The short answer is: you probably can't afford to not have one.
And before you click away from this, hear me out, because the question of affordability is almost always being asked backwards
You’re Already Paying For It
Budget is tight for a lot of people right now. The market is in a different place than it was a few years ago, and I get that. It’s real. So let’s actually look at what your week looked like.
You Built the Business – But You’re Still in the Weeds
If I could hand you back five hours from last week — after your eight hours of sleep — what would you have done differently? Would you have played with your kids a little more? Put your feet up with your partner? Had that business idea that’s been sitting in the back of your head finally had room to come through?
Now ask yourself what your time is actually worth per hour.
Are you spending half your day organizing meetings, sitting in meetings, making notes about meetings, tracking to-dos, cleaning up your calendar, and responding to so many emails you don’t know what to do with yourself? Or are you spending 90% of your day on the work only you can do — that magic piece that got you into business in the first place?
Because if it’s the first one, you’re already paying. Just not on a line item anyone can see.
I Don’t Know What to Hand Off
This is probably the thing I hear most. And there’s no judgment – it’s a completely fair thing to say.
But a qualified EA doesn’t walk in the door waiting for you to have it all figured out. We come with the questions to figure it out. I take a people-first approach to this work, which means sometimes I’m picking up that my client hasn’t eaten all day and offering to sort that out. Other times it means listening to what sounds like a rant and actually hearing what’s underneath it.
The point is, you did not get into business to spend your days doing administration.
Yes, we have AI tools now that we didn’t have a few years ago, and honestly, my own work has shifted because of them. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t still a need for a real person keeping an eye on things. Having someone with actual context checking your inbox (someone who knows your business, your people, your priorities), that confidence is not something an AI tool gives you. Not really.
(More on that in my next post — Why AI Isn’t Enough.)
A Real Example
I had a client who held onto her own email for a long time. Couldn’t quite let go of it. It took a couple of vacations going by before she finally let me in.
When she did, I went in, categorized everything, and flagged what actually needed her attention. So when she came back (or even if she checked while she was away), she could see immediately what was critical, what was urgent, and what didn’t need her at all.
She walked back into her business instead of back into a pile.
That’s what five hours can do.
How Much Support Does It Actually Take?
It varies. But you also don’t have to commit to a big engagement to start.
Five hours a week is often enough to start feeling the difference – and in a lot of cases, those five hours give you back more than five of your own, because a virtual EA is working without the interruptions and the constant context switching that fragments your day.
Early on, you might start seeing things like:
None of that is exciting. For a lot of people, it’s exactly the kind of tedium that creates the Sunday “scaries”.
As a business owner, you should not have Sunday “scaries”. This is your dream, these are your people after all
Looking for real examples of how an Executive Assistant can transform your day?
Read our post on What is a Virtual Executive Assistant & What does a VA Do?
What Changes When You Stop Carrying It
Once an executive has real confidence in their EA, once they know that handing something off means it’s going to get done, no follow-up needed, things really shift.
Not just in output. In how they feel about their business.
You get back to the work that lights you up. The work that makes you feel like yourself again. The work that moves you toward whatever you’re actually building.
It doesn’t have to be an overwhelming commitment. Start with five hours a week. See what comes back to you. Go from there.