Virtual Assistants Versus Virtual Staffing Agencies

I recently had the following comment pending moderation (copied ‘as is’ with errors and all):

“Iwon’t agree with this completely that virtual assistants are part owners and not employees. Actually they are personal assistants with the advantage of covering clients from a wider geographical range then your regular P.A. and just like a personal assistant, they are an employee of the firm.
there are even companies out there who provide you with dedicated virtual assistants. Good reliable companies that work heavily on outsourcing and don’t even cost much. If you are an entrepreneur and find you business growing and work load increasing, you can outsource to them. Simple tasks even like wake up calls are included in their portfolio.”

This guy obviously doesn’t get what Virtual Assistance is about and this spamish comment is a nothing more than a veiled attempt to push his own business. (He posted a link that I am not sharing here.) However, because there are a lot of people out there with similar misconceptions, I am going to attempt to clarify some things.

1. Virtual Assistance is a profession and Virtual Assistants ARE business owners, in their own right. They are *not* employees. Virtual Assistants pay their own taxes, set their own rates and policies and run their own businesses their own way.

2. Someone who works from home for someone else is a telecommuter – an employee – who is subject to the same policies, hours, and all the legal and tax ramifications of regular in-house employees.

3. Someone who works virtually, but contracts work with clients via third-party agencies, aren’t Virtual Assistants. They are employees of virtual staffing agencies. These agencies are nothing different then other temp agencies. I came across an archived blog post that explains this succinctly which you can read here.

Karen, the author of the above mentioned link, brings up a great point worth mentioning: It is the virtual staffing agency that goes after and gets the clients for the “contractor”.  She also mentions that, with virtual staffing agencies, the clients pay the staffing agency and then the agency pays the “contractor.” This is NOT a business owner to business owner relationship. This is an employer to employee relationship.

A true Virtual Assistant goes after and gets her own clients. A Virtual Assistant sets her own rates, invoices her clients and receives payment directly from the client. A true Virtual Assistant does not use a third-party intermediary with her clients. A Virtual Assistant is on an equal par with with her clients.

4. A Virtual Assistant is *not* a personal assistant. Although some Virtual Assistants provide a certain amount of personal services to their clients, a Virtual Assistant provides services mainly of an administrative nature.(Duh!) And, you can be for sure and for certain that an VA who is worth her salt, won’t be offering wake-up services!

When I asked for feedback about the above comment in the VACOC forum, I received this excellent response from Eronie which expresses my sentiments exactly:

“”Virtual Assistants are NOT personal life assistants just because they don’t work in the client’s office. Some VA’s do offer personalized services to their clients and that’s perfectly fine, but all VA’s are not expected to provide concierge services. I’m sorry, but the first PC that requires me to provide a WAKE UP CALL for them to get up and get their day started as a business owner who supposedly wants their business to succeed, will be the first PC to receive a dial tone on my end. LOL Obviously, you need much more than an administrative consultant to address your needs. You need a personal motivator, and if you are a business owner who is striving for success, that’s a trait you should already possess. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have contacted me.”

5. A word about rates. To say that Virtual Assistance doesn’t cost much is misleading. Is Virtual Assistance cost effective? Yes. Can it save you money in the long run? Yes. But, Virtual Assistance isn’t cheap. In the wise words of @StacyBrice: “Virtual Assistance was never meant to be the cheap alternative for administrative support, but a convenient alternative.”

There are “VAs” (and virtual staffing agencies) who are charging extremely low rates.  However, when it comes to Virtual Assistance, you get what you pay for. True Virtual Assistants are highly-skilled, highly-trained professionals who bring real value and results to their clients. You should expect to pay for that expertise as you would for any other highly-skilled professional.