Question : Virtual Assistant / typing service: do you charge your client for consultations, shopping for materials, etc?
I’ve recently started a home business doing office work for individuals and companies and have a couple of questions about what is billable time for my first official project. I would really appreciate some expert/professional advice from a virtual assistant or fellow entrepreneur:

1. My new client won’t be furnishing the materials he needs (labels, etc.) so I have to buy them and he’ll reimburse me. Do I charge him for the time the shopping trip takes? I have to drive to and from the office supply store, search for the right products, and buy them. All of that could take an hour or so. I feel like he should pay for this time. If so, should I charge the same hourly rate? For example, if I’m charging $ 10 per hour for the typing project, do I add that extra $ 10 for the hour of shopping? I’m also toying with the idea of giving him a reduced hourly rate for shopping if it’s OK to charge for shopping since that’s not as complicated as the typing and organizing work required for the project.

2. When I purchase the labels, they only come in a huge quantity for $ 32. His project will take less than one fifth of the package. So how much should he have to pay for — the entire $ 32 and he keeps the tons of extra labels? Doesn’t seem fair. But it’s less fair for me to have to buy them and only get reimbursed for the number of labels he uses and then I’m stuck with 600 extra labels I’ll probably never use again. I can’t afford to spend the money on that right now. So who should pay?

3. He wants me to meet him at his location, which is a 30 minute round trip, and then our consultation for him to show me what the job entails and give me the stuff will take about an hour. Then another 30 minute roundtrip to deliver the finished project to him. Do I charge for this time since that’s 2 hours out of my day? If so, should I tell him up front or is that unprofessional? And would it be billed at the same rate of $ 10 per hour?

As it is, I’m only making $ 10 per hour and I estimate the job will take 3 hours. So I’m only getting $ 30 but I’ll be spending 1 hour shopping, 2 hours in meetings, plus the 3 hours for the job. If I don’t get paid for the extra 3 hours of non-typing work, this works out to a grand total of $ 5 per hour. By the time I pay for gas and taxes, that’s less than $ 4 per hour!!!

So I need some serious advice please! Why my rate is so low ($ 10/hr) is because I really needed to get the job to get started, I’m hoping it will lead to more work from him in the future, and maybe he’ll refer me to other people. And maybe I can get a good testimonial from him to start building a portfolio.

Thanks in advance for any input!
One more question I thought of: I have a sweet coupon at the store I’ll be buying his supplies at. Because of his purchases, I’ll be able to use a $ 25 coupon the store sent me for being a frequent shopper. Since he’s going to reimburse me I guess I have to give him a copy of the store receipt, so he’ll see the coupon on there. I don’t think I should have to give him that $ 25 since it’s part of my own deal with the store AND because if he bought the materials himself, he would be paying full retail price. Before I remembered this coupon, I told him how much the supplies would cost and he said okay without hesitation. But will it be weird if he sees that I pocketed the extra $ 25? What can I say to justify it? After all, I could have used that coupon on my own personal purchases but I used it on his. Or is it just totally wrong to expect to keep the coupon savings for myself and I should just be nice and pass the savings on to the client? This is a dilemma … please help!
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Best answer:

Answer by capwest5a
Too many maybes. (last paragraph). It’s never going to work out. Most people can take care of their own tasks themselves. We don’t need ‘virtual assistants’. (Actually, it sounds like you are going to be more of a ‘physical assistant’ than a ‘virtual assistant’ what with all the driving around). Anyways:
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1) Yes, charge him the same hourly rate for shopping. That’s your rate regardless of the task. (And up the rate to $ 20 per hour as well).

2) If the client wants to use a label that only is available in bulk, the client buys the lot – I mean, you buy it at first, but you get reimbursed for the cost. The client is the one who is stuck with the extra 600 labels until he uses your service again. It’s not your job to buy extra materials out of your own pocket and then have to ‘sit’ on them. It’s like someone asking me to buy sheetrock for a house project. “We can only get this product in multiples of 250 units. Our project needs 60 units. You’ll just need to store the rest until another project comes along that REQUIRES EXACTLY THE SAME PRODUCT.” My answer? NO.

3) It would be unprofessional to charge for your travel time for a consultation.