Virtual assistant
Virtual assistant vs employee: which one does your business actually need?
4 min read
By
Wiktoria Pawlak
Founder of The Assist.
Share
Ten years ago a personal assistant was reserved for CEOs, boards of large corporations and owners of big companies. Today that has completely flipped, and most small business owners still don't know it. Whatever the size of your company, you can have a real right hand in business and in life: a virtual assistant.
Running a company with no operational support is no longer a sign of being careful with money. It has become a common mistake that holds the business back and burns the owner out. So when does it make sense to take on an employee, and when is a virtual assistant the better choice?
What a full-time employee really involves
Taking someone on isn't just the pay on the contract. Wherever you are in Europe, an employment contract brings a set of hidden costs and obligations:
Recruitment and onboarding: hours spent reading CVs, interviewing and teaching your processes in the first weeks.
Fixed obligations: employer social contributions, paid holiday, sick leave and, in many countries, occupational health checks.
A place to work: a laptop, software licences, a desk, a chair and office space.
Management time: supervising, motivating and checking the work every day.
The risk of a wrong hire: finding out after the probation period that it isn't the right person and starting again.
Why business owners put off getting support
Not getting support rarely comes from not needing it. Usually it's fear of the process itself:
fear of finding the right person and checking their skills,
worry about a long, tiring onboarding,
the risk that the person disappears or falls ill at the worst possible moment.
These fears are completely fair. They're exactly why so many owners prefer to do everything themselves rather than trust something untested.
Virtual assistant vs employee: the key differences
A virtual assistant isn't simply a cheaper replacement for an employee. It's a different way of getting operational support. You don't sign an employment contract, you don't run a recruitment process and you don't pay for a desk. You buy a package of hours that matches what your business needs right now, with one invoice per 28-day cycle.
Full-time employee | Virtual assistant from The Assist | |
|---|---|---|
What you pay for | Pay, employer contributions, holiday, sick leave, workplace | A package of hours, one invoice per 28 days |
Recruitment and onboarding | Weeks or months of your time | We match a vetted person (1 in 20 pass our recruitment) |
Working time | A full-time job (around 160 hours a month), whatever the workload | Packages of 5, 10, 20 or 40 hours per 28-day cycle |
Holiday and sickness | Work stops or you take it over yourself | Guaranteed cover from our team |
Equipment | Computer, desk and licences on your side | The assistant works on their own equipment |
Language | Depends on who you find | English and Polish |
Packages start from €180 net per 28-day cycle. You'll find all the numbers on our virtual assistant pricing page. All prices are net. VAT is charged depending on your country of tax residence.
What if a virtual assistant falls ill or goes on holiday?
It's one of the most common objections, and rightly so. When your only employee is off sick, work stops. That's why a professional agency guarantees cover. If your dedicated assistant is unavailable, another qualified person from our team steps in, without starting the onboarding from scratch. Keeping things running stops being your problem.
When an employee is the better choice
To be fair, a virtual assistant isn't always the answer. An employee makes more sense when:
you need someone physically in your office or shop every day,
there's genuinely enough work for a full-time role, every week, for the long term,
the role is core to your product and needs deep in-house knowledge built over years.
In most small companies none of this is true for admin and organisational work. That's where a virtual assistant fits best.
How many hours of support do you really need?
Before deciding, try a simple exercise. Write down every task from last week, at work and at home: finding a tradesperson or activities for the kids, organising your calendar, booking meetings and answering emails, invoicing, chasing payments, bookings and contact with suppliers.
Then add up how many hours these tasks take in a month. In most small and medium-sized businesses it's between 10 and 20 hours a month, not the 160 hours of a full-time job. Paying for a full-time role often simply isn't necessary.
Do you need a whole area covered?
If you'd rather hand over a whole area of the company (payments, contracts, office back office, executive support), look at a remote executive assistant. Managers at The Assist have at least 4 years of experience and take responsibility for the result, not just the task list.
The question worth asking yourself
Many founders ask: “Can I afford a virtual assistant?” The better question is: what does it cost me to keep doing all of this myself?
Time is the one currency you can't earn back. Book a 15-minute call, send us your task list, and we'll take care of the rest.