It is easy to stall before you start, because you are trying to decide who to hire before they have decided what to hand over. Do it the other way round and the rest is straightforward.
This is the order that works, what to ask any provider before you sign, and roughly how long it takes.
“I need an assistant” is not a brief. “Nobody confirms tomorrow’s appointments and nobody chases an invoice after day thirty” is.
If the list is hard to write, that is normal — the two-minute Needs Assessment was built to produce it for you.
Enough for an inbox, a calendar and invoicing in most small businesses. The usual starting point when you are handing over your first process.
Right when there is phone coverage to hold during your business hours, or a second function to absorb — marketing, client service, documentation.
Looks cheaper and often is not. You end up rationing the hours, which means the work you most wanted off your desk is the work you keep doing yourself.
Published virtual assistant rates run anywhere from a few dollars an hour to seventy-nine. What a virtual assistant actually costs →
The answers vary more than the marketing does.
You can fill in the Needs Assessment beforehand so we arrive with a plan, or we can walk through it together live on the call.
Two minutes of questions that map where your hours are going. Take it here →
You interview the candidates on a Zoom and pick the one you want. We match on how your business runs, not on who is next in the queue. Book the call →
We handle hiring and onboarding. Then check-ins at 14, 30, 60 and 90 days, and a free swap if the fit is wrong. Filling in the Needs Assessment first is what makes this part fast.
At VRA, from the first call to a working assistant is usually a few days. You take a short Needs Assessment, meet matched candidates on a Zoom, pick the one you want, and they can start within 24 hours of your decision. The part that takes longest is almost never the hiring — it is an owner deciding what to hand over.
The work that repeats and does not need your judgement: inbox and calendar, appointment confirmations, invoicing and chasing the receivables that have gone past due, CRM and database upkeep, document collection. Owners who start with something vague like “help me with marketing” tend to stall. Owners who start with a repeating task get a result in the first fortnight and expand from there.
You teach them your business; you should not have to teach them the job. Every VRA assistant completes a mandatory four-week, instructor-led programme before any client work, covering CRM and database work, contract and e-signature workflows, and documenting procedures. On top of that we commit to 90% proficiency in your own software within five business days of starting.
Part-time at 20 hours a week is enough for an inbox, a calendar and invoicing in most small businesses. Go full-time at 40 hours when there is phone coverage to hold or a second function to absorb. You can move between the two as your assistant’s availability allows, and hours and scope can be revisited once your initial three-month commitment is complete.
Ask any provider this before you sign, because the answers vary a lot. At VRA there are structured check-ins at 14, 30, 60 and 90 days, and if the fit is wrong we swap in a different assistant at no extra cost. There is no trial window to miss and no fine print on the swap.
You do. A virtual assistant administers the back office under your direction — they carry out and take ownership of processes, but you still run the business and supervise any people. Access is provisioned by you, scoped to the work, and revocable at any time, and anything requiring a professional licence stays with your licensed staff.