Every business owner needs more time to focus on the things that matter more, and that’s exactly what virtual assistants are for – assistants who connect with you virtually to take those time-consuming menial tasks from your schedule.
Finding a virtual assistant (VA) that achieves this task of freeing up time can be tricky. With multitude agencies, freelancers, and in-house staffers offering VA work, it’s easy to get caught up in a web of confusion.
Which do you go for? Freelance virtual assistant, a full-time in-house assistant, or an agency virtual assistant, which is the best fit?
In this virtual assistant finding guide, I compare all three avenues for finding a virtual assistant, so you know which one fits you best because in the end, whichever route you’ll finally settle on depends largely on your peculiar needs.
What exactly is an in-house, agency, or freelance virtual assistant
– In-house virtual assistant
If you hired a virtual assistant on a full-time basis as an employee of your business with full benefits, then you’ve got yourself an in-house virtual assistant. Actually, when you do this, such an assistant loses the ‘virtual’ tag to become a good ‘ol assistant.
– Agency virtual assistant
Virtual assistants who set up shop with an agency are agency virtual assistants. These agencies act as intermediaries between them and clients like you.
– Freelance virtual assistant
When a virtual assistant operates independently without any intermediating company, they are effectively categorized as freelance. Freelance VAs may operate truly independently with their own website and business or via a freelance board like Fiverr or Upwork.
In-house vs. agency vs. freelance
What are the advantages of hiring an in-house VA?
An in-house VA is essentially a full-time assistant, so not exactly in the same basket as the other two. But, for the sake of clarity, I’ll still go over what you stand to gain and lose when you go this route.
– Seamless communication
One of the core tenets of a successful VA relationship is fluid and effective communication. Nowhere is this better obtained than with in-house VAs because, you know, they’re literally a few meters away from you.
In-house VAs remove the need for communication tools, which are sometimes cumbersome to run and never truly able to replicate the efficiency of in-person communication. I’m sure you’d agree with me that communicating your hotel room needs is something that’d be better said if you were talking to your assistant in person rather than virtually.
Proactiveness on the part of the VA
In-house VAs are with you as your run your business. And that allows them to pick on and handle tasks spontaneously without explicit delegation by you. Sometimes this can help smoothen out your workflow, and it’s certainly something you won’t get with other assistant categories.
An in-house VA can, for instance, automatically schedule a meeting with a new contact that hopped into your business building. They could reschedule meetings on a sick day even if you didn’t call in because they’ll be there in-house to know when you don’t show up to work.
Total commitment to you and your business
Freelance or agency VAs typically service more than one client at any time, usually with specific time allocations to each client. This means at some point, your needs as a person or business will play second fiddle, and that can affect your workflow or, worse still, impact business productivity.
In-house VAs are in-your-house usually with no other commitment than attending to your needs. You get full-on dedication to provide you with all the time savings and productivity boost you require.
In-house VAs connect better with your business and brand
When an assistant is in-house, it’s easier for them to get in character. Being in-house and with the exposure they get from interacting with other employees, customers, and service providers alike, they’re better positioned to understand your brand and all its defining traits.
The importance of this is stretched out. For one, being in the know of how your brand or person operates allows them to perform their VA duties at a higher efficiency. Then there’s the fact that many VA’s in their capacity act as some sort of personal or brand ambassador – the closer they are at replicating the original brand feel, the better it is for brand image.
What are the disadvantages of hiring an in-house VA
The cost, of course
Full-time employment status means this bunch of VA professionals are paid in full with benefits and all. In the United States, for instance, the average assistant earns anywhere between 60,000 to 70,000, according to data from ZipRecruiter.
If you’re a startup or small business trying to get your foot down, it’s hard to imagine you’d have a bulky $70,000 lying around for just VA services.
Limited skill set of available assistants
When hiring for an in-house assistant role, you’re pretty much limited to assistants available in your geographical region. Often, these potential hires are not the best fit for your business nor the best-skilled assistants available for hire. However, because you’re hiring for an in-house position, you’re forced to settle with someone from this bunch.
What are the advantages of hiring a freelance VA?
Most people will end up settling for a freelance VA for reasons including;
The cost
Of the three virtual assistant hiring options, freelance virtual assistants charge the lowest rates. It’s not uncommon to see a relatively skilled freelance virtual assistant quoting $10 per hour as their base rate.
There are many reasons for this, some of which I’ll touch on in later segments of this piece. But one major reason for the low charges is that freelance virtual assistants have the least overhead cost compared to the other virtual assistant groups.
An in-house VA would probably have to pay for commute coming into work every day. An agency virtual assistant remits commissions to their parent agency. On the other hand, a freelance virtual assistant simply has to set up shop at home and work from there. While they might get charged a commission on freelance sites like Fiverr, it pales in comparison to the huge payment cuts Agency virtual assistants have to shoulder.
Freelance is flexible
Most freelance virtual assistants offer their service on a pay-as-you-go basis, so you can hire a VA only when you need one. With agencies virtual assistant services are usually offered as a package where you pay lump sums for on-demand VA services over a specific period.
If your needs change within this period, maybe you realize you needed a vacation in the middle of summer, it’s hard to get a refund. Most agencies will flat-out refuse to cancel. Freelancers however, provide you with the flexibility to cancel anytime, reschedule, or sometimes postpone your contract, usually at no extra costs.
You’re open to an obscenely huge amount of VA talent
Like with most other professions, freelancing opens you up to a larger, more diverse pool of VA talents that’d been otherwise unreachable with other methods of hiring a virtual assistant. And, many of these VA’s are highly skilled.
