Pricing & Negotiation.

What this fixes

Quoting blind, discounting on instinct, and staying at the starting rate for three years

Core skill

Say the number, then stop talking

The math

Effective rate, not quoted rate. It is usually 20 to 40 percent lower

Churn risk of a well-run raise

Low. Reducing scope beats discounting in almost every case

What you end with

A floor, a rate card, three scripts, and a change request template

Progress is saved in this browser only. Nothing is sent anywhere.

1. 01

   What you are actually selling

   You can price a scope instead of a title, and you know which four factors legitimately move a number.Time splitRed/green flags22 min

   • Nobody buys hours. They buy a result on a schedule with somebody responsible for it. Hours are just the billing unit you both agreed to pretend in.
   • Four things justify a higher number: scope, schedule, responsibility, and risk. Broader work, tighter or unsociable hours, more decisions you make alone, and more damage if you get it wrong.
   • Your years of experience are not on that list. Neither is your need. Clients pay for their own upside, not your circumstances.
   • Price the version of the job that exists, not the title. "Executive assistant" ranges from calendar tidying to running a founder's week, and those are not the same product.
   • Never quote before you can list the outputs. If you cannot write six bullet points describing what appears each week, you are guessing.
   • The same work is worth more to a business with higher stakes. Chasing invoices for a company with $2m in receivables is not the same job as doing it for one with $20k.

   Worked example — Two quotes for the same job title

   Before

   "Virtual assistant, 20 hours a week, $6/hr. General admin support."

   After

   Scope: inbox triage daily by 9am PT, class schedule maintained across 3 studios, weekly instructor payroll sheet, member complaint first response within 2 hours, Friday summary report.

   Schedule: 6am to 10am Pacific, five days, which is 9pm to 1am my time.

   Responsibility: I answer members directly under the studio's name, and I sign off the payroll sheet before the owner approves it.

   Risk: an error in the payroll sheet costs them real money and an instructor's trust.

   Quote: $9/hr, 20 hours weekly retainer, invoiced biweekly. Additional projects quoted separately.

   Nothing changed about the person. The second version is priced because the four factors are visible, and a client can see what they are paying more for.

   Where the hours go

   What a client is actually paying for

   Rough weighting of where the value sits in a mature VA relationship. Beginners think it's all the first slice.

   • Judgment: deciding what matters30%

     Knowing which email needs them and which doesn't. Impossible to commoditise.

   • Reliability: it happens without asking25%

     The reason clients stay for years. Boring, and the most valuable thing you sell.

   • Execution: the actual tasks20%

     What beginners think is 100% of the job. It's a fifth.

   • Context: knowing their business15%

     Compounds monthly. It's also your best argument at every rate review.

   • Documentation and systems10%

     Turns your work into an asset that survives you. Charge for it.

   Only a fifth of what you're paid for is the task itself. Price the other four-fifths and your rate stops being comparable to anyone else's.

   Red flag / green flag

   Spot the difference

   Same situation, two ways it can go.

   How you describe what the client is buying

   Red flag

   "I charge $6 an hour for admin support. I can do data entry, email management, scheduling, research — whatever you need doing."

   You've priced your TIME doing TASKS. Time is a commodity and tasks are comparable, so the only lever left is who's cheapest. There is always someone cheaper, and there always will be.

   Green flag

   "For $900 a month I make sure nothing you've committed to gets dropped. That's your inbox held under 10, every meeting with an agenda and a decision log, and a chase list so the things people owe you actually arrive. You'd get roughly two mornings a week back."

   You've priced an OUTCOME. There's no direct comparison shopping for "nothing gets dropped", and the client is now weighing your price against the cost of the problem, not against another VA's hourly rate.

   A client says another VA quoted less

   Red flag

   "Oh — I could probably match that, or come down a bit. What were you thinking?"

   You've confirmed your price was arbitrary. If it drops the moment it's questioned, it was never real, and the client now knows to question everything else you say too.

   Green flag

   "They might well be cheaper — plenty of people are. What I'd check is what happens in month three. My rate includes the documentation, so if I'm sick or I leave, the work doesn't stop. If budget's genuinely the constraint, I'd rather narrow the scope than cut the rate — same quality, less of it. Want me to price a smaller version?"

   Doesn't disparage the competition, reframes on value, and offers a real path forward that protects your rate. Cutting scope is always better than cutting price, because price cuts are permanent.

