Running your own business is exciting, empowering—but let’s be real, it can also be downright exhausting.

One minute you’re building something amazing, and then before you know it, your days are a chaotic blur, and evenings and weekends are no longer your own.

If you’ve ever taken a moment and thought, “How did I end up here? How did this become my life?” you’re not alone. Almost every founder with a successful venture reaches a point where their to-do list snowballs, work takes over their life, and the passion that once drove them has all but vanished.

While delegating sounds like the obvious fix, the reality for most founders is not so straightforward.

And that’s exactly what we’re here to talk about.

Why do founders put off hiring help?

Most founders are pros at pushing admin support down the priority list—even when they know they need an extra set of hands.

Let’s take a look at the five most common reasons why.

1. Wanting things done "your way"

One of the biggest reasons founders hold off on hiring an assistant boils down to one thing: control.

You’re the one who's put in the hours and built everything from the ground up, and naturally, you want to protect what you’ve worked so hard for.

That’s why the idea of handing over tasks—even small ones—can feel a lot more risky than rewarding.

Will they do it your way? Will the quality hold up?

This mindset can make it really tough to delegate, even when you know you need the help.

See: How To Offload More Tasks When Letting Go Is A Struggle

2. Wanting to stick to what you know

When you’ve been managing the same tasks day in, day out, they start to blend into your routine. You know every step, every shortcut, every tiny detail so well that it hardly feels like work anymore. It’s just part of how your day flows.

So the thought of introducing something (or someone!) new into your workflow can feel like a huge disruption, potentially more trouble than it's worth. Rather than getting the help you need, you might tell yourself, “It only takes me a few minutes,” or “It’ll be easier if I just do it myself.”

3. Not wanting to manage, train, or explain

For a lot of founders, the thought of hiring someone feels like another mountain of work on top of their already packed-out to-do list.

And honestly? They're not wrong.

From writing job descriptions, sorting through applications, and conducting interviews, to onboarding and training a new team member, the traditional hiring process takes time and energy that's already in limited supply.

It’s a classic catch-22: you need help because you're so busy, but you feel like you can't hire help because you’re so busy. So, you keep pushing through and doing everything yourself, and slowly sink deeper into the quicksand of stress and overwhelm.

4. Wanting to feel productive

This one can be a bit of a tough pill to swallow.

It's easy to believe that if your schedule is packed, it's a sign you must be doing something right. So when the prospect of handing over tasks comes up, it can stir up some uncomfortable feelings.

On one hand, working through a long list of responsibilities each day can give a sense of purpose and accomplishment. It's proof that you work hard and play a crucial role in the day-to-day running of the business. If others take certain responsibilities off your plate, you might worry that you'll be seen as less hardworking or less essential to the business. And if your to-do list suddenly becomes a lot leaner, you might feel like you're less productive or achieving less than you were previously.

On the other hand, let’s be honest, admin tasks can be oddly comforting. Deep down, we know those little jobs won't be moving the needle for our businesses, but they keep our hands busy and our minds distracted from the bigger, more complex projects that take real brainpower.

See: 3 Reasons Why Founders Fail (And 3 Reasons Why They Succeed)

5. Not feeling "ready"

As simple as it sounds, many founders put off hiring help simply because they don’t feel ready.

Maybe you think you need to be more organized before someone else can step in. Maybe you feel like you haven’t hit the right milestones to “earn” the right to have an assistant yet.

It could also be that, right now, everything feels manageable. Why fix what isn’t broken, right?

Or maybe you’re just not sure where you'd even begin lightening your workload. When you’ve been wearing so many hats for so long, it’s not always obvious which tasks someone else could take over. You might find yourself asking, “What exactly can I offload? What should I keep doing myself?”

Any amount of uncertainty can make it easy to just keep pushing the decision further down the line.

The modern reality for founders in 2025

Let’s zoom out for a second.

If we take a step back and look at the world we’re running businesses in today, it suddenly makes a whole lot of sense why so many founders put off hiring support—and why they need it now more than ever.

The truth is, running a business today looks nothing like it did a few decades ago. Back in the pre-digital days, it was pretty standard for a founder (or even a mid-level manager) to have a PA or secretary. Someone to take the calls, manage the diary, file the paperwork, and keep the wheels turning behind the scenes.

Today, we're expected to do it all.

And it’s not just that there’s more for us to do; there’s also no escaping it.

Unlike the pre-digital era, the workday no longer ends when you leave the office—or even when you shut down your computer. Thanks to smartphones and digital tools, work follows you to the couch, to the dinner table, and into the weekend.

In fact, researchers have found that the average executive used to receive around 1,000 messages a year back in the 1970s. These days, it’s over 30,000. That’s not a typo. That’s thirty times the noise fighting for your attention all day, every day. The constant buzz of emails, calls, and notifications makes it almost impossible to concentrate long enough or well enough on anything.

