The core of the gig economy or freelancing industry is digital business. It is propelled by an inventive mix of different types of private consultants, internet site employees, contract business employees, on-call employees, and temporary staff. This sector is dominated by freelancers and virtual assistants.
When you first hear about working from home, you could become enthusiastic due to the advantages. Freelancer and Virtual Assistant, however, are very different from one another. So, if you are planning to hire any of these two, it would be beneficial to begin by determining if you have the capacity to do so and if you understand the goals of each entity. Hence, what distinguishes these two tenacious powerhouses of enterprise?
Virtual Assistants Vs Freelancers
Who Exactly Is A Virtual Assistant?
As the name implies, a virtual assistant is a virtual or remote worker who helps clients with a range of duties. A virtual assistant is a person who is contractually obligated to a business but is not necessarily “employed” by them. They all, with a few notable exceptions, carry out all of their work digitally, which is to say that they do all their tasks online and using other modern equipment.
Also, they help other individuals with their work and initiatives. They provide a greater scope of areas of expertise rather than just one specialized one. Virtual assistants are not business owners; rather, they are employees of the organizations they assist and manage.
Here are the services provided by a Virtual Assistant
Office And Administrative Work
- Documents management
- Data Entry
- Data Cleaning
- Database Management
- Graphic Design and Video Editing
Sales And Business Development
- Online Research
- Data Scraping
- Cold Emailing
- Outreach and Campaign Management
- CRM Management
Online Presence Management
- Customer Support
- Professional Content Creation
- Online Engagement
- Website Updates and editing
- User onboarding
Dedicated Personal Assistants
- Calendar Management
- Email Management
- Appointment Scheduling
- Travel Arrangement
- Social Media Management
What Is A Freelancer?
A type of independent contractor, the freelancer is allowed to choose whose business they work for, how much time they work for them, and how they are paid. As independent contractors, freelancers market their specific skills and are typically one-time solution provider.
They are not obligated to a certain business or person; hence it is typical for them to have a range of customers from multiple organizations. They can work remotely or on-site, based on the position, responsibilities, and the type of services they offer. And some of the services they offer includes:
- Customer relations.
- Graphic Design.
- Accountancy.
- Content creation.
- Search engine.
- Digital marketing.
- Content Management.
- Product Development.
Differences Between Virtual Assistants And Freelancers
Knowing what a freelancer and a virtual assistant are, we can see that they are very distinct from one another. Despite the fact that both virtual assistant and freelancer are home-based positions. We’ll go into great detail about how the two entities vary in order to provide further clarity.
Access To Several Skill Sets
Due to the fact that virtual assistants services have a wide range of functions, you can access a wide range of expertise right away when you work with a VA business. The fact is that you are actually working with a large skill pool rather than a single individual, so you may employ their services for anything from bookkeeping to blog authoring. A single contract might be used to organize this.
Additionally, skilled virtual assistants may help you with partner contact, investor scouting, competitive analysis, content creation, social media administration, and website upkeep. On the other hand, freelancers are only specialized in a particular field.
Availability
Due to their widespread hiring policies (because VA often hires globally), VA firms can frequently adjust to your preferred time zone and be present according to your schedule demands. However, given that freelancers are not bound by a contract and may have several clients; they may not always be willing to work during your hours of operation.
Protection Of Data
Strict confidentiality and data security agreements, as well as safeguards including secure file sharing platforms, are in place at VA enterprises. While there is no guarantee of data security for independent contractors due to a lack of a contract.
Final Thought
When marketing their specialized abilities, freelancers are not obligated and choose autonomous contracts, whereas virtual assistants have the choice of being hired by the businesses who engage them.
In order to manage your intense workload, employing a virtual assistant (VA) like the Shrewd Virtual Assistants can be of great benefit. While it’s wonderful to nurture your own ability, a skilled VA like the Shrewd Virtual Assistants can perform many wonders. They are able to assist you with a lot of things that you are unaware of.
