Freelance vs Agency: The Career Decision That Changes Everything

I am living the life that I wanted to live. One of the biggest reasons why we started the business is so that we can give freedom to business owners and give freedom to virtual assistants. That's what the common mistake is. Entrepreneurs who just start up, they don't have a lot of funds, they will just do it themselves and they're gonna go through trial and errors. And that's how I did it.

If you want to go model after success, already go with the agency because they already know what's happening.

I actually paid an agency. What really changes my mind is the truth that there's clients who are ghosting If you get a client who immediately say, hey, I'm gonna pay you $15 an hour, wow, alert, alert, alert, something's gonna happen.

What does earning more mean to you?

As an agency, it's kind of like you're coming to a university. Life is short. We only want to hang out with somebody who's cool. If you are not cool, then we won't want to work with you because life is short. We only want to work with the winners.

The agency will also provide you a consistent pay.

We decided to pay you once a week so you don't have to budget yourself. The better question is, what is the quality of life you're looking We lost $5 million. It took me 8 years to get back to where I am today. If you want a boring life, join the agency. I don't think there's a right or wrong. You choose your own path.

Choose your own poison. The choice is yours. Okay, hi, hi everyone! Welcome, welcome to our podcast again and again. And today we're gonna be talking about a different topic, but before we do that, this is something, you know, very interesting and very close to my heart because my friends have been asking. We do have a lot of applicants asking. I've been seeing it online myself, you know, people are asking which one to go to. And the topic I will discuss in a little bit, but before we proceed, of course, uh, I just want to greet you guys. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you guys are in this world. And of course, I'm Monique, and I am currently handling the operations, currently the CEO of a company based in United States. And of course, I have here our amazing, our lovable, our sweet kind, everything. And he's— she's also the smartest person I know in my life. Boss Phyllis, hi, hi! How are you today?

Hello, I am great, I'm great. So what are we talking about today, Monique?

But before we do that, boss, where are you? I'm very curious.

I am currently in Singapore. I am living the life that I wanted to live. One of the biggest reasons why we started the business is so that we can give freedom to business owners and give freedom to virtual assistants. So virtual assistants will be able to go travel around the world and still make ends meet. And as a business owner, you can travel around the world. So at this moment, I am in Singapore. Tonight, I'm going to go back to the US, and I just come back from Korea, Japan, and Malaysia.

Wow, if living the life is what you're looking for, that's living the life for sure. That's all we want as a virtual assistant myself. That's all we want for our clients. Right? Say yes, say yes if you agree with me. But for me, that is for sure. That's my wish and only goal for her, living the life. But anyways, boss, you asked me the question, what is our topic for today? So our topic for today is, you know, again, as I mentioned a while ago, very, very common to a lot of Filipinos, uh, ask— they are— sorry, they're asking this, uh, question a lot. Is it, uh, which one is more okay? Is it gonna be going in an agency, a VA agency? Because there's a lot of VA agencies already as well. Here in the Philippines, of course, or is it going to be going freelance, or it's more of a direct hire, like I find my own client, I work with them, you know, they pay me directly and things like that. So that's our topic for today, boss. So my question to you, boss, what—

yeah, and I think if you are new, right, like let's say you come from BPO industry or you are an OFW right now, Overseas Foreign Worker, Maybe Monique, you're gonna explain what do you mean by direct hire, freelancer, and agency worker so, you know, people have some context about it.

Okay, yes, so let me, let me differentiate the, the two, okay? The VA agency is usually if you are a virtual assistant, you go to an agency and then you ask them to find a job for you. So you give them all their qualifications. Of course, an agency will ask you for things like your, your videos, resumes, you know, some personality tests and things like that. Okay, I'll tell you what's the pros of having— of getting hired by an agency later on. And also the freelancer on the other side would be you find your own client, you go work with them directly, you know, you communicate with them directly, you negotiate your own rate and things like that. So again, we're gonna be giving you guys the pros and cons of of you as a freelancer finding your own client as well. Does that make sense, boss? Of course it makes sense.

Yes, it totally makes sense to me.

Okay, so because I'm in it. Yes, exactly. So that goes my question for you. As a client yourself, if you are going to hire a virtual assistant, are you going to hire someone— this is a very, you know, like, it's, I mean, there's no right or wrong answers, of course. But are you, are you gonna, are you gonna be hiring a VA directly, or would you like the VA to, to come from an agency?

