If you’re a CEO, executive, or business owner struggling to keep up with administrative tasks that pull you away from strategic decisions, you’re not alone.
Many leaders find themselves stretched thin, handling tasks that pull them away from high-priority decisions. However, hiring a full-time assistant may not be cost-effective or necessary.
Enter the fractional executive assistant—an adaptable, on-demand solution that brings top-level administrative support without the long-term commitment or high costs of a permanent hire.
Here’s how fractional executive assistants save businesses time, money, and valuable resources.
TL;DR – What’s the Typical ROI of Outsourcing Executive Assistant Tasks for Founders?
Short on time? Here’s what you need to know:
- You might see a 3-5x return when you outsource EA tasks to fractional support.
- For every dollar you spend, you get back 3-5 hours to focus on work that actually moves the needle.
- Most founders put those hours straight into revenue work (client meetings, closing deals, strategic planning).
- You’ll notice the biggest gains in the first 90 days when you’re no longer stuck in admin quicksand and can make decisions faster.
Do you want to see these results in your own business?
ProAssisting pairs you with US-based, experienced executive assistants who bring 5+ years of elite support experience.
Our fractional model means you get top-tier EA support for 50-80% less than hiring full-time, with one-hour response times and after-hours availability when you need it.
Start with a free consultation to see how a ProAssistant can give you back 8-15 hours per week.
What Is a Fractional Executive Assistant?
A fractional executive assistant provides skilled administrative support on a part-time or as-needed basis, offering high-caliber assistance to meet specific needs without the burden of a full-time position. Rather than hiring a traditional assistant, businesses can turn to a fractional assistant to handle the hours and responsibilities they need most, from day-to-day organization to project-based support.
Typical tasks of a fractional executive assistant include:
- Scheduling and Calendar Management: Streamlining meetings and appointments to maximize executive productivity.
- Travel Coordination: Planning travel, booking flights, and managing itineraries.
- Email and Communication Support: Organizing and prioritizing inboxes and handling communications.
- Project Coordination: Supporting project deadlines and ensuring deliverables are completed on time.
Fractional roles have become popular in recent years, as they offer flexible, scalable support that meets the dynamic demands of businesses. According to Harvard Business Review, the rise of fractional roles allows companies to benefit from top-tier expertise on a part-time basis, helping companies address critical needs while avoiding a full-time hire’s expense.
The Real ROI Of Outsourcing EA Tasks For Founders
The math is straightforward.
You’re billing $300 per hour. You spend 10 hours weekly on admin tasks (scheduling, travel booking, expense reports, email management).
That’s $3,000 lost weekly, or $156,000 annually.
A fractional executive assistant at $3,300 monthly costs $39,600 per year. You get back those 10 hours for billable work.
The difference? $116,400 in captured revenue. That’s a 294% return.
u/Optimeyez007 pointed out in a startup founder discussion on Reddit:
- “Studies suggest EAs save, on avg, 20% of an exec’s time. And that’s 20% on low-ROI tasks that could be reinvested into high-ROI tasks.”
The business impact of effective delegation extends beyond simple time arbitrage.
When founders trust someone else to handle administrative work, they free up mental bandwidth for the strategic decisions that actually drive revenue growth.
One ProAssisting client, Barbara Yastine (Former CEO & Chair of Ally Bank), said: “I wouldn’t be able to sit on this many boards without ProAssisting support.”
Her EA handles meeting prep, travel, and board book management. This frees her for governance decisions that move the needle.
The typical founder sees improvements in three areas within 90 days:
- Time Reclaimed: 8-15 hours per week
- Revenue Impact: Increase in billable or strategic work
- Decision Speed: Faster operational turnaround
And these numbers compound. When you’re not stuck in the weeds of logistics, you make smarter calls faster. You close deals you would have missed by booking flights. You build relationships instead of managing your inbox.
However, this level of delegation requires trust. But when done right, it creates the “29-hour work day” – getting 29 hours of work done in 24 hours through strategic EA support.