   Do this

   Take a live job post in your lane and write out its scope, schedule, responsibility, and risk. Then write the same for the version you would actually want to be hired into.

   Hand in: A two-column comparison with a defensible rate for each column.≈ 40 min

   Check before you call it done

   • The scope column lists outputs with a frequency, not duties
   • The schedule names your local hours, not just theirs
   • You identified what breaks if you make a mistake
   • The two rates differ and you can say why in one sentence

   Mark module done
2. 02

   Your floor

   You know the number below which work costs you money, calculated from your real life rather than from vibes.Rates1 template28 min

   • Work backwards from what your life costs, not forwards from what you hope someone pays. Total monthly needs, plus savings, plus tax, divided by billable hours.
   • You do not have 160 billable hours a month. Between admin, client calls, learning, applications and rest you are realistically selling 100 to 130.
   • Add tax. As a self-employed Filipino you owe it whether or not it is withheld, and pretending otherwise is a loan from your future self at a bad rate.
   • Add fees. Transfer and FX costs of 1 to 4 percent are real money and they come off the top.
   • Add an equipment and downtime allowance. Laptops die and typhoons happen, and your client's budget will not cover either.
   • Your floor is not your price. It is the line below which you are volunteering. Your price sits above it with room for the parts you did not predict.

   Worked example — Bexley scenario: floor calculation

   Monthly needs: ₱42,000 living, ₱6,000 savings, ₱2,500 equipment and downtime fund. Total ₱50,500.

   Tax allowance at 8 percent of gross: budget roughly ₱4,400 on a ₱55,000 gross target.

   Payment fees at about 2 percent: roughly ₱1,100.

   Gross needed: about ₱56,000 a month, which at ₱57 to the dollar is roughly $980.

   Realistic billable hours: 110 a month, not 160.

   Floor: $980 divided by 110 equals about $8.90 an hour. Round the floor to $9.

   Current rate: $6, at 80 hours a month, is $480. That is not a low rate, that is a shortfall of half a life.

   The gap was never a negotiation problem. It was invisible because nobody had done the division. Once you have the floor, saying no becomes arithmetic instead of courage.

   What this pays

   Working out your actual floor

   Your floor is not what you'd like to earn. It's the number below which working is worse than not working. Calculate it once and it becomes the thing you can't be talked below.

   Swipe the table sideways →

   Experience	Hourly (USD)	Monthly (USD)	What changes it
   Monthly living costs	Your real number	₱[your total]	Rent, food, power, internet, transport, family support, debt. Be honest, include everything.
   + Business costs	~₱2,000–4,000/mo	Internet, tools, power, equipment fund	You pay for the office. Employees don't. This must be in the number.
   + No-benefits premium	+20–30%	Sick days, holidays, 13th month, SSS/PhilHealth/Pag-IBIG	You get none of these. A freelancer at the same headline rate as an employee is paid less.
   + Unpaid time	÷ 0.7	Admin, applications, invoicing, learning	Roughly 30% of your working week is unbillable. Your billable hours carry all of it.
   = Your floor	The result	Never go below it	Below this you're paying for the privilege of working. Say no, every time.

   This table has 4 columns and scrolls horizontally on small screens.

   Worked example: ₱35,000 living + ₱3,000 business = ₱38,000. Add 25% for no benefits = ₱47,500. At 120 billable hrs/month that's ₱396/hr ≈ $6.80/hr. That's a FLOOR, not a target.

   Copy-paste

   Steal this

   Swap the bracketed bits and send.

   Floor calculator

   Do the arithmetic once, write the number down, and never negotiate below it. Knowing it is what makes saying no possible.

   Copy template to clipboard

   STEP 1 — MONTHLY LIVING COSTS (be honest, not aspirational)
   Rent / housing                    ₱______
   Food and groceries                ₱______
   Electricity                       ₱______
   Water                             ₱______
   Internet                          ₱______
   Mobile load / data                ₱______
   Transport / fuel                  ₱______
   Family support / allowances       ₱______
   Loan / debt repayments            ₱______
   Insurance / health                ₱______
   Childcare / school fees           ₱______
   Everything else (be realistic)    ₱______
                       LIVING TOTAL  ₱______  (A)
   