Um, I think the correct answer is at the very beginning, um, I definitely will want to work with an agency because I don't know what I don't know. Um, unfortunately, when we first started, we just went for direct hires because, um again, we don't know what we don't know. And at that time, we do have a very limited budget too. So, you know, we're trying to save money, right? So we're just going straight to it. And that— I think that's what commonly the common mistake is, is, you know, entrepreneur who just start up, they don't have a lot of funds, they would just do it themselves and they were going to go trial and errors. And that's how I did it. Is it right or wrong? Well, based on how I am at this moment, I've been in business for 20 years. I realized and learned that pay for speed, pay for success is much better than trial and error. Okay, it's better than trial and error. Why do I say that? I almost, I didn't almost, I lost $5 million in one of our businesses because I was doing a lot of trial and error. And actually one of our clients, it's actually not our client, one of our client's friend went into a serious financial situation because they do not have the right protocol and safety to set up with their team, and as people take advantage of them. So if you ask me now of what, how much I have known so far, I would say if you're new, right, work with, work with an agency because they will guide you through it, and eventually if you want to really do direct hire, you could, but It does give us a lot of, um, security, safeness. Um, it's almost like hiring a babysitter to babysit my people so I can just focus on what I'm really good at, which is making a lot more money than, um, trying to work on things that I'm not doing. Yep. So the short answer—

that makes sense, boss—

is agency.

Agency. Especially if you are like, hey, you know, uh, I, I have the funds right now, I can, you know, if you want go model after success already, go with the agency because they already know what's happening. You know, they could do the dirty work for you. You know, not dirty work. Why did I say dirty work? They can do all the details. They could get— that's right. Actually, they could do all the work for you, get the personality test, watch the videos, you know, do the interviews, right? Things like that. But let me— other question for you, boss, since you have the experience as well. What is the difference of hiring a VA that comes from an agency and a VA that is a freelancer?

Again, since we have been in the industry for a while, right, we set up a lot of stuff. I would say direct hire is kind of like you just find a car on Facebook and you just like, I think this is a good car, I'm just going to buy it, and if something goes wrong, oops, too bad to be you. Right? Or you went to a dealership, a car dealership, and you know that they're well known, and they tell you, hey, everything is checked, everything's good, so just drive it out. So you drive out with confidence. I think that is a good analogy between direct hire, you know, like freelancer and agency.

I like that. You actually both— yesterday, this is just yesterday, okay? We have a client, as you guys know, we also have an agency of our own, of course. We have a client, they've been hiring, uh, they just, you know, sign up with us and then they're looking for a virtual assistant, of course. Now, we were about to hire the virtual assistant to them. Now, of course, as part of our process, we do check the VA's background, you know, not just the resumes and things like that. We also check their background, NBI, of course, as well. FYI, NBI is already— is something that we could check on our own as well. And we found out the VA has a case, existing case, and you know, existing case with a virtual assistant client as well. So it's like, imagine if the client was able to hire that VA and the VA was an accountant. This was a separate one, okay? But it's an accountant that they're hiring. Imagine the VA has a previous, the VA has an existing case. I think they've been wanting the VA to pay like $5 million, if I'm not— $5 point something million. Imagine if the VA, if the client did their own hiring, right? If their own hiring, they were about to hire the VA until as an agency we were able to catch that. So that's, you know, that's I think one of the advantages of having an agency as well, right? So again, we're not here to tell you guys, hey, go with the VA agency or go freelancing on your own. It's not like that. We're just showing you the pros and cons, okay? But anyway, so for our next topic, be the income reality. So of course, as a virtual assistant, we're all here because of the income, right? The income that it would generate us. And I would tell you, it's actually both, um, they're actually both profitable. However, which one would make you more money? Okay, that's, that's the question here. So the income reality, what's the actual earning difference look like between an agency and a freelance? What do you think, boss?