Key Ways Fractional Executive Assistants Save Time for Executives
A fractional executive assistant can save significant time for CEOs and executives by offloading essential, time-consuming tasks. Here’s how:
1. Efficient Management of Daily Operations
With a fractional assistant, executives can delegate routine tasks like managing calendars, scheduling appointments, and sorting through emails, freeing up their time for core responsibilities. This keeps executives from being bogged down by routine details, allowing them to maintain focus on strategic priorities.
Example: Rather than spending hours organizing meetings and travel plans, executives can rely on a fractional assistant to handle these logistics. By delegating these tasks, leaders regain valuable hours in their day.
2. Increased Focus on Core Goals
By taking on administrative and support tasks, fractional executive assistants allow leaders to concentrate on the broader vision and long-term goals. Delegating tasks such as document preparation, client follow-ups, and event planning frees executives to prioritize high-level decisions.
Executives who can delegate routine work increase their productivity and are able to focus more on growth, innovation, and business expansion.
How to Evaluate Tasks That Improve Founder Productivity
Not all tasks deliver equal ROI when outsourced. Some give you immediate time back. Others compound over months.
Track where your time goes for one week. Use a simple spreadsheet. Break down your day into 30-minute blocks. Tag each as “revenue-generating,” “strategic,” or “administrative.”
Most founders spend 36% of their workweek on small administrative tasks like invoicing, data entry, ordering office supplies, and organizing staff social events.
That’s your opportunity zone.
High-impact tasks (delegate immediately):
- Calendar management and scheduling
- Email filtering and drafting
- Travel arrangements
- Expense reports
- Meeting prep and follow-up
Medium-impact tasks (delegate after trust builds):
- CRM maintenance
- Invoice processing
- Client communication
- Project tracking
- Research and information gathering
The key metric is opportunity cost. If a task can be done at $50/hour and your rate is $300+, you lose $250 every hour you do that work.
But there’s another angle: mental bandwidth.
Research from the University of California at Irvine found it takes 23 minutes to refocus after an interruption.
Every time you break from strategic work to schedule a meeting, you lose more than the five minutes that the task took. You lose the 23-minute recovery period.
A 2022 German research study from Next Work Innovation (NWI) showed that knowledge workers are interrupted every 4 minutes on average.
For founders, admin tasks drive these interruptions.
When you’re protecting your focus and creating uninterrupted blocks for deep work.
u/mykosyko shared their experience hiring an EA after raising $25M (on the same thread as above):
- “Once you are past the series A stage and B stage and your life as a leader becomes nothing but back to back internal and external meetings some days it can be a real time saver… an hour saved or a cancelled meeting becomes a godsend.”
The evaluation process:
- List every recurring task you do weekly
- Note the time each takes
- Multiply by your hourly rate
- Prioritize by the highest dollar value
- Delegate from the top down
Your EA can handle most items that don’t require your specific expertise. The faster you delegate, the faster you see returns.
P.S. – If you’re considering working with an EA (or want to improve your current partnership), this book breaks down the exact frameworks for getting 10+ hours back in your week.
‘The 29-Hour Work Day’ – get it here for free.
How to Calculate The Cost Of Inefficiency For Founders
Inefficiency has a price tag. Most founders underestimate it.
Direct time costs:
- Two hours weekly managing your calendar at $300/hour equals $31,200 annually.
- Three hours on email management adds $46,800.
- Travel planning at two hours monthly equals $7,200.
- Expense reports and invoice tracking add another $15,600.
Just these four categories total $100,800 in annual opportunity cost.
Indirect costs hit harder:
- Missed Opportunities: The client call you couldn’t take because you were at the Apple Store. The partnership that never happened because you forgot to follow up.
- Slow Decisions: When juggling too much, decisions drag. Slow decision-making costs companies in annual revenue.
- Team Bottlenecks: Your team waits on you for approvals and answers. Executives being bottlenecks can reduce team productivity.
- Burnout Risk: Executive burnout costs employers an average of $20,683 per year per executive due to missed workdays and reduced productivity. They’re also 63% more likely to take sick days and 2.6 times more likely to leave.
