Entrepreneurs, startup founders, and executives often find themselves wearing too many hats. From scheduling meetings to handling emails and paperwork, these administrative tasks can quietly consume a huge chunk of the workweek. If you've ever felt there aren't enough hours in the day, you're not alone. The average entrepreneur spends 36% of their week on busywork like emailing, scheduling, and data entry. This is valuable time not spent on strategy, sales, or innovation – the activities that actually grow the business. Delegating those tasks to a skilled virtual assistant (VA) can be a game-changer. The hidden ROI (Return on Investment) comes in the form of time saved, money saved, and opportunities gained. By leveraging remote staffing and outsourcing routine work, business owners can unlock new levels of productivity and profit. In this post, we'll explore the often underestimated benefits of hiring a virtual assistant – from cost savings and efficiency to scalability and even work-life balance – and how to make it work for your business in 2025 and beyond.
As a CEO or business owner, your time is incredibly valuable. Every hour you spend on low-level tasks is an hour not spent driving growth. Consider this: more than one-third of an entrepreneur’s work week is swallowed by administrative tasks. Logging expenses, replying to routine emails, scheduling appointments – these are important tasks, but they don't require an executive's expertise. By delegating such tasks to a virtual assistant, you free up hours that can be reinvested into strategic work and revenue-generating activities.
Opportunity cost is a real factor here. One analysis noted that a business owner’s time can be worth $100–$400 per hour, yet many founders end up paying themselves that rate (in time) to do $15-$20/hour admin work. This misallocation is costly. It’s no surprise that in a recent survey, 67% of business owners hired a VA to save time and 53% did so to delegate tasks they shouldn't be doing themselves. By offloading calendar management, email triage, invoicing, travel booking, and other routine chores, you reclaim time to focus on what only you can do – whether that's meeting with investors, refining your product, or closing deals.
Statistic: The average entrepreneur works ~45 hours a week, but spends 36% of that time on administrative busywork. Those who master delegation see the difference – 82% of "expert delegators" reported revenue growth, versus only 66% of those who struggled to delegate. In other words, freeing yourself from low-value tasks has a direct impact on the bottom line.
Think about your typical week and the "top virtual assistant tasks" you could hand off immediately. Common duties a skilled VA can capably handle include:
Each hour of work you delegate is an hour gained for high-impact activities like strategy, innovation, and relationship-building. Instead of being stuck in the weeds of your inbox or calendar, you could be negotiating a partnership or brainstorming your next product. Simply put: time management for executives boils down to effective delegation. And the ROI is clear – more time for leadership tasks eventually means more growth. (In a study, "expert delegators" achieved 143% mean revenue growth versus 80% for others, demonstrating how freeing up time to focus on core business can pay off.)
Beyond time savings, one of the primary benefits of virtual assistants is cost savings. Hiring a full-time, in-office employee comes with a long list of expenses: salary, benefits, payroll taxes, office space, equipment, and often recruitment costs. A virtual assistant, by contrast, is typically an independent contractor or provided by a remote staffing agency, meaning you pay only for the work you need without the overhead. Research shows that businesses can save up to 78% in operating costs by hiring VAs instead of full-time in-office staff. That figure is staggering – imagine cutting labor costs by over half while still getting the support you require.
How are these savings possible? First, a VA usually bills only for actual productive hours or a set package of tasks. You're not paying for lunch breaks, coffee runs, or idle time. Second, there's no need for extra office rent, furniture, or equipment – your VA works remotely with their own setup. Third, you avoid costly benefits packages; health insurance, retirement contributions, and paid leave are typically not your responsibility for a contract virtual assistant. All told, a virtual assistant typically costs 60–70% less than a full-time in-house employee when you factor in all those overheads.
Geography is another big factor in cost efficiency. Thanks to remote work, you can tap into global talent pools where skilled labor might come at a lower cost of living. For instance, many companies hire highly educated, English-proficient virtual assistants from countries like the Philippines or India at a fraction of the cost of a local hire. You might find a fantastic executive assistant in Manila or Mumbai for, say, $15–$20 an hour, whereas a similar profile in New York or London could command four times that. This is outsourcing at its best – getting quality help while arbitraging cost differences. (According to Global Workplace Analytics, even just allowing remote work can save employers about $11,000 per year per employee in various expenses.) Those savings can be reinvested in growth areas like marketing or product development, amplifying your ROI.