Actually, the truth is it is the same. It is the same. I said the same. If you are talking about the payment-wise, it is exactly the same because as an agency, we're also offering the rate that you want to be hired on, right? And then on top of that, we obviously take on our own fee. And the reason why we are able to take on our own fee is because we are a US-based company. We provide coaching, we provide experience, we also provide safety, right? Because you're working with a US company, not just any random person on the street. How can you trust this person? But they pay us as an agency because of that, right? And if you really want me to tell you which one you will really pay more, again, I personally think will be an agency. Because in the long term, if this client went missing, if this client all of a sudden don't like you anymore, if this client is like, man, uh, I don't have money to pay you. I mean, the reason why we become an agency, because at the very beginning we only do direct hires actually, because I don't really want to deal with it in the long term. But then what we found is that there's a lot of people that was working with you know, direct hires. Like, even some of the people that we actually have helped out before, and the client just ghost them afterwards, and we don't have the money to help them. We don't have the money to pay them. We did try, we did pay a couple of them because we felt really bad, but it's just not in a good business to do that. And that's the reason why, you know, when we were, you know, we have been in business for 5 years, at the very beginning we just wanted to do direct hire because I, I mean, Monique can share with you the story. I actually hated agency, right? I hated agency. I just feel like this is so wrong, right? We're charging people, you know, on top of the hourly rate, right? And after working with 2 years, it's like, man, you know, I wish I can give them, you know, like for us right now on birthday, we give people birthday cake, right? On Valentine's, we give them flowers, right? And then at the year end, we'll invite them for travels, but these things would not happen if we're not an agency because we need to make money to provide all these things. But what really changes my mind is the truth that, you know, there's clients who are, you know, ghosted the VAs and owe them money. And again, we're out of— it's out of our hand because we're not an agency. We do not have a lot of control Right? So then at the end, you know, me and Monique talk about it and we just decided that, man, you know, we need to be an agency because then we can really properly take care of you. Kind of like in United States, a lot of the company, a lot of the worker work with the union, okay, work with the union. A lot of people in United States also work as employee and not a contractor, right? And the reason being is it's just another layer of protection, right, for us. Yeah, why do I say agency technically pay you more? Because it also pay you confident that, hey, you have vetted this client, because if this client is no good, you can always come to us. Um, it gives you security because if this client decided not to pay you— actually, if the client decided not to pay us, we still pay you, right? Because ultimately we are the one that you work with. And I have done that before. Yes, absolutely. And if the client is like, you are not cool, I don't want to work with you anymore, we will find you another client. So in the long term, yes, with effort-wise, I personally believe that working with an agency, you make more because we house a lot of freelancers actually right now. And we're like, why do you want to work with agency? Because I thought you make more. Freelancing. He's like, yeah, but then I have to deal with clients. Sometimes I find the wrong clients because they don't filter, right? You don't have to filter clients. You're just very thankful that you have a client. And some of them was like, boss, like I work with people for, or I work with the client for a month and then they just fired me. And I know one of the big point that I wanted to bring back to this too is some, sometimes VAs is like, yeah, but agency doesn't make you know, pay me that much. Freelancer make me more. Well, let me share with you another perspective. Just like what I talked to Monique, you know, I just shared with you previously. A lot of time when they do direct hires is because they don't have the money or the budget, right? So they are hiring their own.

Yes.

At the very beginning when they're hiring, they're like, oh my gosh, this thing is really cheap, right? And they will hire you and they probably will pay you double They probably will pay you double because it's like, oh my gosh, this is already cheaper. And after they go into it, two things happen. One is they realize that they are paying you way more than the market value, so they either request you to do more things, or deep down they're just like, oh man, I got a wrong deal because they were too excited. They're too excited to say yes to you instead of doing, um, um, research. Ask me how I know. Because I was that person, right? Or second thing is because they are new, so they might have some budget challenge. Because for us in our agency, we work with only successful, mature business owners, people that already have money, okay? Because we work with Tony Robbins, Russell Brunson, so they are all proven success clients that come to work with you. But if you get a client who immediately say, hey, I'm gonna pay you, I don't know, $15 an hour, well, alert, alert, alert, something's gonna happen. Because eventually they're like, well, don't think you're worth it, or I realize that I run out of money in my bank account. Because entrepreneur is really bad at budgeting. And what happened? They will either tell you, I'm sorry, I gotta let you go, or they will ghost you. And that ghosting thing happened quite a bit in this industry, and ultimately that's the main reason why we decided to start the agency, so that it's almost like a union. Like, want to make sure that you are protected. And again, the fee that we charge is on top of your agreed rate, has nothing to do with you. Yes, we're just charging the clients for the service and the certainty and the quality they're looking for. And in return, we're training the VAs on what they need to do so that they won't get fired, so that they won't get upset customers, right? Monique, what about you?