Here’s the calculation formula:
- Track admin time for one week
- Calculate hourly rate (annual income ÷ 2,080 hours)
- Multiply: Admin hours weekly × hourly rate × 52 weeks
- Add opportunity cost from missed deals
For most founders, this lands between $80,000 and $200,000 annually.
Compare that to ProAssisting’s fractional EA support at $39,600/year. Even if your EA saves 50% of inefficiency cost, you capture $40,000-$100,000 in value.
How to Strengthen Founder Decision-Making With EA Support
Good decisions need good information at the right time. Most founders make decisions with incomplete data because they don’t have time to gather it.
An experienced EA becomes your research arm and accountability system. They give you what you need when you need it:
- Pre-Meeting Prep: Your EA digs up everything you need before a call. LinkedIn profiles, recent company news, past email threads. You walk in knowing exactly who you’re talking to and what they care about.
- Ready-to-Decide Briefs: Your EA puts all the info you need into one simple document. Vendor quotes side by side. Pros and cons. Budget breakdowns. You spend 10 minutes reviewing instead of an hour hunting through emails.
- Follow-Through: Your EA makes sure things actually get done. They track who’s doing what, follow up when needed, and keep projects moving forward.
- Calendar Protection: Your EA guards your time like it matters. They block off chunks for deep work, group similar meetings together, and give you breathing room between big decisions.
- Learning What You Need: The longer you work together, the better your EA gets at reading your mind. They know what info you’ll ask for before you ask. They catch things that look off. They become your second brain.
u/Mental-Influence-851 describes this holistic approach perfectly:
“Standing back and looking holistically at all of the work that needs to be squeezed into each week/month/year” by laying down hard commitments like board meetings and conferences, then strategically planning around them. This level of planning takes the “broad planning stress off of their plate and they can focus on showing up to these commitments as their best self.”
Better decisions, made faster, with better information, lead to better outcomes. When the stakes are high, the quality difference is everything.
Financial Benefits of Hiring a Fractional Executive Assistant
While fractional executive assistants provide essential time-saving support, they also present a highly cost-effective solution for businesses. Here’s how:
1. Reduced Salary and Overhead Costs
Hiring a fractional assistant means companies only pay for the hours they need, avoiding the full-time salary and benefits package that a permanent hire would require. This arrangement significantly reduces overhead and allows businesses to access executive-level support without the full-time costs.
- Savings on Benefits: Companies save on health insurance, retirement contributions, and other benefits.
- Flexible Budgeting: Part-time hours mean executives only pay for what they need.
2. Elimination of Recruitment and Training Costs
With fractional executive assistants, especially those hired through professional services, businesses bypass the long and costly recruitment and onboarding process. Most fractional assistants are seasoned professionals who require minimal training and can quickly integrate into a new role.
This setup means companies avoid costs associated with:
- Recruitment fees and advertising
- Training and onboarding expenses
Flexibility and Scalability for Growing Businesses
For businesses in flux—whether scaling up, expanding into new markets, or facing seasonal demands—fractional executive assistants offer unmatched flexibility.
1. On-Demand Support That Scales with Business Needs
Fractional executive assistants can increase or decrease their hours to match your business’s busy seasons, project needs, or temporary spikes in demand. This flexibility ensures that executives get the support they need without being locked into a fixed schedule.
Example: A company launching a new product may require increased support for several weeks. A fractional assistant can adjust their availability during this busy period and reduce hours once the project concludes.
2. Adapting to Rapidly Changing Needs
As business needs evolve, a fractional assistant’s role can be adjusted to meet current demands. This adaptability is especially beneficial for startups or small businesses that may experience rapid growth or shifts in workload.
Access to Skilled Talent Without Long-Term Commitment
One of the top reasons executives turn to fractional assistants is the ability to tap into a high level of expertise on a part-time basis. Many fractional executive assistants have extensive experience working with C-suite leaders and bring specialized skills that can make a significant impact.