Outsourcing vs. Offshoring – what's the difference? Outsourcing means contracting work out to an external party rather than doing it in-house; offshoring means hiring services overseas to take advantage of lower costs or round-the-clock coverage. Both concepts apply to virtual assistants. You can outsource to a VA in your own country or you can offshore to an assistant abroad. There is sometimes a perception trade-off: for example, a survey found 76% of users prefer an onshore (domestic) virtual assistant vs. 9% who prefer offshore, mainly due to concerns about communication or time zones. However, millions of businesses successfully use offshore VAs with great results – especially by leveraging agencies that vet and train their remote staff. The key is to choose the model that fits your needs. If cost reduction is paramount, hiring offshore assistants can be a smart move; if having someone in (or near) your time zone is crucial, you might opt for a domestic VA or one in a similar time zone. Either way, outsourcing administrative support frees you from fixed payroll costs and lets you scale staffing flexibly.
It's also worth noting the virtual assistant vs. full-time employee distinction in terms of commitment. With a VA, you can start part-time – even a few hours a week – and scale up if needed, or scale down in slow periods. You're not locked into a long-term contract or worrying about keeping someone busy 40 hours a week. This flexibility means startups and small businesses can get executive assistant support before they could afford a full-time hire. In essence, a VA gives you the executive assistant you always wanted, at a price and commitment level that makes sense for a lean business. As one Forbes Council member put it, benefits alone add over 30% on top of a salary for an in-house staff – savings that make a fractional virtual executive assistant far more economical for many companies.
Delegating to a virtual assistant isn’t just about doing the same tasks for less money – it’s about unlocking greater productivity and enabling growth. When you have a capable VA handling the day-to-day minutiae, you (and your core team) can accomplish much more in parallel. Instead of one person juggling ten tasks, you have two people, each focused on what they do best. The result is a dramatic boost in overall output and efficiency.
Many entrepreneurs initially hire a VA because they're feeling overwhelmed, but they soon discover how much more productive their business can be. In the earlier mentioned survey, increasing productivity was a major driver – 44% of business owners said they hired a VA to increase productivity and 24% did it to directly help grow the business. It makes sense: if your VA frees up 10+ hours of your week, and you devote those hours to business development or sales, the ROI of hiring a virtual assistant shows up in new clients closed and projects delivered. By focusing on high-value activities (what some call your "unique ability" or high-payoff activities), you can propel your business forward while your assistant handles the support work. One study noted that expert delegators saw significantly higher revenue and profit growth than those who struggled to delegate – evidence that handing off tasks isn’t just about convenience, but about scaling up results.
Another hidden ROI from using virtual assistants is how they enable faster scaling of your operations. Need to handle more customers or a new project? You can add VA support quickly without the delays of traditional hiring. Virtual assistant services often have a bench of trained assistants available, so you could go from one assistant to two or three in a matter of days if necessary. This is incredibly useful for startups in growth mode. You can scale with remote teams in an agile way – ramping up during busy seasons or new launches, and scaling down if things stabilize – all without layoffs or idle staff. This scalability is built-in ROI: you’re only paying for what you need, when you need it, but you never miss out on growth opportunities due to staffing constraints.
Even large companies recognize the value: more than 40% of companies with over 1,000 employees are now utilizing virtual assistants to support their teams. If enterprise CEOs and Fortune 500 firms trust virtual executive assistants for efficiency, there's no reason growing businesses can't do the same. A remote executive assistant can coordinate with your on-site staff just as effectively through cloud-based tools and regular video calls. In fact, many modern project teams might have a mix of in-house and virtual members. With the right processes, a remote assistant can be virtually indistinguishable from an in-office one in terms of their contribution.
Case in point: Imagine you're a startup founder preparing for a product launch. You need to coordinate marketing campaigns, handle a spike in customer inquiries, and keep development on schedule – all at once. Instead of trying to work 70-hour weeks, you could assign your VA to manage the social media campaign and email responses, while you focus on the product and investor updates. You might even bring on a second VA specialized in customer support for the launch month. The cost of these VAs is far lower than what missing sales or delaying the launch would cost. By the end of the launch, you’ve handled the surge successfully – that’s the ROI of scaling with virtual assistants. You met demand and likely increased profits without overworking your core team or making permanent hires.
