Setting Your Rates as an Australian Virtual Assistant
No topic generates more anxiety for new VAs than pricing. This guide will not tell you what to charge — any article quoting specific dollar figures ages badly and ignores your niche, experience and market. It will give you the frameworks working VAs actually use.
The three models
Hourly. You bill for time worked, tracked honestly. It is simple to explain, low-risk for the client to start with, and the default for ad-hoc or unpredictable work. Its weakness: your income is capped by your hours, and clients focus on the clock rather than the outcome. Efficient workers are effectively penalised for speed.
Retainer. The client pays a fixed amount each month for an agreed allocation of hours or a defined scope of ongoing work. Retainers smooth your income, reward reliability, and suit ongoing responsibilities like inbox management. They require discipline on scope: without clear boundaries and a rollover policy, retainers quietly inflate into unlimited access.
Packages. A fixed price for a defined deliverable — a CRM cleanup, a document template set, a podcast episode processed. Packages decouple income from hours entirely and are the natural fit for well-bounded, repeatable work. They demand accurate scoping, because underestimating effort comes out of your margin.
Most established VAs blend models: retainers for anchor clients, packages for defined projects, hourly for genuine ad-hoc requests.
Working out your floor
Before you can price for the market, know your floor. Add up what the business must earn per year: the personal income you need, plus business costs (software, insurance, equipment, professional fees), plus the tax and superannuation you must set aside as a sole trader. Divide by your realistic billable hours — remembering that admin, marketing, quoting and leave are unbillable, so a full-time VA might bill well under three-quarters of working hours. The result is the hourly figure below which the business loses money. Every quote should clear it comfortably.
Positioning above the floor
Where you sit above your floor is a positioning decision. Specialist skills, regulated-industry familiarity, executive-level trust and proven reliability all justify premium pricing — and clients buying relief from their most painful admin rarely choose on price alone. Research what VAs with your profile advertise in Australian directories and communities to understand the current landscape, then decide deliberately where you sit within it.
Reviewing rates over time
Pricing is not a decision you make once. Skills compound, tools get faster, and your judgement — the thing clients are really buying — deepens with every engagement. Put a recurring annual reminder in your calendar to review rates against three inputs: what your floor calculation looks like now, what your niche currently advertises, and how full your capacity is. Consistently full for months is the market telling you the price is low. When you do adjust, lead the client conversation with the value delivered — outcomes achieved, scope absorbed, reliability proven — rather than apologising for the number. Confidence in a fair price is itself a signal of the professionalism clients are paying for.
FAQ
Should I discount to win my first client?
A modest founding-client arrangement in exchange for a testimonial can be sensible. An open-ended cheap rate is not: raising prices on an existing client is far harder than starting where you intend to stay.
How do I raise rates later?
With notice, in writing, at a natural boundary such as a new year or an expanded scope. Clients who value the work rarely leave over a fair, well-communicated increase.
Do I charge GST on top?
Only if you are registered for GST. The Australian Taxation Office publishes the registration rules; once registered, your invoices must show GST correctly.