Yes, yes, I totally agree. And let me just add the bonuses that BOSS mentioned. Sorry, I just want to pinpoint that we also— BOSS also provides a bonus on a yearly basis as well, not just the anniversary, not just the 9-month, you know, there's a lot of bonuses involved in the agency. Plus, he also gives out a, what do you call it, like the Christmas bonus as well. Usually some of the clients, FYI, if they are in the United States, they don't usually give that because 13th month pay is not a thing to them. Okay, not in the Philippines, they are not aware what's a 13th month, but you know, with someone like Boss who knows what's a 13th month fee is, of course it's not the same, but it's similar to it. Okay, so that's something that also boss gives out. And then another one also on the same topic on the income would be, I think it depends on what is earning more mean to you. Is it earning more right, like right now? Because hey, my client is paying me more and then let you go later because they do not have a budget anymore, and then you will find your own client. And then the same thing, like especially right now in the VA world, it's hard to get a client. Like if someone let you go today, do you think you can find another one immediately by tomorrow, it's really, really hard already. But of course, with an agency, usually it is consistent. You know, usually you have a peace of mind that, hey, they will find me a client. Hey, if the client will let me go, I still have a pay this coming weekend, right? So again, it like— by the way, guys, for me, I've been here for a while, more than a decade for sure. If you're gonna ask me, of course, if I want to do freelancing or agency, looking at what we have right now as a company, I will definitely choose someone who would help me out, build me up. We do have trainings. You don't have to find AI training on your own. The agency will provide you all those trainings for you as well. So, right, the agency will keep you on top of what you need to know as a, as a VA, as a person. So that goes to our next question, boss. What does an agency usually— what does an agency actually offer right now?

What does an agency offer right now? I don't know about other agencies. I heard a lot of, you know, about everybody else, but I only know us, right? As an agency, it's kind of like you're coming to almost like a university, you know. We will qualify you first. And then we will provide you the know-how, especially if you're new, right? How do you set up your computer?

Yes.

How do you save your, your files? What kind of safety precaution you need to do? How do you read and understand your clients? How do you communicate with them? How do you act confidently and be confident, right? And, um, they're just so much more. And then, you know, We also have a 30-day training that is daily, and afterwards is weekly for the lifetime of you with us. And then weekends we also have AI training, and every quarter we also have meetup. So you'll meet up with the people around your area. And Christmas we have, you know, parties, you know, Thanksgiving we also have parties. So we have quite a bit of things, you know, that is provided in our agency. I can't tell you what other agencies doing. I can tell you that this agency will focus on looking for the right people because life is short. We only want to hang out with somebody who's cool, cool just like you. But if you are not cool, then we won't want to work with you because life is short. We only want to work with the winners. We only want to work with the friendly one, you know. We only want to work with people who truly care about us because We care about you.

I like that. And yes, the agency will, will set you up for success. That's, that's for sure. Those trainings, you know, those trainings that we provide, those qualifications that we ask, is because we want to set you up for success for sure. Okay, and one thing I think very, very crucial— this is still connected to the last, last question— we also, the agency will also provide you a consistent Constant pay. What does that mean? You get paid on a weekly basis. We pay you guys on a weekly basis. Okay, so there's an accounting team working, making sure you get what you work for. I mean, right? So you don't have to wait for a month, of course. So I mean, I think that's, that's very exciting. Every week you know that you have a pay.

I think out of the 5 years that we have been running the agency We only delay twice because of bank, uh, you know, uh, bank issue that is down. But we only have twice that would delay like a couple days. But other than that, every majority of the time, I would say 90% of the time, we pay you earlier instead of on time. Uh, so everybody loves it. And we also know that Filipinos are not really good with budgeting, so we decided to pay you once a week so you don't have to budget yourself. If you work, your money is going to Okay, boss is very humble.