Finally, let’s not overlook quality and innovation. Delegating can actually improve the quality of work output. A skilled VA who focuses on a given task (say, bookkeeping or CRM data entry) will often complete it faster and more accurately than a distracted founder doing it in between other duties. As one productivity coach famously said, “The best investment in your own productivity is a great assistant to handle the hundreds of small details that clutter your life”. By trusting specialists to handle support functions, you not only get more done, you often get it done better, which can positively impact customer satisfaction and your business reputation. All of these factors – higher output, higher quality, and the ability to seize opportunities – contribute to the hidden ROI of having virtual assistants on your team.
One misconception about virtual assistants is that they're only for simple admin tasks. In reality, today's virtual assistant services offer professionals with specialized skills across various domains. You can find VAs who are experienced in content creation, digital marketing, bookkeeping, graphic design, IT support, project management, and more. This means you can delegate not just your scheduling and paperwork, but also creative and technical tasks to the right assistants. Need to revamp your slide deck for a big presentation? A VA with graphic design chops can handle it. Need consistent blog content or SEO research? A VA skilled in content marketing has you covered. By hiring for specific expertise, you fill skill gaps in your business without the expense of hiring full-time specialists or consultants.
Crucially, a virtual assistant service lets you tap into a global talent pool. You're no longer limited to what's available in your local hiring radius. Whether you're seeking a bilingual executive assistant, a social media guru, or an Excel whiz, you can find that talent remotely. This diversity can be a competitive advantage: your remote assistant might bring fresh ideas from a different market or culture, helping you innovate. And if you need coverage outside normal hours (say you operate across time zones), you can even have VAs in different parts of the world to provide 24/7 support.
To illustrate how broad the scope is, here are some industry-specific examples of how businesses are using virtual assistants in 2025:
As you can see, virtually any industry can find roles for virtual assistants. The versatility of VAs is a major asset. You get the right skills at the right time without the long-term burden of hiring in-house. Plus, because many VAs have worked with multiple clients and sectors, they bring best practices with them. Your VA might introduce you to a better project management tool or a more efficient way of doing a task (given their experience). In a sense, when you hire a VA, you're often hiring their experience and toolkit as well.
Speaking of tools, leveraging the best remote work tools is key to making a remote collaboration successful. Thankfully, we live in a golden age of cloud software. Communication platforms like Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Zoom keep you and your assistant in constant contact (whether for quick questions or weekly check-ins). Project management tools such as Asana, Trello, ClickUp, or Monday.com help assign tasks and track progress transparently. Need to share files? Services like Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive put documents at both of your fingertips in real-time. There are also specialized productivity apps (time trackers, password managers, note-taking apps like Notion or Evernote) that further streamline working with your remote team. By setting your VA up with the top remote work tools of 2025, you create a seamless workflow where it almost feels like they're right there in the office – even if they're 5,000 miles away.
Internal tip: Establish a single source of truth for tasks (e.g., keep a running to-do list or board) and a regular meeting rhythm (maybe a Monday kickoff call and a Friday wrap-up email). With structure and the right tech, managing a virtual assistant becomes straightforward and highly effective.
We can't discuss virtual assistants in 2025 without touching on the rise of AI and automation. From AI-powered scheduling assistants to chatbots handling customer queries, technology is taking over some tasks that used to be done manually. Some entrepreneurs might wonder: “Should I use an AI virtual assistant (like a chatbot or voice assistant) instead of a human one?” or “Will AI replace human virtual assistants?” The current reality is that AI is a powerful tool, but it works best alongside humans, not as a pure replacement. There is a human premium that a skilled virtual assistant brings – qualities like judgment, creativity, empathy, and strategic understanding – which AI still cannot match.
Consider customer service: Automated chatbots are great for frequently asked questions and can handle volume 24/7, saving up to 30% in support costs for businesses. But when a question gets complex or a customer is upset, a human touch is irreplaceable. Surveys show 90% of people prefer dealing with a human agent over a bot for customer service issues. Why? Because humans can understand context, tone, and subtext in a way AI (as of now) cannot. A human virtual assistant can read between the lines of an email, sense a client’s mood on a call, and adjust accordingly – offering flexibility and personal connection. This kind of emotional intelligence and adaptability is a premium advantage that AI-driven virtual assistants lack.
