even if you charge low and take in job after job you are still losing out with your expenses that it takes to do the job. A VA should know with each job they do exactly what is involved. How long the job will take, what costs are involved as no matter what job you do there is a cost to you involved, be it your time, printer ink, electricity etc, there is a cost, these issue have to be looked at with your rates.

Wouldn’t it be better to win a job on your skills, attributes, knowledge, experience than to win because you put in a low bid for that job… Surely you have confidence in yourself to know what your skills are worth… Are they really worth that low rate! Interesting eh…

Dictaphone - Trancription - Typing

Believe it or not there is a difference between Dictaphone, Transcripiton and Typing, a lot of VAs and Transcriptionists dont seem to know this.

Dictaphone and Transcription are similar so we charge at an hourly rate or an audio hourly rate and these are not referred to as typing in any way, if the client refers to them as typing tell that client it is either of the two but not typing and then explain what is involved with doing it, they are both a skill in themselves and not everyone can do them.

Dictaphone is normally one person, could be a doctor or an attorney recording into a digital machine, recording device and then you as a Transcsriptionist listen to that tape and transcribe it.

Transcription can be more involved, it can be a recording of a meeting with a few people present, a conference session, court hearings etc. It is usually when more than one person is speaking and the event is being recorded.

These two skills should not be the same as copy typing, they are more involved and can take a few hours to transcribe into a document therefore there is normally an hourly or audio hourly rate involved not a per page rate.

Typing is what it is and is not either of the above and its charged at a per page rate or a per word rate (sometimes students like it per word, but not often). Typing is normally when you type from written notes, pdf documents, author's books, reports, tenders, copy typing etc.

If you let clients charge you at a per page rate for Dictaphone or Transcription then you are losing out big time in time and money as these tasks take much longer to complete and are skill on their own.

It is up to us to price accordingly for these tasks and to educate VAs, Trancriptionists and clients on the differences.