Picture this: you’re stuck doing admin work while your best business ideas wait on the sidelines.
Your calendar is a mess, your inbox is full of requests, and you can’t remember the last time you worked on strategy instead of just scheduling meetings.
Sound familiar?
You’re not alone, and there’s a solution that successful executives have used for years.
If you’re tired of being stuck in busy work instead of growing your business, ProAssisting can connect you with experienced remote executive assistants for 50-80% less than the cost of hiring full-time!
The Evolution of the Executive Assistant Role
The role of an executive assistant has changed from the paper-pushing secretaries of the 1950s into today’s strategic business partners.
Modern executive assistants serve as performance multipliers, giving you back the most valuable resource you have: time.
When you understand what an executive assistant does and how they add value, you’ll realize why Harvard Business Review suggests your first hire should be an EA.
The change started during the Industrial Revolution when secretaries pushed massive amounts of paper, handled basic correspondence, and managed phone switchboards.
Technology slowly made these tasks obsolete and changed everything:
- Computers and calendar systems eliminated filing cabinets and manual scheduling
- Smartphones enabled instant communication and real-time coordination
- SaaS products moved work to browsers, creating platform independence
- Copier machines streamlined document reproduction
- Email replaced typed memos and fax machines
This shift turned secretaries into executive assistants: utility players who produce outcomes and influence multiple business areas.
They moved from gatekeepers into strategic partners who think three steps ahead and solve problems before they reach your desk.
The pandemic sped up this change by making remote work standard.
What once seemed impossible, providing high-level executive support from anywhere, became normal for forward-thinking businesses.
Who Needs an Executive Assistant
Anyone looking to get back time and delegate monotonous tasks they don’t want to do needs an executive assistant.
The goal is simple: give you mental space to focus on what’s truly important in your business and life.
This support spans a wide range of professionals:
- Vice presidents at businesses generating more than $5 million in revenue need help with travel arrangements, scheduling, and expense tracking
- CEOs and C-suite executives require comprehensive support to manage their complex responsibilities
- Entrepreneurs building and scaling their businesses benefit from having operational support
- Retired CEOs serving as non-executive board directors benefit from having a single point of contact
- High-net-worth individuals running busy lives with philanthropic activities, social calendars, and multiple properties
Even solopreneurs doing $500,000+ annually in revenue can justify executive assistant support.
The return on investment makes this decision simple:
- The math is straightforward: A senior executive earning $1 million annually, working with an $80,000 assistant, only needs 8% more productivity to break even
- That’s just five hours saved in a 60-hour workweek
- Real assistants save much more than that by ensuring meetings start on time, optimizing travel, and filtering distractions
As Harvard Business Review notes, skilled assistants turn reactive email-answerers into proactive leaders, creating substantial value for organizations willing to invest in proper support.
How Can an Executive Assistant Add Value to Your Business
Executive assistants add value through what we call the five performance multipliers. These aren’t separate roles but integrated approaches that transform how you work:
Time Arbitrage
The primary value an executive assistant brings is time arbitrage.
They handle your hundred-dollar-an-hour tasks while you focus on your thousand-dollar-an-hour activities.
This simple shift can have a dramatic impact on your bottom line.
Consider this:
- If you’re generating $500,000 annually working 2,000 hours, your time is worth $250 per hour.
- Every hour your assistant saves you by handling lower-level tasks creates immediate value.
- Multiply that by weeks and months, and the return on investment becomes substantial.
Single Point of Contact
A skilled C-level executive assistant becomes the central hub for your communications. Instead of fielding dozens of calls and emails daily, people learn to contact your assistant first.
This filtering system ensures you only engage with priority items while maintaining excellent relationships with clients, vendors, and team members.
Your assistant can often answer questions immediately based on their knowledge of your preferences and previous decisions.
When they can’t provide an immediate answer, they gather the necessary information and present it to you in digestible formats, saving you research time.
The Five Performance Multipliers
Executive assistants who truly add value operate across five key areas:
- Business Partner: They can represent you in meetings, provide input on marketing campaigns, and offer fresh perspectives on business decisions. Their outside view often reveals opportunities you might miss when you’re deep in daily operations.
- Chief of Staff: Not in the traditional strategic sense, but as your communication hub. They coordinate between different departments, manage information flow, and ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
- Project Manager: They can handle everything from board retreats to big company projects. They take care of vendors, keep things on schedule, and make sure the work gets done right.
- Assistant/Scheduler: Beyond basic calendar management, they understand your rhythms and preferences. They know when you’re most productive, how you like meetings structured, and can optimize your schedule for maximum effectiveness.