That said, the best scenario is not Human versus AI, but Human plus AI. Savvy business owners and VAs use automation to augment productivity. Your virtual assistant can harness AI tools to work even more efficiently. For example, an AI email triage tool might sort incoming messages by priority, and then your human VA applies judgment to respond to the important ones with a personal touch. There are AI-powered virtual assistant tools that can draft basic content or transcribe meetings; your human assistant can then refine the content or extract key action items from the transcript. Think of AI as handling the grunt work (the first draft, the initial sorting), while the human VA handles the nuanced decision-making and execution.
Many remote staffing solutions are also starting to integrate AI in their processes – from smarter matchmaking of assistants to clients, to AI-driven training simulations for new assistants. For instance, MySigrid (a premium VA service) is branded as "Sigrid.ai" because they blend human EAs with AI support in the background. The future of work is likely a hybrid model: AI will handle more repetitive tasks and provide data-driven insights, and humans will focus on interpersonal tasks, complex problem-solving, and creative work. By delegating to a skilled VA who knows how to leverage automation, you essentially get the best of both worlds. Your VA becomes an AI-empowered super-assistant, using tools for speed while you benefit from their human understanding.
Finally, there's the matter of trust and accountability. With a human assistant, you develop a relationship of trust – you know Emily or John has your back, and they learn your preferences over time. You can delegate higher-level responsibilities to them as that trust grows (something you wouldn't do with a faceless piece of software). We call this the "human premium" because a dedicated human assistant often goes above and beyond – brainstorming proactively, handling sensitive communications gracefully, and sometimes even acting as a sounding board for your ideas. That kind of partnership can significantly amplify your effectiveness as a leader, in ways that are hard to quantify but very real. So while we embrace AI for what it can do, having a real human executive assistant in your corner remains an invaluable asset.
In short, AI vs. human virtual assistants is not an either-or debate. Use AI where it makes sense, but don't forgo the human insight that drives good decisions and great customer experiences. The companies that strike the right balance – automating efficiently while keeping the human touch – will dominate in productivity and in customer loyalty. A skilled VA helps you strike that balance.
Knowing the benefits of delegating to a virtual assistant is one thing – actually doing it effectively is another. Many entrepreneurs struggle initially with how to outsource work and manage a remote assistant, especially if they've never done it before. Here are some best practices to ensure you truly reap the ROI of hiring a virtual assistant:
By following these steps, you'll avoid common pitfalls. One common mistake is not providing enough clarity – leading to mistakes that hurt ROI. Another is overloading a new VA too quickly – leading to overwhelm or errors. Pace the work, and soon you'll find your assistant running smoothly with minimal oversight, delivering the hidden ROI we've been talking about: you’ll be working smarter, not harder.
The bottom line is this: Delegating to a skilled virtual assistant is an investment that can pay for itself many times over. The ROI comes in various forms – hard dollars saved on salaries and overhead, hours of productive time regained each week, faster business growth from focusing on high-value initiatives, and even personal well-being improvements from lowering stress and long work hours. These benefits might not all show up on a simple profit-and-loss statement, but they are very real drivers of success. By outsourcing non-core tasks, you’re effectively buying back your own time at a discount, and as a leader, your time is the most precious resource of all.
In the modern business landscape, savvy entrepreneurs combine human talent and technology to get ahead. A virtual assistant embodies that blend – a real person empowered by remote work tech and sometimes aided by AI – delivering a “force multiplier” effect for you and your organization. Whether you’re a startup trying to scale or an established business looking to optimize, delegating to a VA can help unlock the next level of performance. It's no wonder that from solopreneurs to Fortune 500 CEOs, so many are embracing virtual assistants as a secret weapon.
Ready to unlock the hidden ROI of delegation for your business? It’s time to take action. Book a consultation now with MySigrid to see how a dedicated executive virtual assistant can transform your work life and accelerate your growth. MySigrid’s founder, Paul Østergaard, built the service on the idea of “a great remote team isn’t just about productivity — it’s about building a culture of trust and connection”. We believe in providing human premium service while leveraging the best tech and AI in the background – so you get efficiency and personal touch. Don’t let endless to-do lists hold you or your business back. Book a consultation with MySigrid now, and discover how the right virtual assistant can help you save money, save time, and truly scale up your success. It's time to delegate and dominate – your future self will thank you.