I am currently finishing another Free VA training program back-to-back with basic social media and decided to give you a little overview of what’s in it. My reason for choosing the topic is because I’ve been receiving a lot of emails and Facebook pm’s regarding the term “Virtual Assistant” or VA.
I am also wondering what causes the confusion of employee VAs so I dig a little deeper and found out a few good reasons. Here are some:
1. In the US, UK, Canada and other rich countries, VAs are business owners. They are well-respected, honest, responsible and is treated by their like partners. Much like lawyers and accountants which are not employees but their participation in the client’s business is significant enough for success.
Picture source: http://goo.gl/1AeWDc
2. Due to the vast difference of rich countries over poor countries such as Philippines, India and others, the business of outsourcing VA employees sprouted. With the power of technology and communication, it spread like wildfire over the last 10 years.
Any why not? It’s been promoted here and there by business owners that earn from this type of business model. They charge for clients to get a database of employee VAs and save much in the end. Who wouldn’t want savings?
3. Instead of paying US VAs $25/hour above, some business owners decided to train Filipinos and Indians to do the same tasks with a HUGE difference in the pay. Somewhere between $1.58-$5/hour. This will save them millions if we’re talking about a 40-hour-work for multiple clients.
4. Some even mistook VAs as call center agents if they’re doing the calls from home. Why not? If they’re staying at home doing calls for a client, it might really be confusing to call themselves as such, right? Technically, VAs are anyone who supports an individual or business owner from a home-office. However, they’re supposed to be business owners, too and NOT employees.
5. Because of Filipino’s (and other poor countries) employee mentality, they thought that having to work from home is already a privilege. Why not? It really is, right? They just missed the most important point.
Picture source: http://goo.gl/Ub6qxv
That VAs are BUSINESS OWNERS and NOT employees so they’re supposed to be receiving more hourly payment than that of an employee. Of course, clients that want to save much would gladly take this opportunity to pay less for the same quality of work. But that is not the case most of the time.
6. Since VAs are misunderstood as an employees’ job, the quality of VAs skills and attitude dropped. Of course, what do you expect? If you pay less, you get less. There are some exception to the rules, for sure as there will always be people who value the work regardless of the price but in general, this is always the case. There are uncontrollable absences, AWOLs (Absent WithOut Leave or notice), unfinished tasks and other normal employee problems. Clients who take employee VAs experience these.
Picture source: http://goo.gl/s52Bci
7. But what about those business owner VAs, aren’t they supposed to take leaves and make mistakes? Of course they do but they do it in a more professional way. For example, a business owner VA stipulates in the contract his/her vacation days, offs and unforeseen events like sickness and emergencies. In cases like these, the VA gets the job sub-contracted to another VA just to make sure the job is done and the client satisfied. There shouldn’t be any excuse why it shouldn’t be done because there’s always a better way to do things. This is how business owner VAs think.
Now, I have to stop telling you more stories or I’ll end up giving you the whole presentation on our Free VA Training next week, May 29th at 10AM. I’ll just leave it up for you to decide which one you’d like to be. Employee or business owner VA?
The Comparison Chart Of Getting A Virtual Assistant vs Full-time Employee
Before I do that, I’ll share a comparison chart of how business owners can save for VAs rather than hire their own full time employee. I based this on an established VA rate in the United States where it ranges from $20-70/hour.
This is just to show you that clients that are willing to pay this much should also get what their money’s worth in skills, attitude, customer service and expectation. So, if you think you want to become a VA business owner, you know what to do, to expect and some more.
You are all invited to join our Free VA training back-to-back with Basic Social Media with Rey M. Baguio, a social media expert as our guest. You will hear more about him on the event so I suggest you watch out for it, too!
Here is the link to REGISTER for the event. We will send you an email a day before as a reminder and another one an hour before for the link. We will also post it in the Facebook Group so if you’re not yet a member, feel free to join us. See you there!
