Can You Make Good Money As A Health VA?
Considering whether you can make a viable income from working as a health virtual assistant? If I had a dollar for every time a prospective VA asked me what they could make as a VA… well, I could have stopped working as a VA myself!
So if you’re curious what you can expect to make as a health VA and whether it’s worthwhile, here’s the tea for you.
Can You Make Good Money As A Health VA?
You can – but…
Like any profession, there is a wide spectrum of income. And there are a lot of factors that can influence how much you make! The big ones that come to mind include:
Your experience
Your skills
Whether you bring any mindset issues around money to the table
The way you’ve structured your business
How you position yourself
If you offer a variety of services or a select few
The demand for your services
Your reputation
Your marketing
Whether you have support in your corner e.g. a mentor
Luck and timing (for example, if you have experience in a platform that suddenly becomes the new ‘it’ thing)
Your boundaries
How efficiently you work
And this isn’t even an exhaustive list! I can’t possibly cover all of these in a single blog post (it would pretty much be a novel), so I want to discuss two of the biggies that I’ve seen time and time again can make a huge difference in how much you earn.
Generalist vs specialist
I have covered this idea in a previous blog, but I do want to touch on it when it comes to income specifically.
There is of course no one-size-fits-all with this. But a general rule of thumb is that generalists (those who offer a wide variety of services) will charge less than specialists (those offering services in a very specific area). And as a result, they will make less overall OR work more hours to achieve the same level of income as a specialist.
Let’s look at this in practice:
If you’re a new generalist VA, you might price yourself at $30 per hour. On the other hand, a specialist could price themselves at $100 (or more!) per hour, particularly if they have packages.
So you would have two choices:
Work more hours – in this case, let’s say you want to make $1000 per week. You would need to work 33.5 hours per week to match the income of the specialist who works 10 hours per week.
Accept a lower income – which is not a big deal if you’re happy with it! But if you were only able to commit 10 hours per week to your clients, that would cap your income at $300 per week.
Of course, the third option is to increase your pricing, which I’ll touch on a little further down.
The other issue with generalists is the tendency to have multiple rates within your business. This is likely because you don’t feel like your simpler services should be the same cost as more ‘involved services’.
So with this example, you might end up with some hours billed at $30/hr and some at $50/hr - but it still leads to more hours, lower income cap and greater risk of burnout. You’re also more likely to resent your lower income work hours (and the clients) for earning you less!
Positioning yourself as an expert
Another way to give yourself a greater chance of a high income? Positioning yourself as an expert in whatever it is that you do.
This is the exactly the same as health practitioners – it’s much easier to justify $300 consults (in terms of both clients and your own mindset!) if you’re known as THE go-to practitioner for one area.
This is exactly what I did to boost my pricing and income over the years. It took some solid marketing, word-of-mouth referrals and giving plenty of free value out! But it means that now I can price myself significantly higher than other health VAs in my niche and service area.
And the best part is because I build the reputation? The clients who come to me already see my services as a solid investment and know the return will be worth it.
The good news is that the health VA space is very far from saturated. So even if you’re not the only stand-out unicorn VA in your space, it’s not like there are hundreds of them! You just need to get clear on your value and how to get that in front of your ideal clients.
What are real-life health VAs making?
This is a great question! And it’s one that I’ve been investigating myself. That’s why I posed it to my mentees and those who have completed my Health VA Crash Course.
Here’s what I found:
Depending on the hours they have for their biz (as some use this as a side hustle around full-time work!) and how long they have been in the space, VAs can be making anywhere between $500-5000 per month on average
Some noted that they could make even more if they desired to – but they preferred working fewer hours per month to allow for greater life balance and time for other priorities
While being in business longer generally meant a higher income range, it didn’t mean that newer VAs couldn’t scale if they had the time and focus on doing so!
From my own experience with other service providers, the income can scale even further if you specialise in an area. For example, I know designers who can earn 5 figure months, and I’ve done the same as a VA specializing in content creation.
Regularly raise your prices – you’re worth it!
Once you get clients in, this is something that is often overlooked. It might just be that you don’t think about it, or it could be a sneaky little mindset block!
But just like every industry, we are affected by factors such as inflation and rising prices of the platforms we utilise. On top of that, we become more experienced and knowledgeable the longer we spend in our profession. So you’re well within your right to raise your prices regularly.
It can be scary, I know! But if it helps, I started out charging as little as $30AUD for my blogs when I first started. And although I won’t be taking on new clients for the foreseeable future, my current packages start from $900 per month for blogs alone and $1200 per month for blogs plus additional services!
It took multiple price increases, time, confidence building and a good dose of bravery to get to where I am today – and you can do the same.
And I now have mentees who are on the same journey. One has increased her pricing by $10/hour recently for new clients, as well as packaging her services so that she makes a higher rate overall. The more that we build her client base and reputation, the easier it will be to implement future price rises.
So if you’ve been working as a VA for longer than 6 months? This is your sign to look at a price rise – either at the end of financial year or calendar year!
Wondering if you have what it takes to start working as a health virtual assistant?
If you love the idea of:
Building a thriving biz as a health virtual assistant
Making money from the comfort of your home, your bed, your favourite cafe or even a tropical island resort (wherever you like, really!)
Pricing yourself in that sweet spot of client-friendly but not hitting burnout
Standing out from the crowd so you can work with the people you admire the most
Having the freedom to live your life and not be glued to your work 24/7...
then 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗧𝗼 𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔 𝗥𝗼𝗰𝗸𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵 𝗩𝗔 is what you want to get your hot lil hands on!
In this FREE guide, I share exactly what you need to land your first paying clients as a health VA.