She said, uh, we delayed 2 times in 5 years. Actually, it's not. So you— the, the VA that we hired are getting paid a day or 2, a day earlier. So that delay is actually the one that we promise, the day that we promise we should pay you. But as boss is doing it, of course she's gonna pay us earlier. And that's why she said it's delayed, but actually, you know, the honest truth is it's not even delayed. It is actually just on time. Okay, it's definitely not delayed. Okay, so now let's talk about the freelance VA. So what do you think both are the pros of being a freelancer? Of course, you're not, you're the boss, you're not supposed to answer that. So let me start first. Okay, so the pros of being a freelancer for me, As I mentioned a while ago, there's a potential of a higher income, but actually it depends if you have been a virtual assistant for a while, because you know how to find your own client already, right? But when you're starting, it's, you know, some VAs that I know of started at $1, $2 because you're still building yourself up, right? Unlike, of course, if you have experience already, you can find your own client and you think you're strong enough to, be able to match yourself with the client. I think that's a pro of being a freelancer. Another one would be you build your own brand and reputation. You can, again, you can have your own lineup of clients. You can go ahead and get, I don't know, 5 clients if you want to. I know some of them are doing that. It's not very healthy, of course, but if that's one thing that you want to do, go for it, right? Yeah, you can definitely earn more if you do that. I don't think it's healthy for me. I always stand for you cannot serve two masters, okay? Definitely not. At least that's for me. Another one would be, of course, there's no cut on the rate, but as Boss already mentioned a while ago, the rate of the agency, I mean, I don't think, I don't know about the other agencies, the other agencies that I know of, they usually have a cut on the VA's pay. However, for us, we do not have a cut on your pay. We just charge the client a separate fee. Okay, so yeah, but for some, I think if your rate is, let's say, $5, the agency has a cut of $2, $3, or $4. You know, you get the remaining amount. So I do know some agencies like that. But for you, Boss, what do you think are the pros of you know, doing freelance, freelancing.

I think this is a good analogy. Well, I'm the oldest in my family, and I left my home pretty early on, so I have to start my own business, okay? And this by far is the most successful business that I have. But this is after 20 years of trial and error. I start first one, I fail. I start the second one, I fail. I start the third one, I fail. I start the fourth one, I fail even harder. I start the fifth one, right now I think we are better, right? And my sister who live in Singapore took over my mother's business. She took over my mother's business. So what happened? She started a business, she succeeded. She immediately go up on the, the, the success curve because somebody's guiding you. You did this wrong. This is how you're supposed to do it. You know, this is how you— this is the form that you need to do. Oh, this client's not that good. This is what you need to say or disengage and fire them immediately. I wish I was somebody that told me all that stuff. Because my sister is 8 years younger than me and she made way more money than me when I was her age. And I've been through a lot of like tough time. She work, she travel, she spent a lot of money on beauty. And to me it's like, man, if I would have known this, maybe I'll just come back and take over my mother business. This is so much easier, right? But again, it is just really depending on you. Are you kind of the people where you just wanted to trial and error, right? You just love when you grow and fail and grow and fail, or do you just want something a little bit more comfortable, right, and allow somebody to tell you things and, and you're okay with people, you know, making money while you work, right? But again, What other company doesn't do that? If you work at Coca-Cola factory, if you work as an admin assistant, if you work at a restaurant as a chef, if you work as a receptionist, I mean, the company has to make money to pay you. What's the difference between, you know, the agency too, right? And I do believe that freelancer is a little bit more free because because you're your own boss, so you set your own schedule, your rules, your system. I think that again, just like what Monique said, there's pros and cons, right? The freedom also comes with challenges because you don't know what you don't know. You might be me, you know, fail 5 times and then finally say, ah, now I know, I get it, now I know how to become a freelancer. I know which kind of clients I should work with, which kind of client I shouldn't work with. And when Monique talked about like 5 different clients. My question to everybody is, you only have a set amount of time. Everybody only has 24 hours a day. So whether you work with 1 client or 10 clients, you only have 24 hours a day. So then the better question is, what is the quality of life you're looking for? Again, if you are single, I think that's great. You have 5 clients, you're consistently like checking your phone because one of the clients is definitely going to message you, right? So you do not have a rested brain. Right? You're just always in the fight mode because you don't know what's gonna happen. Or, you know, like for me right now, for Monique right now, like, hey, when we sleep, we're just going to sleep. When we go vacation, we're just only gonna go vacation. We're not worried about it, we're not gonna think about it because we have this safety net, we have that security in our heart. The quality of our 24 hours, it's much better working with 1 or 2 people. For me too, like, I'm only— I only have 1 business I used to have 5 businesses because it made me feel so good. Oh my gosh, I have 5 businesses. But 5 businesses add together doesn't make— doesn't equate to the amount of money that I made as a business owner right now doing one business. But again, it is different for everybody. Is there a right and wrong answer? It's kind of parenting. There's not really a right and wrong. We just want to give you the inside scoop so that you can save time, trial and error, Because again, if you have time, I'd rather you spend it with your parents. I'd rather you spend it with your children. I'd rather you spend it with your friends. I'd rather you spend it with yourself. I'd rather you, you know, spend it with, I don't know, your phone watching social media or movies than, you know, crying on the side like, oh my gosh, I wish I've known this. Oh my gosh, I just wasted 3 years of my life or 5 years of my life, right? Because sometimes that's how I feel. Like, no, my gosh, you know, the last business that we failed— I failed— we lost $5 million. It took me 8 years to get back to where I am today. 8 years. Would you like to do that?

