It's a fair question to ask before you put money, time, or trust into anything new for your business. Wanting to know it will be worth it first is good sense.

If cost is the first thing on your mind, that's a natural place to start. It's worth widening the question too, because there's more to growing a business than the numbers, and the same goes for the return on good support.

Time etc may be one of the virtual assistant services you might be weighing up, so you'd expect us to say yes. For some founders, the honest answer points somewhere else, and we'll tell you when it does.

Short answer: A virtual assistant is worth it if you want recurring admin tasks off your plate and space to stay focused on the work only you can do. A fully managed virtual assistant service is worth it if you'd also like the hiring, the people management and the cover handled for you.

Question 1: What is it that you actually want?

Most searches for an assistant begin with a feeling: too much to do, and too little of you to go round. It helps to turn that feeling into something specific, because the kind of help you're after decides who should be giving it.

If you want time-consuming admin tasks off your plate, a virtual assistant is built for exactly that. A virtual assistant is a remote professional who takes on administrative tasks and operational support for your business, part-time, for as much of the month as you need. The role is modeled on what executive assistants do for senior leaders. Virtual assistance usually starts with routine tasks such as inbox triage, scheduling appointments, travel booking, invoicing, and research. With a VA handling those, your valuable time goes to higher-value activities: your clients, your product, and the decision-making only a founder can do.

If you want someone to help set your strategy, a different kind of support will serve you better. Strategy calls for a consultant or a specialist advisor: someone who gets to know your business in depth and is paid for their thinking. A virtual assistant comes in once the plan exists, and carries out the tasks that make it happen.

If you want someone in the room, hire locally. VAs work remotely, so in-person errands, front-desk cover, and all-day phone answering call for someone on-site in your business.

If you have a full week of work for one person, every week, a full-time hire may be the right call. Full-time executive assistants sit close to your daily operations and decision-making, and can grow with the company. That's a full-time commitment on both sides, and for a business owner with steady demand it can be exactly right.

See: 5 Things You Can't Offload To A Virtual Assistant

If you want less admin on your plate, you'll probably want to skip the admin of hiring, too

This is the part that often catches founders out. You're looking for support because your week is already full. Hiring an assistant directly, as an employee or as a freelancer, begins by adding even more to it: writing the job description, reading resumes, interviewing, checking references, writing up their contract. It's a hassle at the best of times, and it arrives in the weeks when you have the least room for it.

Fully managed virtual assistant services do that part before you arrive. At Time etc, for example:

• The screening and vetting is already done. Every virtual assistant candidate has passed a 10-stage selection process that only around 2% of applicants get through. They are skilled professionals with an average of 12 years of experience, and many are former executive assistants.
• The shortlisting is done for you. We learn about your business needs on a call and put forward the assistants who tick your boxes.
• The choice stays yours. You review their profile and speak to them before you go ahead.
• You start in days. Most founders are working with their virtual assistant and lightening their workloads within a day or two of signing up.

See: Thinking About Your First Hire? Answer These 7 Questions First

Question 2: What is your time worth?

Your time has two parts: the hours, and the headspace you spend in and around it.

Start with the hours. Think about your best one of the week: the client conversations, the product decisions, the ideas that move your business forward. Then count the hours that go to tasks someone else could do. Support for your business is supposed to shrink that number.

Then there's the headspace. Picture a Thursday evening. The laptop is closed, dinner is on the table, and the people you love finally have your full attention. The last place you want your mind to wander is to your assistant's vacation starting on Monday and all the admin you'll need to pick back up, or to their monthly invoice still waiting to be paid.

If you want fewer things on your plate and fewer things on your mind, you'll probably want to skip managing another person as well. With traditional employees, you become an employer. Payroll, benefits, reviews, pay conversations, and the harder conversations when the work falls short are all yours. A freelance virtual assistant is a lighter arrangement, though the contract, the invoices, the feedback and the search for cover still sit with you. On both routes, you are the backup plan when they're away. Each of those jobs is small, and each one follows you home and pulls at the focus you were trying to protect.

This is what "fully managed" means, and it's the part of virtual assistant services that's easiest to overlook. With Time etc, you get a virtual assistant and a whole team behind the scenes, making sure everything runs smoothly:

• A Client Success Manager you can turn to for anything. Wondering what to hand off next? Something gone wrong? Need a bigger plan, a smaller one, or an additional assistant? Ask them.

• A team that looks after our assistants. Support, payments, and performance monitoring all sit with our team, so it stays off your list.

• Cover when your assistant is away. Our team arranges for another virtual assistant to step in during vacation or sickness, so your tasks keep moving.
• A replacement if the fit is wrong. Every plan is backed by a 100% satisfaction guarantee. If things aren't clicking with your assistant for any reason, our team finds a replacement and manages the switch.
• Security and confidentiality built in. Every virtual assistant is identity-verified and signs a non-disclosure agreement, and information is exchanged through a platform with bank-grade encryption, so your business information stays protected.

This full package is what your plan pays for: the day-to-day operational support for your business, and the peace of mind around it.

