Pros and Cons of Arise Virtual Solutions from a Personal Perspective

I got curious about Arise Work From Home and registered as an IBO after seeing a lot of hype about them on different platforms online. My intention was to go through the whole process and have a feel of how it works; the training, certification, actual work and determine if it’s really legitimate. I found out that there are areas that are different from what their advertisements portray once you start working with them. Well, it’s legitimate and as expected, they have their pros and cons which I will discuss below.

Pros

Be Your Own Boss

One of the major advantages of working with Arise is that you can be your own boss. You have the opportunity to run the show. 

Make Your Own Schedule

The second advantage is that you can make your own schedule. You can do this by deciding when you want to clock in to work or when you want to clock out. 

Business Opportunity

The third advantage is that it gives you a platform for a business opportunity by having people working under you. 

Work from the Comfort of your Home

Last but not least, all this is done from the comfort of your home which is appealing to people who are looking for ‘work from home’ jobs. That was the reason why I got curious and decided to check it out and join the platform.

Cons

I will look at the pros that I have mentioned above and point out the cons for each according to my own perspective. 

Be Your Own Boss

When it comes to being your own boss, my thinking is that you get to call the shots and decide on the appropriate actions in certain situations. Also, my thoughts of being your own boss is that after training one would be ready to go and no one would be watching over you and telling you what to do. Well, I discovered that with Arise this is not true. It is the most micromanaged job I have ever experienced in all my work life. They watch and record every single move you make on the screen in real time. They have a Quality Assurance Performance Indicator (QAPI) assigned to you that does this and will let you know what you need to improve on. You are required to meet with them so that you can continually get better at your work.

I don’t disagree with the fact we all would want to get better at what we do but going back to the pro of being your boss, that is watered down by having someone watching your every move and telling you how to do something that you are already certified to do. Since you have someone that you are answerable to and reviews your work, you don’t have the final say as they can get rid of you if they think that you are not meeting their expectations.

If you consider what it really means to be your own boss, those factors do not apply with Arise. They only get away with claiming that you are your own boss because you are a 1099 contractor engaging in a business to business transaction versus being an employee. Therefore, being your own boss does not apply here as you are required to participate in client meetings and continued education for you to continue working with them. Well, one can argue that it’s expected and it’s part of maintenance, which is true, but if we think from the perspective of being your own boss, it doesn’t meet that criterion. Bosses have decision making powers of what, why, when, and how they will do something.

Make Your Own Schedule

While you have the ability to make your own schedule, you can only do so within the times available. You will know ahead of time what times will be available with the client and you can choose if you want to opt in or not. Unfortunately, I discovered that it might not be necessarily the case from my own experience with a client. On the last day of training and certification for the client that I had chosen to work for, the initial time blocked from 8 am to 8 pm changed last minute to 9 am to 6 pm. It wasn’t open for discussion and I was forced to adjust to the new timings.

There’s lack of productivity when it comes to getting breaks in between the schedules as a 1099 contractor. You are not able to take short bathroom breaks like 5 to 15 minutes breaks as you need. The system does not allow you to do that and the only way is to build that into your schedule. That means that you have to wait until that break comes up and it reduces the time that you scheduled to work. Let’s say you are scheduled for 8 hours; you might end up with less time, say 7 hours. You have to account for any single time that you are not working as per the schedule. 

Business Opportunity

A lot of people choose Arise because it gives them the opportunity to have their own mini call center and have people working for them. While there are many people who have succeeded in doing this, there is no protection for your business. Any time someone is a CSP, they can always become an IBL. There’s nothing that stops them from becoming an IBL. You can recruit people to work for you as a CSP who would be okay with the pay, well equipped to work from home, willing to pay for the certification or someone you are willing to pay for, and they have to pass the certification. It takes months to go through all that and once they start working as a CSP, they realize that they are selling themselves short by working as a CSP under someone yet they can be an IBL as well. Unfortunately, you can’t prevent someone from becoming an IBL if they want to and that takes away the predictability of recurring revenue for your business opportunity. Because of lack of business protection, IBL’s are always recruiting people.

Another con is that this is a one-sided business opportunity as the client determines what they need and you are tasked with providing that without questioning their decisions. There is no room for negotiation and if you don’t like it, you are free to go. 

There’s no negotiation about the pay even though you get to see what they are offering before making the decision if you want to work with that client. It’s basically take it or leave it. This then beats the logic of being a business opportunity where you are your own boss and you get to set the prices. In this case, you either accept what they are offering or not.

In conclusion, these are the pros and cons from my own perspective and I do realize that other people might have different views from mine. What I consider a con might not be an issue to someone else and it all depends on one’s goals. It’s a legitimate business and many people are making supplemental or even full time income on the platform. This is to give you an insider’s perspective so that you can make an informed decision of whether to proceed with them or not.