Wow.

Or would you like to be guided, right? So again, choose your own battle. I was the not too smart one, and I got smarter now, so I'm now paid for. Coaching and pay for advice and pay for services.

Yes, I love the analogy, boss. So choose your own poison. Would you like the comfortable life or would you like to grow on your own? You know, you know, fight the battles in life, you know, trial error, grow and grow. And it should be a growth that is intentional, okay? Unlike, of course, in the agency, it is It's not being forced, but it is given to you. You just have to, you know, you just have to eat it because it is already being provided. Another one that I want to mention, but since you already mentioned some of the pros of having an agency as well, is, you know, besides the steady income that I mentioned a while ago, which is, you know, a weekly pay, you're assured that you have a pay on a weekly basis, you know, the clients are being matched for you. So that means, you know, you will have the you know, if you have a talent manager that is doing the hiring for you as well, we already checked your personalities, we know you guys are a match, we know that you have the qualities that they're looking for, so it's not like, oh, later on you found out you guys are totally not a match with the client as well. Another one is, one thing that I'm very proud of is the community that we have. You know, the VA agency community that would lift you up, you know, you go to a lobby, there's someone who's very joyous greet you, you know, there's someone who would help you when you have questions regarding a task. You know, you, you, you hear their stories and you cry, you laugh, you know, you get mad with them. I think that's a totally different community that if you're freelancing, you cannot do that. Okay, you deal with your, you know, with one-on-one with your boss the whole time with the tasks that you have, right? But of course, with an agency, you have a community. We do celebrate Christmas together, you know, Christmas party, Halloween. I mean, how would you do your own, you know, Halloween costumes or not? I don't think so. But that's fun, right? And we do have contests, we do have, you know, awards, gifts. I think that's fun to share with someone. It's not just on your own, you know. So I think for me, that's at least, you know, that's what I like about the agency. Now let's talk about the pros— the cons, boss. Let's talk about the cons of um, let's do an agency first. What do you think? So the agency, what are the cons of, of being in an agency?

Don't join the agency if, you know, uh, I think don't join the agency if you like to be a real boss, right? Uh, if you wanted to have your own rules, you want to have your own culture. Yeah, you want to be the boss eventually for yourself. Right, uh, we do have a lot of people that at the end didn't really work out with us because agency, we do have rules, right? We want you to— for us, we have time blocking. For us, we also have, um, you know, um, time, uh, you know, like screen recording, right? For us, we also have agreement, non-disclosure. We have a lot more rules compared to freelancer. Because again, if something goes wrong, we want to make sure that you are not reliable, uh, you're not liable for any mishap. Uh, you know, the truth is most of the clients are not good with cybersecurity. They don't know what email to click, what email to not click, and, um, but when they click on it, the first thing that they thought of is, ah, It's my freelancer. Must be him or her that make that mistake, right? What are you gonna say? How would you fight for yourself? Would you be able to fight for yourself, right? And for us, some people say, well, you know, like, Phyllis, you have so much rules that you have so many things to sign. I say, yeah, because 99% of the time you're not going to use it, but when that 1% happened, that's when we can fight for you to the battle, right? Because even though in United States is you are guilty when you're being charged, but in the real world, yeah, guilty if you do not protect yourself and show us that you're not the one that's doing it, right? So I think that's a very important piece of the puzzle. So if you don't like rules, you like to just work, you don't like liability. And I think this is a great analogy too, compared to, um, are you— do you like to ride a motorcycle, or do you like to ride, uh, or are you— do you want to drive with a car? Nothing wrong with motorcycle, that's not what I'm saying. But if we both got into—