1. High-Level Expertise on Demand
Fractional executive assistants often have deep experience in executive support, project coordination, CRM management, and more. By hiring them on a part-time basis, companies benefit from this expertise without committing to a full-time salary.
Example: An executive who needs someone familiar with CRM software can hire a fractional assistant with the necessary skills, eliminating the need for additional training.
2. Accessing Remote and Global Talent
Fractional executive assistants are frequently available to work remotely, which broadens the talent pool significantly. Executives aren’t limited to local talent; they can hire top-tier professionals with the right skills and experience from anywhere.
- Remote Accessibility: Hiring remotely means executives can access a wider range of experienced professionals, ensuring a match for their specific needs and industry.
How to Hire a Fractional Executive Assistant
When hiring a fractional executive assistant, a few steps can help ensure you find the right match:
Identify Core Responsibilities
Start by outlining the main tasks you need support with—whether it’s calendar management, communication support, or project deadlines.
Prioritize Experience and Communication Skills
Look for candidates with proven experience supporting high-level executives, particularly in a fast-paced environment, and ensure they have strong communication skills for seamless collaboration.
Consider Using a Specialized Service
Work with companies that specialize in matching executives with vetted fractional executive assistants who bring extensive experience to the role. Their services can save you time sourcing and evaluating candidates, making it easier to find a qualified match quickly.
Working with a specialized service can streamline the hiring process, saving time and ensuring you’re matched with a professional well-suited to your needs. Many services vet candidates to ensure they have the skill sets and experience necessary to provide impactful support.
Is Fractional Executive Assistance Right for Your Business?
For executives and business owners seeking efficient, cost-effective support without the commitment of a full-time hire, a fractional executive assistant is an excellent solution. With the ability to adapt to changing needs, provide high-level expertise, and deliver on-demand support, fractional executive assistants help leaders maximize productivity, stay organized, and focus on strategic growth.
By considering a fractional assistant or working with ProAssisting professional service to match you with top talent, you can gain valuable, tailored support that fits your business’s unique needs, saving time and money.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Here are answers to common questions about outsourcing EA tasks and measuring ROI:
How Do I Know When EA Outsourcing Delivers Positive ROI?
Watch for changes in three areas over the first 90 days:
- Your Calendar: Are you spending more time in meetings that make money? Less time on busywork?
- Your Team’s Speed: Are decisions happening faster? Are things moving instead of waiting on you?
- Your Revenue: Did you close deals you normally would’ve dropped the ball on?
You should get at least 20-40% more time on high-value work within the first quarter.
What Tasks Should Founders Delegate First To See Fast Gains?
Start with your calendar. You’ll feel the relief immediately and stop jumping between a million things.
Next up: travel planning and expense reports. Then let your EA handle your inbox. They can knock out 60-70% of emails without bothering you.
Once you trust them, hand over project updates, meeting prep, and vendor conversations.
How Do Fractional EAs Support High-Growth Startup Priorities?
Hiring fractional EAs gives startups executive support without full-time overhead. They handle investor relations, board meeting prep, fundraising logistics, and strategic project management.
Experienced EAs can also manage investor meetings, data room documents, due diligence, and term sheet tracking. This will free you to focus on pitching and relationships.
How Does EA Support Reduce Founder Burnout?
Burnout hits when you’re burning energy on stuff that drains you. Admin work is pure drain for most founders.
When you delegate to an EA, you stop fighting friction every single day. No more working until midnight to clear your inbox. No more missing your kid’s game because you’re stuck booking a hotel.
Conclusion
The smartest founders don’t just work harder. They multiply their impact through leverage. When you’re stuck doing admin work, you’re not leading. You’re responding.
ProAssisting changes that.
They match you with a dedicated, US-based ProAssistant who brings extensive C-suite experience and operates as a true extension of you. Your ProAssistant handles everything from calendar management to project coordination, investor relations to board prep.
With 75% of your monthly retainer going directly to your ProAssistant; they attract and retain top talent who build legacy knowledge of your business.
Schedule your free consultation and discover what you could accomplish with 10+ hours back in your week.
