Blog · Virtual Assistant Hiring
Virtual Assistant for Entrepreneurs: Do You Need One Yet?
How a founder can tell it's time to hire a virtual assistant, which kind suits a business with no processes, what to pay, and where it usually goes wrong.
Prateek Sahni
Published: 23 September 2026 · 10 min read
A virtual assistant for entrepreneurs is the first hire most founders make and the one most of them make too late. Not because they don't know what a VA does - every listicle on the first page of Google tells them – but because nobody answers the question they're actually asking: is it time, and what should I do about it?
Most businesses are one person. The Australian Bureau of Statistics counted 2,814,778 actively trading businesses at 30 June 2026 and about 1.7 million of them had no employees at all. In the US the picture is the same shape. The founder is the sales team, the admin team and the person who answers the email at 11pm.
This post is for that entrepreneur. It covers how to tell whether you need a virtual assistant yet, when to hire, which kind suits a business with no processes, what to pay and where it usually goes wrong. The full task lists and hiring steps live in other posts on this site – they're linked where they belong, not repeated.
Quick answer: A virtual assistant for entrepreneurs is a remote team member who takes the repeatable work – inbox, calendar, follow-ups, CRM, invoicing, research – off a founder's plate so their hours go to selling, building and deciding. You need one when you're spending ten or more hours a week on work that doesn't need you and you're ready to hand it over. Rates at My Virtual Mate start from A$9/hour, confirmed on a Discovery call.
Do you need a virtual assistant for your business yet?
Three signals and you only need one of them.
You're doing ten-plus hours a week of work that doesn't need you.
Not work you're bad at - work that has a process, or could have one. Replying to enquiries, chasing invoices, booking meetings, updating the CRM, formatting proposals. If you tracked a week honestly and found ten hours of that, you have a VA's worth of work already.
Things are slipping.
A follow-up that went out four days late. A lead you meant to call back. An invoice that's still in drafts. Slipping isn't a discipline problem; it's a capacity problem and capacity problems don't fix themselves.
You're the bottleneck.
Nothing moves unless you touch it. That was fine at three clients. At fifteen, you are the reason things are slow.
And the honest other side: you probably don't need one yet if you can't find eight hours of delegable work in a week, if the business can't reliably cover A$1,500 a month, or if every task is different from the last one. A VA runs on repetition. If nothing repeats yet, fix that first.
When to hire: before you're drowning, not after
Entrepreneurs hire a virtual assistant at one of two moments. The first is when they've run the numbers and can see the hours. The second is when they're three weeks behind and something has broken. The second is more common and it's the wrong time, because onboarding takes attention and a founder who's drowning has none to give.
The rule that works: hire when you can see the next ten hours of delegable work clearly, not when you've already lost them. Our 30-day onboarding system takes about two hours of prep before day one and a short daily check-in for the first fortnight. That's the cost of doing it properly. If you can't find two hours this week, you're already late.
Start part-time. Twenty hours a week covers inbox, calendar, follow-ups and invoicing for most single-founder businesses. Go full-time when you're consistently handing over more than the hours allow – not because a package said so.
What kind of virtual assistant suits an entrepreneur
Generalist first, specialist later. An entrepreneur's first virtual assistant needs to be comfortable with six different things before 10am. Inbox, a client call, a quote, a supplier chase, a social post, a spreadsheet. A generalist with good judgement beats a specialist with one skill at this stage. Once the generalist has freed you enough to see where the real load is – bookkeeping, marketing, sales admin – that's when a specialist earns their place.
Then the question everyone searches: what's the best remote assistant for entrepreneurs? There isn't one answer, there are three models, and the right one depends on how much management you want to do.
Independent contractor via a marketplace | Agency-managed subscription | Dedicated staff via a provider | |
|---|---|---|---|
Who finds and vets them | You | The agency | The provider |
Who manages day to day | You | Shared, often rotating | You, with a dedicated project manager behind you |
Continuity | Depends on the individual | Assistants can rotate | Same person, long term |
When it isn't working | You start again | Agency reassigns | 5-Day Replacement promise |
Best for | Founders with time to manage and a small, defined task | Founders who want tasks done, not a person | Founders who want one person who learns the business |
The marketplace route is cheapest on paper and most expensive in your time. Virtual assistant services for entrepreneurs sit in the second and third columns. The subscription route works when you have tasks, not a role. The dedicated route is the one that scales, because the person compounds – month three is better than month one.
The first five things to hand over
Full lists exist elsewhere – our outsourcing admin tasks post has the long version, and the 20-hour audit shows how to find your own. For entrepreneurs starting from zero, these five come first because they're daily, repeatable and the ones that slip.
Inbox triage - sort, flag, draft replies, archive. Calendar and booking – scheduling links, confirmations, reschedules. Lead and client follow-up – the day-two and day-seven messages that never go out. Invoicing and payment chasing – raise, send, remind. CRM upkeep – every conversation logged so nothing depends on your memory.