I like that—

which one get hurt more? Right? People that is in a motorcycle, because there's no protection, right? There's maybe some protection. I know you will probably have a helmet, have like a jacket, right? But the car is heavy metal, right? So the survival rate of driving a car is more. To me, that's how it is. It's a little clunky, traffic is bad, gas is more, right? But if something really truly happened, again, accident doesn't happen all the time, right? But it's just that one time, it's well worth it. So to me, I feel like, again, you know, from my agency, I can't vouch for any other agency because there's some crooked agency out there, right? Um, so agency is kind of like a car, and a freelancer is kind of like a, you know, a motorcyclist. You get there faster, it's cheaper, but that, you know, you have to make sure that you drive safe, you know how to drive first, and you have to make sure that other people drive safe. Because a lot of time it wasn't you that caused the accident, it was the other person that was driving the car, getting too comfortable, looking around, or talking to their husband, or fighting with husband, and did not see you. And they hit you.

I totally agree. Again, I love Boss's analogy for sure. For today we have a lot of analogies, but one thing that I want to add as on the pros of, you know, having an agency. If you do not like feedback, please do not get yourself in an agency. If also you do not like to follow someone else's system and rules, do not be in an agency. Because as an agency, the agency will set you up for success. So that means, as Boss mentioned, they would ask you, they would ask ask you to follow some system that already work. Of course, they would ask you to, um, they would give you the feedback so you could improve. But of course, if you do not like feedback and you feel like you're so good, you know, you could do it on your own, of course do not join the agency. Because the agency, that's one, what's, uh, that's one thing that the agency will provide you, feedback. They will tell you, hey, you should fix your camera first. Hey, you know, that's good, come on.

If you want a boring life, join the agency. If you want, you know, spicy life, up and down life, be a freelancer because there's going to be a lot of things that you're going to learn and a lot of things you're like, oh my gosh, what is going on with that?

Yes. Okay, and for the last part, boss, before we, we say our verdict, of course, of which one do you think is best, for the cons on the freelance, I think I've addressed quite a bit at the very beginning on, you know, accounts of being a freelancer.

Just kind of what I use for the analogy of the motorcycle. It is fast. Yes, yes, it is, you know, it is cheap, right? You can roam around and you really feel really romanticized on a motorcycle, but it also comes with a lot of risk that you might or might not already aware. And, you know, 2 years ago my husband fell almost died, right, from indoor rock climbing. I remember the person before that and the person after that right now because the person before, I love skydiving, I love roller coaster, I was thinking about going to bungee jump because I never thought that I would be the one. What is the odds of me getting hurt? One out of what, 1,000, 2,000, a million? Like, come on, I'm not gonna be the one that is so unlucky, right? And when after my husband fell, almost died in front of my face, I recognized that if you tell me to go skydiving right now, I would say no. I even noticed that even if you tell me to go roller coaster, I will say no because I be, you know, my husband become the one, the one that got hurt. And now I don't know whether you want to call it PTSD or not, but I'm afraid. I'm afraid to, to take the risk anymore, you know, to take the risk now. And, um, again, is all of you gonna be unlucky? No, right? Probably one of a thousand that is listening to here today that is that unlucky freelancer. Majority of you guys are gonna be like, bullshit, Phyllis, like, I was so lucky. I, you know, I rode a motorcycle for 30 years, never got into a scratch in my life. Most of you guys are going to be like that. The reason why we're sharing with you all these things is so that you are aware of what is and what is not, right? Kind of like when, you know, my best friend, you know, have a C-section of a baby, I have a natural birth. We make our educated decisions because we know what's the pro and the cons of each way to deliver babies, right? So then we make our own decisions. So I personally, I don't think there's a right or wrong, right? You choose your own path, you choose, you know, all your own flavor. Um, and I'm glad that we have an agency because we want to help out with the people that do not, do not really like to speak up, right? Maybe get used to taking, you know, being taken advantage of. People that is quiet, right? We love to take care of them. That's why we started the agency. And there's also people who are very bold, doesn't mind burning the bridges, and know for a fact that it's not gonna get taken.