On top of that, you’re now expected to be a master of everything: social media, content creation, invoicing platforms, CRMs, customer service, logistics, automation… the list just keeps growing.

We're all dealing with a tidal wave of demands and distractions that didn’t even exist twenty years ago. The pressure has multiplied, the support has vanished, yet the message hasn’t changed: “Anything is possible if you just work hard enough.”

Here’s the thing: you’re not falling behind because you’re not smart, capable, or hardworking.

You’re falling behind because it’s simply too much for one human to handle.

You don’t need to try any harder. You need support.

See: 5 Tips to Reset Your Attention Span In A World Full Of Distractions

How founders actually feel when they finally “feel ready”

So what finally pushes someone to say, “Okay, now's the time to hire”?

In most cases, founders don’t hire support until they’re already drowning.

And by then, it’s less of a strategic, informed decision than a rescue mission. A flare gun fired from the lifeboat.

Here’s what that often looks like:

• Overwhelmed and exhausted: You’ve got too many spinning plates—and they’re starting to crash down. Your workload feels completely out of control, and no matter how early you start or how late you stay up, you can never seem to catch up.
• Frustrated by lack of progress: You know your business has so much potential. You can see just where it could go, but right now, it feels like you’re stuck. You’re giving it everything you’ve got, working flat out, but somehow you're still not moving forward the way you hoped.
• Shame and guilt: Things are starting to slip. Maybe you missed an important deadline. Or a client had to chase you—again. Maybe you made a mistake you’re still kicking yourself for. You know you're not showing up the way you want to, and it's eating away at you. That nagging voice in your head keeps asking, “Why can’t I just get it together?”
• Burnout is creeping in: The lines between work and home have all but disappeared. Your weekends are no longer restful. Your evenings are eaten up by catch-up work. Your relationships, health, and sanity are starting to pay the price.
• Struggling with skills gaps: You’re spending hours trying to design a half-decent social post, or trying to make sense of a CRM tool you really don’t have time to learn. Deep down, you know these are tasks someone else could do in half the time—probably better, too.

See: What To Do When You Are Drowning In Work: A Founder’s Survival Guide

Is this really the best time to hire admin support for founders?

The honest answer: Not quite!

There's no denying that a lack of work-life balance, constant stress, and feeling like you're barely keeping your head above water are all valid reasons to hire help.

But think of it this way: If you wait until you’re drowning, it’s much harder to learn to swim. Prevention is much better than scrambling for a cure.

Here’s why hiring before things hit breaking point makes all the difference:

• You make better decisions when you’re not in crisis mode: When you’re overwhelmed, you’re more likely to rush the process, skip important steps, or hire someone who’s not quite the right fit—just to get someone in place. Hiring from a calmer place means you can think clearly about what you actually need, and who’s the best person to help.
• You have mental bandwidth to hand over your tasks properly: When there’s no immediate pressure or panic, you can ease into the handover. You can show your assistant how you like things done, give them the context they need, and build that trust over time—without feeling like you’re handing over your inbox mid-freefall.
• You set your new assistant up for success (which sets you up for success): If you can tick the two boxes above, you’ll be laying a solid foundation for success and giving your assistant everything they need to do their best work—all of which will make your life so much easier.

As Virgin Group founder Richard Branson famously said, “If you really want to grow as an entrepreneur, you’ve got to learn to delegate.” He hired his first assistant early on, and credits that decision with giving him the space to think bigger, build faster, and focus on what only he could do.

So, while it might not feel like the “perfect” time right now, the best time to hire admin support is usually before you feel you absolutely have to.

What’s the bottom line?

As a founder, you don’t need to “deserve” an assistant by hitting rock bottom—you need one the moment admin work blocks the work only you can do.

The longer you wait to hire help, the more it'll cost you in stress, time, and missed opportunities.

So, the question is: if not now, when?

Ask yourself, what would change in your life or business if you had admin support starting next week? What would you stop worrying about? What could you finally focus on?

Hiring admin support isn’t admitting defeat. It's how you create space and build capacity for success.

Ready to see the difference admin support can make?

Real change happens when you create space for it.

That's where we come in.

At Time etc, we’ve helped over 22,000 founders get back to what matters most by pairing them with reliable, experienced virtual assistants (VAs) for all the tasks that get in the way.

We understand just how busy you are, so we've made it as simple and stress-free as possible. From sourcing and vetting top talent to managing all the admin and HR, we handle everything behind the scenes so you don’t have to. No endless interviews. No hiring headaches. Just flexible support tailored to your needs.

Here’s what you get when you partner with us:

• Save 3–6 weeks of recruitment time
• Cut your hiring costs by up to 90%
• Skip the daily hassle of managing your assistant—we do it all for you.

All you need to do is tell us what you need, and we’ll take care of it.

So, ready to feel in control again? Just speak to our expert team.

P.S. Want $150 off your first month of virtual assistant support? Answer a few quick questions to get personalized task recommendations—plus a welcome discount!