Want a virtual assistant who’s good with all of Microsoft’s Office software? No problem. Want an excellent communicator who can also speak five languages? Totally possible. Heck, if you wanted a virtual assistant who was a software developer as well, you’d find one provided you searched deeply enough.
This is possible because the freelance model allows you to hire virtual assistants from third-world countries with not so huge living standards. Professionals in these countries can afford to take up virtual assistant roles as a side gig for the relatively huge financial rewards they get.
Freelance virtual assistants require little to no on the job training
Compared to the typical in-house assistant, a freelance virtual assistant requires almost no training or onboarding to start working. The best ones have been doing this all their lives, so they’re already acquainted with the ropes, tools, and carriage of being a virtual assistant.
This can translate to cost savings for you, the employer, in the long term. Hiring an already skilled virtual assistant cuts training costs and time, as well as the missed revenue or opportunities that might have passed as they learn the ropes.
What are the disadvantages of hiring a freelance virtual assistant
Freelance virtual assistants are unrepentant multitaskers
While that’s a good trait to have on its own, it means that the typical freelance virtual assistant shuffles more than one VA role at any point in time. You might be the day client, and someone else subs in as the night client or vice versa.
Of course, assisting virtually is not a high-skill job that requires so much focus, so concentration is not an absolute requirement. However, if your VA manages to onboard so many clients, it’s possible that they might begin to use the time paid for by you for someone else’s job.
Freelance virtual assistants find it harder to get into character
Some don’t even try to get in character at all. So most times, you end up with a cookie-cutter virtual assistant who treats your tasks like a robot or automated software would. Part of the reason for this is because freelance VAs are unlikely to service just you.
To complete the myriad tasks they sign up for and to fulfill their roles to their many employers, they need to spend the shortest time possible on each project. Often, that means cutting down on the extra time it’d take to get to know your brand better, understand tasks better, and ultimately get in character to assist efficiently.
There’s a risk of hiring a hack
The barrier of entry in the virtual assistant marketplace is extremely low – it’s mostly an unskilled profession. However, it’s still entirely possible to hire a freelance virtual assistant who’s totally out of touch with what it takes to be a virtual assistant. When you go freelance, you’re going to be dealing with many virtual assistants from third-world, underdeveloped countries. Some might be good, but a large proportion will be individuals who find it hard to communicate in proper English.
Some might be unfamiliar with technology and workplace communication tools. Others might be very poor communicators. If you made the mistake of hiring an unskilled (unskilled in the VA context), it’s a relationship that’s destined to end as a loss for you.
What are the advantages of hiring an agency virtual assistant?
There are several agencies online and offline acting as sweatshops for virtual assistants. Most are headquartered in developing and underdeveloped nations, but they still offer a unique value proposition.
Vetted and professional virtual assistants
The primary advantage of taking the agency route when hiring a virtual assistant is the fact that unlike freelance, which is akin to taking a shot in the dark, or in-house where you most likely would settle with an inexperienced VA, agency plugs you into a network of trained, tested and usually very experienced virtual assistants.
If you’re in the VA market for a seasoned professional who knows their onions and is a guaranteed effective communicator, then you’re probably better seeking a VA agency for your needs.
Hire en masse
Let’s say you wanted a team of virtual assistants, not just one virtual assistant. Going the freelance or in-house route will pretty much mean a stretched-out hiring process with stretched-out hiring costs. With an agency, all you need to do is provide your hiring requirements and settle the accompanying invoice.
Everything regarding the hiring, retainment, and mobilization of the VAs you need will be handled by the agency’s management. And for you, that translates to less stress and less money spent.
Stable rates if you’re looking for a long-term contract
Most freelance virtual assistants hike their rates based on the level of demand for their service. If business is going good expect a commensurate jack-up in pricing. It can be frustrating to pay $10 an hour this week and wake up to a $15 per hour bill next week.
With agencies, you’re shielded from this demand-based price markup – most set a fixed price that only fluctuates over long periods. And better still, you can purchase virtual assistant services in bulk, sometimes at a discount.
What are the disadvantages of hiring an agency virtual assistant
It can be expensive
Not because the VAs themselves price their service high, Nah. It’s mostly down to the overhead cost of running a virtual assistant agency. Management costs, marketing and advertorial costs, and what’s sometimes a huge markup on profits are eventually translated to you, the consumer.
So you’re not just paying for a virtual assistant service like you would do if you hired a freelancer. You’re paying for the cost of running these agencies. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially when you consider the added value you get courtesy of agency management.
There’s a limited tranche of talent
As was the case with in-house assistants, with agencies, you’re usually dealing with a cornered-off segment of the VA marketplace. This effectively limits the diversity of the VA talent available to you for hire. When dealing with one particular agency, you might not get the multi-language VA assistant you need to expand your business internationally or the dexterous assistant who can handle your bookings and document creation needs.
So which should you hire freelance, in-house, or agency
As with most things in life, the simple answer is it depends. It depends on your needs, your budget, and your expectation of what a VA should be able to achieve.
If you wanted a highly skilled virtual assistant, who’s flexible and, in some cases, easy on your pocket, you’d go the freelance route. Note, however, that this means you’d have to deal with all the accessory burdens of retaining a freelance VA, including but not limited to; fluctuating costs, less stability, and sometimes a lack of professionalism.
For business owners or persons with a set schedule that’s pretty much rigid over time, an agency virtual assistant should do the trick. You get to pay a fixed fee, and because this group of VAs are subject to regulatory oversight, you don’t get to deal with the unprofessionalism or instability commonplace in the freelance VA space.
For a more personalized virtual assistant experience, why not just hire a full-time assistant. You know, someone that’s with you through the day learning all that’s needed to function as a second you. Most senior-level executives take this route but remember it’s the most expensive option out of the bunch.