Valentina Akpan: Founder of Rellatech, providing administrative and operations support to executives, founders, business owners and teams. Her background combines technical support, customer success, administration and operations.
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Begin with the work, availability and responsibility your business needs. "Virtual assistant" describes a role or way of delivering support; it does not automatically establish whether someone is an employee or self-employed.
For Canadian arrangements, the actual working relationship matters. Use the CRA's employment-status guidance when assessing the distinction.
Define the coverage required
List recurring tasks, deadlines, periods of live availability and the decisions the person will make. Identify whether the work is stable, variable or tied to a particular project. Include the coordination and review time needed from your existing team. A short task list may still require substantial availability if requests are urgent or unpredictable.
Compare complete arrangements
For an employed role, assess the compensation, applicable employer costs, equipment, onboarding and coverage required for your situation. For an external provider, assess the proposed fee, capacity, deliverables, service windows and additional charges. Do not compare unlike scopes or assume a fixed percentage describes every employer's costs.
Consider continuity and ownership
Ask who maintains documentation, how access is managed, how absences are covered and what happens when needs change. These questions matter in either arrangement. There is no universal weekly-hours threshold at which one option becomes correct. The working relationship and the business requirement need to be assessed together.
Working with Rellatech
I provide administrative and operations support through agreed service scopes. We discuss the responsibilities, availability and fee before starting so you can assess whether the arrangement fits your needs. You can view support options.
Book a free callTell me what needs attention and which tools you use. I review inquiries personally and normally reply within one business day with the next step. Any detailed audit or implementation is scoped separately.
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