Everything else waits until those five are running without you.
How much should you pay for a virtual assistant?
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median wage for secretaries and administrative assistants at US$48,310 a year (May 2025), and executive assistants at US$76,590. That's before employer taxes, benefits, equipment and a desk, and it's a full-time commitment whether you have full-time work or not.
A virtual assistant from My Virtual Mate starts from A$9/hour, confirmed on a Discovery call – roughly A$1,440 a month full-time, or around A$720 for a 20-hour week. No recruitment fees, no lock-in, month to month. For a founder, the part-time number is the one to plan around: it's less than most spend on software and it buys back the hours that software can't.
Cheaper exists. Marketplace rates can go lower, and so can the odds of the person still being there in three months. Price the whole year, not the hour.
Is a virtual assistant tax deductible?
Usually, yes - in Australia, the ATO's general rule is that expenses you incur in running your business are deductible, and payments to a staffing provider for business work sit inside that. In the US, the IRS allows ordinary and necessary business expenses on the same principle. Keep the invoices, keep the work business-only and confirm the treatment with your accountant. This is general information, not tax advice.
Where virtual assistants for entrepreneurs go wrong
It goes wrong in predictable ways and most of them are on the entrepreneur's side.
No processes. "Just handle my inbox" isn't a process. The first two weeks of any placement are spent writing down what you actually do, and founders who skip that get a VA who asks about everything. Write it down once. It's the operating manual you should have had anyway.
Hiring for everything at once. Inbox, design, bookkeeping, sales calls, video editing - one person can't be all of that well. Start with the five above.
Expecting a co-founder. A VA runs the business you've designed. They don't design it. If you're hoping someone will tell you what to do next, that's a different hire.
Mixing personal and business. A VA can book your dentist. Just decide upfront whether that's in scope, because the blur is where resentment starts on both sides.
Disappearing. A founder who hires a VA and then doesn't check in for a fortnight will get exactly what that deserves. Ten minutes a day for the first month, then a short weekly check-in. Our post on accountability without micromanaging covers the rhythm.
How My Virtual Mate helps
Most of our clients are entrepreneurs and small business owners, and most started with one part-time virtual assistant. Every client gets a dedicated Project Manager who runs the onboarding, checks in with you and the VA and steps in before a problem reaches you – which matters most for a founder who has nobody else to escalate to.
Two guarantees sit under every placement: a 6-Week Performance Guarantee and a 5-Day Replacement promise if it isn't working out. No recruitment fees, no lock-in. Staff are pre-vetted and arrive already trained on the AI tools most businesses use, so nobody's learning ChatGPT on your time. We work with clients in more than 15 countries.
Rates start from A$9/hour, confirmed on a Discovery call. Book a call and we'll tell you honestly whether you need a virtual assistant for your business yet and if you don't, we'll say so.
Related reading
Frequently asked questions
What can a virtual assistant do for my business?
For a founder, a virtual assistant takes the repeatable work: inbox triage, calendar and bookings, lead and client follow-up, invoicing and payment chasing, CRM upkeep, research and basic marketing admin. As the business grows, the role can specialise into bookkeeping, sales support or marketing.
Do I need a virtual assistant?
You need one if you're spending ten or more hours a week on work that has a process and doesn't need your expertise, if follow-ups and invoices are slipping, or if nothing moves unless you touch it. You probably don't yet if you can't find eight delegable hours a week or every task is different from the last.
When should you hire a virtual assistant?
Hire when you can clearly see the next ten hours of delegable work, not after you've already lost them. Onboarding needs a couple of hours of preparation and a short daily check-in for the first two weeks, so the right time is before you're drowning.
What's the best remote assistant for entrepreneurs?
It depends on how much management you want to do. An independent contractor from a marketplace is cheapest but you find, vet and manage them. An agency subscription gets tasks done but assistants can rotate. Dedicated staff through a provider gives you one person who learns your business, with a project manager behind them.
How much does a virtual assistant cost per hour?
At My Virtual Mate, rates start from A$9/hour, confirmed on a Discovery call – roughly A$1,440 a month full-time or about A$720 for a 20-hour week. For comparison, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median wage for administrative assistants at US$48,310 a year (May 2025) before benefits and overheads.
Are virtual assistants tax deductible?
Usually. In Australia the ATO's general rule is that expenses incurred in running your business are deductible and in the US the IRS allows ordinary and necessary business expenses. Keep invoices and keep the work business-only. Confirm with your accountant – this is general information, not tax advice.
How many hours a week should a founder start with?
Twenty hours a week covers inbox, calendar, follow-ups and invoicing for most single-founder businesses. Move to full-time when you're consistently handing over more than the hours allow.
Can a virtual assistant work with a founder who has no documented processes?
Yes, but the first two weeks of the placement will be spent documenting them together. A founder who skips that gets a VA who has to ask about everything. Writing it down once is the highest-return hour in the whole exercise.