   STEP 2 — BUSINESS COSTS
   Internet upgrade over personal    ₱______
   Software and subscriptions        ₱______
   Equipment fund (laptop ÷ 24 mo)   ₱______
   Power for working hours           ₱______
   Coworking / backup location       ₱______
                    BUSINESS TOTAL   ₱______  (B)
   
   STEP 3 — THE THINGS EMPLOYEES GET AND YOU DON'T
   Take (A + B) and add 25%.
   This covers: sick days, holidays, 13th month, SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG,
   and the months a client disappears with no notice.
                          SUBTOTAL   ₱______  (C = (A+B) × 1.25)
   
   STEP 4 — BILLABLE HOURS, NOT WORKING HOURS
   You will not bill 160 hours a month. Applications, invoicing, admin,
   learning and gaps between clients eat roughly 30%.
   Realistic billable hours per month: ______ (D)  [use 110–130 if unsure]
   
   STEP 5 — YOUR FLOOR
   C ÷ D = ₱______ per hour
   ÷ 58 (approx USD rate) = $______ per hour     ← YOUR FLOOR
   
   STEP 6 — YOUR TARGET
   Floor × 1.5 = $______ per hour                ← what you actually quote
   The gap between floor and target is your savings, your growth, and your
   ability to walk away from a bad client. Without it you're trapped.
   
   WRITE YOUR FLOOR HERE: $______
   Rules:
   • Never quote it. Quote your target.
   • Never accept below it. Not "just to get started". Not "just this once."
   • Recalculate every 6 months, and every time your costs change.

   Do this

   Build the floor calculator in Sheets with your real numbers. Include tax, fees, savings, and an equipment fund.

   Hand in: A sheet that outputs one number: your hourly floor, with billable hours as an adjustable input.≈ 50 min

   Check before you call it done

   • Billable hours are under 130 a month
   • Tax and payment fees are separate line items
   • There is a savings line, not a leftover
   • You compared the floor to what you currently earn per hour
   • The sheet recalculates when you change one input

   Mark module done
3. 03

   Reading the market without racing to the bottom

   You can place yourself in a real band using evidence, and you can say why you sit above the average.WorkflowRed/green flags24 min

   • The most useful Philippine benchmark is the OnlineJobs.ph April 2026 salary guide. General VA local hourly runs roughly $3 to $5 beginner, $6 to $9 intermediate, $10 to $12 expert, with specialisms sitting higher.
   • A benchmark describes what is being paid, not what is fair and not what you must accept. Treat it as the weather, not the law.
   • The band you belong in is set by evidence, not by time served. Can you show a metric you moved, an SOP you wrote, a decision you made alone.
   • Do not price against other Filipino VAs. Price against what solving the problem is worth to that business, then sanity-check against the band.
   • Watch the ceiling, not just the floor. If nobody in your lane earns above $12, you are in a lane with a lid, and the fix is a different lane rather than a better argument.
   • Rates for the same title vary wildly by client type. Agencies pay least and place fastest. Direct US small businesses pay more and require more of you. Funded startups pay most and churn hardest.

   Worked example — Placing yourself with evidence

   Before

   "I've been a VA for 2 years so I think I'm intermediate. Maybe $7?"

   After

   Evidence 1: I own the class schedule across three studios with no oversight. Nobody checks it. That is intermediate to expert on responsibility.

   Evidence 2: I cut member complaint first-response time from about a day to under two hours, measured over eight weeks.

   Evidence 3: I wrote the four SOPs the owner now uses to train new front-desk staff.

   Evidence 4: I cover 6am to 10am Pacific, which is 9pm to 1am for me. Unsociable hours are a priced factor, not a favour.

   Placement: top of intermediate, entering expert, so $9 to $10. I will ask $9 because the scope is defined and I want the increase agreed rather than debated.

   Four lines of evidence turn "I think I deserve more" into a position. You are not asking them to be generous, you are asking them to be accurate.

   Workflow

   Reading the market without racing to the bottom

   Before setting or changing your rate. Once a quarter.

   1. 1

      Pull 20 live posts in your exact lane

      Verse's board, Upwork, OnlineJobs.ph. Your lane specifically, not "VA" generally — the general number is always lower and it's not your market.

   2. 2

      Write down the range, ignore the average

      The average is dragged down by the desperate posts. What matters is the top quartile, because that's who you're trying to work for.

   3. 3

      Separate the tiers hiding in the same title

      "Ecommerce VA" covers $3 uploads and $15 PPC management. Work out which tier each post is actually buying, then compare like with like.