Yeah.

And that'll be great for you to be a freelancer. I mean, the truth is Monique is the best quality candidate to be a freelancer. Just glad that she's working with me. Technically, she's working with me as a freelancer, not an agency.

Right, I agree. Yes, yes, actually, boss, um, let's— a freelancer but under an agency. I don't know if that makes sense, but I think it is like that. But one thing that I also want to mention on the cons, guys, would be The client hunting never stops when you're doing freelancing. It's one of the cons for sure, because as I mentioned a while ago, you're never sure if you're gonna be on that client, you know, for long term. Another one is you find your own client. Where do you find a client right now? Like, everyone is looking for a client right now, so it never stops for you. So again, that's one of the hard parts of being a freelancer because no one's gonna help you. You have to find your own client. Unlike, of course, in an agency, they have their own pool of clients already. Of course, they have their own pool of applicants, so if you're considered one of the applicants, you will be always considered to their clients, especially if you're a good one. Okay, we always recommend the good ones to our clients for sure. Okay, and then another one that I mentioned of a cons of being a freelancer, which I think I already mentioned a while ago, is also no team, no backup. It's all on you. I have a lot of VAs that are going through me for trainings. Miss Mo, I do not know how to do this thing on Kajabi, blah blah. I mean, we hired that person as a Kajabi person to that client, but here she is. Imagine you're already the specialist and you're still needing help. That help you have with an agency. Of course, when you're a freelancer, please, you need to be very good at ChatGPT, whatever, you know, AI there is in the world, you have to know because you are on your own. You have to figure figure out everything on your own. Unlike with an agency, of course, that's already being— the help is already being provided to you, right? So I think that's one of the costs as well. And now if you're gonna ask me, of course, if you're gonna ask me, is it gonna be a freelancer or an agency? It's up to you. So just like what Boz already mentioned a while ago, you choose your own path, you choose your own clients, you choose your own You choose your own battles, you choose your own poison, right? So the choice is yours. We have already laid out to you what is the pros and cons of having an agency and what is the pros and cons of being a freelancer. That is already mentioned to you. Now it is up to you which one you want to go to, whichever it is. Of course, we all have our different personalities. Like for me, I would definitely choose, of course, the agency path. It's because it's what I'm in right now, and I know what we can provide to you guys. But of course, the freelancers also has its own benefits. Again, if you are very free-spirited, you know, you can take everything on your own, to do things on your own, be a freelancer. Especially if you could take, you know, a lot of clients, do not rest or anything. I'm not saying do not rest, but you could multitask a lot, you know, juggle a lot of things at the same time. Go for it. But if you want what Voss mentioned a while ago, the comfortable life, you know, the security, the consistency, of course go with the agency. So my answer is it's up to you. Your life, your choice. So what about you, Voss?

Yes, exciting life freelancer, boring life comfortable life agency, right? But again, do your own choices, do your own homework, work because different agencies have different things. Some agency is very pro-clients, some agency is very pro-VAs. So again, just, you know, check out their website, see what they are really for, right? Who are their clients? Are they working with startup clients? Are they working with experienced clients? Are they working with clients who are always happy like us? Yeah. Clients who just want to penny pinch you every single time, right? And that's how you are going to figure, you know, that's how you're going to figure it out. And, you know, there's no right answer. It's just what makes you truly happy.

Absolutely. I love that last part for sure, boss. So that's it for today, boss. Thank you so much for joining us today. I know you've been traveling. I know you're in Singapore right now. You're walking, you might be doing other, you know, errands right now, But here you are joining us today and giving us a lot of value. Thank you, thank you so much. We love you so much, Boss Phyllis. And that is for today's topic. Like, subscribe to our channel, of course, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. We're all over the world. Please do subscribe so you could, uh, see all our updates. Thank you so much for joining us today, and we'll see you on the next one. Bye!