At VaVa Virtual Assistants, we hire highly-skilled professionals who deserve to get the most out of their experience. Some of our team members will go on to start their own companies or have picked VaVa as a way to avoid the hassles of finding their own clients.

Others appreciate the support of our community that helps them serve their clients better. We want to share a few reasons why working for an agency as a Virtual Assistant has many benefits over trying to do it all yourself.

1. Let an Agency Source Clients For You

If you’ve ever tried to get clients on your own, you know how much of a headache it can be. First, you’ve got to market yourself enough to get the attention of clients. That means a website, social media, networking, email marketing, and more.

Then, you have to follow up and nurture your leads. Some leads will drop off right away, while others might string you along for a while. Even once someone does commit, they might be a flaky client who bails without paying for the next month.

Unfortunately, the process of sourcing clients for yourself is all unpaid labor when you own the company. One of the best things about working with an agency is that you’re given clients who are ready to go and have been vetted already. There might have been ten other prospective clients that we talked to just to get that one, but when you’re part of an agency like VaVa, you don’t have to worry about the initial sourcing of a new client at all.

Plus, you get more flexibility with which clients you want to work with and how much you want to work. You can get up to full-time pretty quickly with an agency that has already laid the groundwork to bring in clients for you. You can even mention if you have particular hobbies or interests that might be suited to incoming clients.

2. Receive Continued Support

When you’re on your own, you’re on your own. You might eventually grow your business to a point where you have a team behind you, or you could have a friend or mentor that gives you advice, but it’s not the same support that you get from agency life.

At VaVa, when you have a question about your project or how to handle a client, you can reach out to our full community of assistants, bookkeepers, and creatives for support. There’s a Slack channel full of people willing to give their recommendations on software or resources that can guide you along as things change.

Our team also gives out encouragement and kudos when we know that you’re doing a great job. It can be a lot of fun to have a whole crew around you. We’ll be there celebrating your success, asking about your weekend, and creating those inside jokes that keep the day positive. Sometimes, it’s just nice to have people you can vent to that understand exactly where you’re coming from too. When you’re on your own, it’s hard to get that kind of support

The support from VaVa also includes opportunities for professional development. If we hear that our team has been struggling with something, we’ll bring in experts to talk through the best way to handle it and we financially support other learning opportunities as they arise.

3. Get Help with Client Management

While you’re working with your clients day in and day out, you’ll also have the support of the VaVa team to handle any sticky situations. If a client is giving you a hard time, has unrealistic expectations, or is trying to get you to go beyond the agreed-upon hours, you have an extra line of defense when you’re part of an agency.

Our Account Success Managers can jump in on meetings with you and help put out any fires that arise. Sometimes, it’s nice to have another voice that can prove your point or external boundaries that you can use to maintain your relationship with the client.

4. Maintain Schedule Flexibility

You might think that owning your own business would give you more flexibility than working with an agency, but the opposite is actually true. If you own your company, you’re the one in charge when a crisis comes through, and if you don’t have a team behind you, you’ll have to be the one to help during the unexpected.

With an agency, you can get another skilled VA to take over your account while you’re out of the office and even let the VaVa team know your vacation schedule so that your client has plenty of support while you’re out. No more having to check your email while you’re on vacation!

Plus, an agency has work that can be adjusted depending on the busy periods of life. If your kids suddenly need more attention, you can decide to take on fewer clients or have another VA step in for support.

5. Avoid Unnecessary Overhead Expenses and Tasks

There’s a lot that goes into managing a company aside from just the client work. You’ll have to deal with invoicing, bookkeeping, contracts, website updates, employee management, and more. These tasks require software with monthly fees or people you have to pay on top of your normal operating expenses.

Not to mention, these elements take some extra time. When it’s not time that you’re spending working with a client, you’re not directly paid for that time. It’s just something you do on top of your normal job.

Many Virtual Assistants excel when doing work for clients, but might not have the most experience running a business themselves. Working for an agency gives you the option to just focus on client work instead of any of those business operations tasks.

Agency Life or Business Owner

This is not to scare you away from being a business owner. For many, that can be a really great fit. We just want to share some of the benefits that you’ll see from working with an agency. While you might be able to charge more as your own business, there are some added steps and stress that come along with being a business owner.

If you’re someone who really wants to focus on the great work that you do for your clients and doesn’t want to spend time outside of that worrying about things you might not be an expert at, agency life is a great fit.

It could also be a good place for you to get started. It lets you get used to the systems and decide what parts of the work you really want to focus on and how much support you want from others.

If you’re interested in taking advantage of all of the benefits above, join us as a contractor.