   4. 4

      Check what the top-paying posts require

      That's your development plan. If every $12 post wants Klaviyo, you now know what to learn this quarter.

   5. 5

      Position at the 60–75th percentile, not the middle

      Above average, below premium. You'll lose the bargain hunters, which is the point — they're the clients who cause the most trouble anyway.

   6. 6

      Sanity-check against your floor

      If the market's 75th percentile is below your floor, the lane is wrong or the market is wrong, and you need to change one of them.

   Where this breaks: Setting your rate by asking other VAs in a Facebook group. You'll get a chorus of underpriced people validating each other. Look at what employers are POSTING, not at what your peers accepted.

   Red flag / green flag

   Spot the difference

   Same situation, two ways it can go.

   How you think about competing on price

   Red flag

   "There are so many Filipino VAs now. If I don't charge $4, someone else will, and I'll never get hired."

   Partly true and completely unhelpful, because it assumes clients only compare on price. The clients who choose purely on price are also the ones who scope-creep, pay late and churn in three months. Winning them is a loss.

   Green flag

   "I'll lose the clients whose only question is the rate. I'm competing for the ones who've already been burned by a cheap hire and now care more about not repeating it. There are fewer of them and they pay double."

   There are two markets sharing one job board. The cheap one is enormous, crowded and miserable. The other is smaller, quieter, and the only way into it is refusing to compete in the first one.

   Do this

   Collect ten current job posts in your lane, record the posted rate or salary, then write your own evidence list against the band.

   Hand in: A rate research sheet plus a four-point evidence list placing you in a band.≈ 45 min

   Check before you call it done

   • At least seven of the ten posts include a stated rate or range
   • You noted the client type for each, agency or direct or startup
   • Every evidence point references something observable
   • You named the band and the specific number you will ask for

   Mark module done

Six situations that come up in real work. Pick an answer for each, then check. Nothing is recorded.

1. 01You need ₱56,000 gross a month and can realistically bill 110 hours. What is your floor, roughly, at ₱57 to the dollar?

   A$$5.50/hrB$$6.20/hrC$$8.90/hrD$$12.00/hr

2. 02A client says your $9 is more than they budgeted. Best response?

   AOffer $7 to keep the dealBHold at $9 and explain your experience againCOffer a smaller scope at the same hourly rate and let them chooseDAsk what their budget is and work backwards

3. 03Which situation most clearly calls for per-output pricing?

   AThe client's volume swings wildly week to weekBThe client repeatedly disputes how long tasks takeCThe project has a clear end date and deliverableDThe scope is genuinely unknown at the start

4. 04How much notice should you give before a rate increase takes effect?

   ANone, it applies to the next invoiceBAbout a weekC30 to 45 daysDSix months

5. 05A client asks you to add a six-hour certification audit, saying it should be quick. What do you do first?

   ADo it, it maintains goodwillBSend a change request with the estimate and a choice between paying or reprioritising, before startingCDo it and add it to the invoice as a surprise lineDRefuse, it is outside scope

6. 06You have sent timestamps, screenshots and links, and the client still insists your three hours is worth one. What is the realistic read?

   AYou need better documentationBYou should offer a discount to keep the peaceCThey have decided not to pay for that work, so try output-based pricing once and otherwise leaveDEscalate to their manager

Walk away when you see these

Not every one of these is a scam. Some are just clients who will cost you more than they pay you, which ends the same way.

• Every single invoice comes back with questions

  One dispute is a misunderstanding. A pattern is a payment strategy, and evidence will not fix it.

• "Can you just do this quickly" three times a week

  Unpriced work presented as trivial. It is the most common way a $9 rate becomes a $5 one.

• A trial rate with no written end date

  That is not a trial, that is your rate. Get the second number and the date in writing on day one.

• Praise instead of payment

  "You're amazing, we couldn't do this without you" arriving in place of a raise is a known and cheap substitution.

• They want to pay monthly in arrears with no contract

  You are lending a stranger a month of labour. Weekly or biweekly for anyone new.

• They ask you to lower your rate because of your location

  Your cost of living is not a discount they earned. The work is worth what it is worth to their business.

• The scope grows every month and the fee never does

  Two years of this is how skilled people end up at an effective rate below where they started.

• They refuse both time tracking and output-based pricing

  They have rejected every possible way of agreeing what you are owed. That is the whole answer.