Episode 114: What Are the Differences Between Becoming a Virtual Assistant and Joining a Direct Sales/MLM Company?

In today’s quick tip Thursday episode on the Ditch the Classroom podcast, I’m answering the question “What are the differences between becoming a Virtual Assistant and joining a direct sales/MLM company?”

I was in direct sales for 3 years before becoming a Virtual Assistant and I can tell you – there’s a lot of differences.

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Have any questions for me? Feel free to send me an email at arianna@ariannavernier.com or on Instagram @arianna.vernier! I love chatting with y’all and helping you hit the ground running. Are you ready? Let’s go.

Love,

Arianna

Full Episode Transcription:

(00:07):
Welcome everybody back to another episode of Quick Tip Thursday here on the Ditch the Classroom podcast. Today’s question is one that I got from somebody asking about the difference between becoming a virtual assistant and joining a direct sales or an MLM company. I don’t know if y’all know this, but I was actually in direct sales for three years. And in that three years, I literally only made about $2,000 total. Most of which I spent on buying more products back from their company. So I’m here to tell you that virtual assistance is very different from that. You can make that amount a lot faster.

(01:59):
Actually, as a virtual assistant, I exceeded the amount I made from direct sales in just three months of becoming a virtual assistant. So that just goes to show you right there how virtual assistance is different. But I do have three key differences that I want to walk y’all through. So in direct sales. So number one, indirect sales, you work for a specific company. As a virtual assistant, you own and run 100% of your business. There’s nobody telling you when you’re working. There’s no people you’re working under or earning money for. You simply do work for businesses in exchange for payment. You have clients, you do work for them. They pay you. Okay.

(02:51):
The second key difference between direct sales companies and becoming a virtual assistant is that in direct sales, they decide how much you make through their compensation plan. As a virtual assistant, you choose how much you get paid. And when you want to raise your rates and you also earn 100% of the income you charge, which as y’all know is very different than direct sales. If you sell a $25 product, you’re probably only making 20% of that, but with your clients, if you’re charging $25 an hour, you’re getting 100% of that amount minus taxes, but whatever. Okay? So it’s a lot easier to make income as a virtual assistant, because again, you are getting 100% of what you charge.

(03:45):
The third key difference is that in direct sales, they decide what products to create that you can then turn around and promote. But as a virtual assistant, you get to decide what services you wanna offer and you can change what services you offer at any time. So if you start out, for example, as a social media manager and realize that you don’t really love doing that, you can change and pivot to whatever you wanna do. Whereas if you’re in a direct sales company, if they have products that you at first loved, but then you kind of change your mind. You’re kind of stuck or you have to quit. You know? So those are the three key differences between becoming a virtual assistant and being in a direct sales company.

(04:32):
Real quick, let me recap those. So in direct sales, you work for a company. As a virtual assistant, you run your own business. In direct sales, they decide how much you make through their compensation plan, but as a virtual assistant, you get to choose how much you get paid and you get a hundred percent of the income you charge. And then in direct sales, they decide what products to create that you can promote, but as a virtual assistant, you decide what services you want to offer. Okay? So I hope that made it a little more clear for y’all to understand the differences. The truth is they are not alike at all. So just wanted y’all to understand that. And I do invite you if you have not participated yet to come and watch my free workshop to teach you how to become a virtual assistant and start working from home in six months or less. So go check that out. It’s at ariannavernier.com/free-workshop. That’s a-r-i-a-n-n-a-v-e-r-n-i-e-r.com/free-workshop.

(05:43):
And in that workshop, I’m gonna teach you where to find paying clients so that you can replace your income quickly. I’m gonna teach you what services a virtual assistant can offer and help you figure out what services you would love to offer. And we’re gonna cover the three mistakes that new virtual assistants make. So you could avoid them and save time and money. So go check that out again. You can find that link in the show notes, or just go to ariannavernier.com/free-workshop. All right. And if you have a question you would like to submit for Quick Tip Thursday, I invite you to come into our free Facebook community. That’s facebook.com/groups/ditchtheclassroom, all one word, and just scroll to the Quick Tip Thursday post, drop your question, and I would love to answer it here on the podcast. All right, y’all. I love you so much. Thank you so much for tuning in. It makes my heart so happy and we will see you next time.