You may have known exactly what you were buying. A business that runs on one person prices lower, and fixing that after close was always the plan. Then the seller left, the office manager followed, the phone started ringing to your cell — and the note came due on schedule. The first 90 days after close decide whether you own a business or a job. A trained VRA virtual assistant takes the calls, the paperwork and the follow-up — for $1,500 a month, without putting anyone on payroll.
Free, no obligation — we’ll map what you’d hand off first.
Every seller transition has the same few weeks in it, whatever the industry.
If the seller already works with a VRA assistant, the engagement can transfer to you at closing. The person who has been documenting how the business operates and administering its back office stays on with you, procedures in hand, instead of leaving with the seller. Who pays, and from when, is set by you and the seller in your deal. For the order of work either way, see your first 100 days after buying a business. Buying a business without one? Take the two-minute delegation quiz during diligence and select your assistant before close. Once you select your assistant, they can start within 24 hours of selection, so your first week isn’t spent answering the phones yourself.
Every new VRA client starts with a Needs Assessment — a two-minute breakdown of where your hours are actually going. After a close, it may be the first honest look anyone has taken at how the business runs.
Two minutes, no call required. It maps the work that is eating your week and the gaps the seller left behind.
Candidates are screened with a DISC Assessment and a Keller Personality Assessment, and matched to the work the assessment surfaced.
Once you pick your assistant, they can start within 24 hours of selection — and we check in at 14, 30, 60 and 90 days, which lands right across your first quarter of ownership.
For an acquirer, the question is less about the work than the commitment.
Planning more than one? Call it a roll-up or a holdco — the back office you build for the first acquisition becomes the system you bring to the second, and the owner stays free to go find it.
Building the back office for owner-operators is the core of what VRA does — across sales and service firms, accounting practices, title and compliance, and hospitality. A business you just bought is the same problem with a different phone ringing.
A nationwide services firm runs a 15-person VRA bench across sales, client service, marketing and HR. See how sales and service teams use VRA.
A CPA, 30 days in: his assistant makes sure “He's helped me make sure things that have been falling through the cracks no longer fall through the cracks, and keeping me honest on everything that I have going on.” See the accounting page.
An escrow operations president who advises Texas title agencies on compliance started with a single VRA assistant, grew to three, and has referred clients of her own. Read the case study.
A client whose assistant works across several of his projects, at his 90-day check-in: “So yeah, everyone and anyone should use it — and that’s in any industry, because quite frankly what they learn in the real estate world, it’s all operations and systems, and it’s just flowed so nicely through all of my different projects.” — Brandon Lara, Assistant Team Leader, Keller Williams Memorial. Watch the check-in.
What to delegate first, what it costs, and how it works alongside the staff you inherited.
The phone and the follow-up. If the seller’s office manager leaves, calls start going to voicemail or to your cell. A VRA assistant answers and returns calls during your business hours, books work into your scheduling software, chases the invoices nobody has chased since close, and keeps customers and vendors updated — the work that quietly loses revenue while you are busy learning the business.
Yes. The engagement can transfer to you at closing, so the same assistant continues with you as the new owner. VRA’s only commitment is a 3-month minimum. It starts with the seller and carries over to you at closing, and terms can be adjusted to fit your deal. Who pays, and from when, is set by you and the seller in your deal, for example in the purchase agreement or transition plan. The procedures the assistant has documented belong to the business, so they come with it either way.
That is exactly the moment an assistant earns their keep. As they work your inbox, your calendar and your customer list, they write down how things are actually done — who the suppliers are, which customers are on recurring service, what the quoting process looks like — so the process ends up in a document instead of in a departed owner’s memory. VRA assistants are trained in administrative documentation and SOP work as part of the program.
You can. The difference in year one is the commitment: a full-time VRA assistant is $1,500 a month, flat, with no payroll taxes, benefits, equipment or recruiting spend, and no severance if the business turns out to need something different. The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts median pay for secretaries and administrative assistants at $48,310 a year as of May 2025 — about $69,000 a year with benefits, against $18,000 here. If you are servicing acquisition debt, that difference shows up directly in your coverage ratio.
No. An assistant takes the administrative load off people you need doing the actual work of the business — the technician who is answering the phone between jobs, the bookkeeper buried in scheduling. If the seller’s admin person has already left, an assistant fills that gap without a hire.
It is the normal situation after a close, and it is why every new VRA client starts with a Needs Assessment — a two-minute breakdown of where your hours are actually going, before anyone talks about hours or scope. You can start with one part-time assistant on the obvious work and expand once you can see the shape of the business.
Yes. $800 a month for 20 hours a week, or $1,500 for 40 hours. You can revisit hours and scope once the initial three months are complete, or switch between part-time and full-time.
A full-time assistant works for your business and no one else, so how their 40 hours are split across your entities is your call. A part-time assistant is your own named assistant with your 20 hours reserved, and may hold one other part-time placement. As volume grows, you can add a second assistant rather than stretch the first — and because the processes from the first business are already written down, the second assistant starts from your playbook instead of from scratch.
Yes. You can take the two-minute Needs Assessment during diligence, interview matched candidates and select your assistant before close. Once you select your assistant, they can start within 24 hours of selection.
Once you select your assistant, they can start within 24 hours of selection.
Hours and scope can be revisited once the initial three months are complete, and the slower season is a good time to get your assistant fluent in the workflow so the busy season is already covered. Your assistant’s hours are set by you, evenings or overnight if you need them, at the same flat rate. Weekend coverage can be requested.
They work in whatever you already use. VRA assistants are trained on transferable fundamentals rather than one vendor’s product, and we commit to 90% proficiency in your systems within 5 business days of starting with you.
Every assistant completes a mandatory 4-week, instructor-led training program before touching client work. Exceptional English communication skills are a requirement to be hired at VRA. Every assistant comes through screening, hands-on training and a final evaluation — in our most recent cohort, 1,800 applications produced 16 graduating assistants.
You can swap in a different assistant at any point, at no extra cost — no trial window, no fine print. VRA also checks in at 14, 30, 60, and 90 days, and if a check-in surfaces a skill your business needs, we train your assistant in it rather than replacing the person who already knows your operation.
Yes. VRA carries a $1 million Errors & Omissions insurance policy.
VRA trains virtual assistants across industries — explore what a VA looks like for your line of work.
The same work reads differently depending on where you sit. These are written separately for a reason.
VRA checks in with every client at 14, 30, 60 and 90 days. These four run four different businesses — a restaurant, an accounting practice, a vacation rental operation and a mortgage office — and the arc is the same one.
“I don’t know how I made it this long without even having a VA. She’s been juggling so many things. She’s been super flexible, and she’s just making my life easier.”
“He’s helped me make sure things that have been falling through the cracks no longer fall through the cracks, and keeping me honest on everything that I have going on.”
“She created a website. She’s created social media sites. And she is learning QuickBooks to help keep track of it all as well.”
“He has been able to take ownership of an inbox for me, and he has been able to keep on top of that inbox and respond back to clients and referral partners.”