Plenty of guides argue that virtual assistants offer affordability and leave it there. We think the value sits in how little of your own time and headspace the arrangement asks for. Because your assistant works remotely with their own setup, office space, equipment, training costs, and other overhead costs stay off your list, too. That's what makes good virtual assistant services cost effective: you pay one fee, and the office overhead and the people management belong to someone else.

"The client service staff truly go the extra mile to make sure my projects run smoothly and I get the best value for my money." — Maryellen Nugent, Time etc client

If you'd enjoy managing a remote professional yourself, or you already know a great freelancer, hiring directly makes sense. Some founders like building a team in-house and are good at it. If that's you, the management is part of the appeal.

If budget is your deciding factor, offshore VAs and offshore services come at a lower cost. Plenty of founders are happy with them. Expect the vetting, the time zones and the day-to-day management to stay with you. Time etc VAs work from your time zone.

See: Where To Find A Virtual Assistant

Question 3: How steady is the workload in your business?

If your year is predictable, a fixed role can work well. Full-time employees come with set hours, a set job description, and a long-term commitment, which suits a business with stable, repeatable work.

If your workload rises and falls, you'll want support that moves with it. Managed services are built for that. A Time etc plan can grow, shrink, or stop whenever you need. On our larger plans, any support hours left over at the end of the month will carry over into the next.

If your needs go beyond one person's strengths, you'll want more than one person. One of the benefits of a service over a single hire is range. The assistant who is excellent at scheduling may have far less experience with social media. With virtual assistant services, you can add assistants to the same plan, so you access specialized skills by asking for them. As your business expands, your team can share the support too.

See: How Flexible Is A Virtual Assistant, Really? Scaling Hours Up And Down

Question 4: What would make you hesitate?

Most founders have at least one of these in mind. Each has a straight answer.

If you're thinking "it's quicker to do it myself", you're right for the first week. Explaining a task takes longer than doing it once. The gain from hiring a virtual assistant comes with repetition: a recurring task is explained once and then stays off your list, and your focus stays on bigger work.

If you're wondering about sharing an assistant, here's how it works. Your virtual assistant is part-time and may support a small number of other clients, which is what makes the flexibility possible. You work with the same assistant each time, and tasks are completed within turnaround times you agree together. If your business needs an instant response all day, an in-house hire is the better fit.

If you're wondering how you'd keep track, you'll see everything. Your virtual assistant works in the tools your business already uses, such as Google Workspace, and your Time etc user dashboard shows your completed tasks and your VA's hours to the second.

If this is your first time working with an assistant, you're in good company. Our support team is on hand with advice on which tasks to offload and how to brief them.

"I was hesitant to hire a Virtual Assistant because I am new to this whole world of Virtual Assistants. But Time etc helped me make the transition and I am so grateful for all they do." — David Gerber, Time etc client

Question 5: What do you expect to get back?

How a virtual assistant feels in month three depends a lot on what you pictured in week one.

If you expect an instant change, know that the first few weeks are about getting used to each other. Your assistant has to learn your tasks and your preferences, and you have to get used to someone else doing them. Both can take a little time after hiring a virtual assistant. That's the pattern in the first weeks after hiring a virtual assistant, but the many benefits will build from there.

If you expect a neat exchange of hours, think in terms of space. A monthly plan sets how much support you can tap into during that time. The space you gain is a separate thing. Founders describe it as breathing room and the headspace to focus: the inbox sorted before they open it, the scheduling handled, the follow-ups sent on time.

If you want the biggest return, start with the tasks that repeat. For a virtual assistant to be the game changer people hope for, focus on giving them more recurring tasks than one-offs. A recurring task is handed off once and then pays for itself every time it comes round. That's when support starts to improve productivity for you and your team, and when founders tell us the benefits reach beyond work: reducing stress and a better work-life balance matter as much to them as increasing productivity.

"Having my email sorted helps me give full attention to one task area at a time, and it's made a big difference in my productivity and mental clarity." — J Gray, Time etc client

Where your answers leave you

FAQs

Is a virtual assistant the same as an executive assistant? Some of the work overlaps. Executive assistants are usually full-time employees who support one leader in person. Virtual assistance from a service gives a business owner similar support with similar administrative tasks, remotely and part-time, with recruitment and people management included.

Can I access professional support for more than admin? Yes. Many Time etc VAs work on social media scheduling, content, research, and personal tasks as well as admin. If your assistant's strengths lie elsewhere, we can add a second virtual assistant to your plan.

Can my team use my virtual assistant? Yes. You can share your support with your team, which helps a small business where everyone carries some admin.

How much does a Time etc virtual assistant cost? Plans start at $390 a month, and every plan includes the services described in this guide, as standard. You can see the options on our plans and pricing page.

Ready to get the admin off your plate, and the hiring hassle with it?

That's what you get with Time etc: a virtual assistant, and the team that finds, matches, and manages them.

Since 2007, more than 22,000 founders have used our services to create space in their week for focus, family, and business growth.

Book a free consultation and tell our team what you need. We'll work out the plan that fits it, and start narrowing down the best assistant for the job.

P.S. Want $150 off your first month of virtual assistant support? Answer a few quick questions in our Task Ideas Wizard, and we'll give you a welcome discount.

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