- Personal Assistant: The line between business and personal often blurs for busy executives. A trusted EA can handle personal tasks that free up mental bandwidth for business decisions, from coordinating family schedules to managing household staff.
These roles often overlap and complement each other.
Many business owners struggle with:
- Whether they need executive assistant vs. personal assistant support or
- Wonder about the differences between chief of staff and executive assistant roles.
The key is finding someone who can adapt to your specific needs across all five areas or multiple of them.
Operational Efficiency
Great executive assistants create systems and processes that make your entire operation more efficient.
They
- Develop standard operating procedures,
- Maintain databases of important information, and
- Establish workflows that keep projects moving forward even when you’re unavailable.
This systematic approach means less time spent on repetitive decisions and more consistency in how your business operates.
They become the institutional memory that prevents you from having to reinvent the wheel every time similar situations arise.
What to Look for in an Executive Assistant
Finding the right executive assistant requires looking beyond technical skills to evaluate their potential as a true business partner:
- Proven C-Suite Experience: Look for candidates with real experience supporting high-level executives at established organizations, not just task-based virtual assistant work.
- Technology Skills: Find someone who can work across different platforms (Mac/PC, various email systems) and learn your existing tech tools quickly.
- Strong People Skills: Seek someone who can professionally represent you with everyone from vendors to board members, using the right communication style for each person.
- Servant’s Heart: Find candidates who understand they work behind the scenes and take genuine satisfaction in helping you succeed rather than seeking attention.
- Self-Awareness: Look for assistants who understand their role and can handle complex situations with tact and discretion.
- Type A Personality: Choose candidates who are naturally proactive, detail-oriented, and work well under pressure.
- Strong Work Ethic: Review their career history for evidence of long-term commitments and reliability in demanding roles.
- Problem-Solving Mindset: Choose someone who sees problems coming and offers solutions rather than just following instructions.
- Trustworthy: Pick someone who can handle confidential information and make decisions that match your values and business goals.
- Growth Mindset: Select candidates who view the role as building deep knowledge about your business, preferences, and industry over time.
- Good Cultural Fit: Most importantly, make sure their communication style and professional approach match your company culture and personal working style.
Working with ProAssisting
Traditional hiring processes can be time-consuming and expensive, especially when you’re not sure exactly what level of support you need.
At ProAssisting, we offer a different approach through our fractional executive assistant model. Instead of hiring a full-time employee, you get access to experienced, top-class ProAssistants.
This provides several advantages:
- Immediate Access to Experience: We partner with remote executive assistants who have a minimum of five years of experience working as an executive assistant, project manager, or equivalent at globally recognized brands. You get their expertise without the overhead of a full-time hire.
- Top 5% Talent: We accept less than 5% of applicants through our comprehensive screening process. This includes resume reviews, personality assessments, and background checks, ensuring you work with only the most qualified candidates.
- Scalable Support: Start with one-third of a ProAssistant’s time and scale up as your needs grow. We have a tier system for 1/3, 1/2, or 2/3 of your ProAssistant’s full-time capacity. This flexibility lets you right-size your support without overcommitting resources.
- Proven Systems: Our ProAssistants have worked with multiple high-level executives and bring best practices from other successful partnerships. They can complete upwards of 95% of the functions of an on-site executive assistant.
Our investment starts at $3,300 monthly, which typically works well for businesses generating north of $500,000 annually. We pass over 75% of your monthly retainer directly to your ProAssistant, ensuring they’re fairly compensated for their high-level expertise.
We provide the exclusivity and legacy knowledge while maintaining cost efficiency. Our model includes no equipment expenses, no long-term commitment, and no onboarding fees.
Ready to see if we’re the right fit for your business? Schedule a consultation to hire an assistant and start getting your time back.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Below are answers to common questions about executive assistant support and value.
What Skills Should an Executive Assistant Have?
Executive assistants need several key skills to be effective. They should have attention to detail and keep their own score. High-level technology proficiency is essential, along with good writing and grammar skills for communication.
How they present themselves matters, including their poise and confidentiality. Their ability to make small talk also plays a role.
All of these skills contribute to effective executive assistant support.
How Does an EA Support Work-Life Balance for Executives?
If you leverage your executive assistant in your personal world as well as your business, it creates a better work-life balance. This type of flexible executive assistant support gives you back time that helps with both sides of your life.
If that time is to focus more on the life side, they can definitely help. This includes attending kids’ sports games, music concerts, plays, anything academic, or going on family trips.
What’s the Difference Between an EA and a Chief of Staff?
An executive assistant serving as chief of staff is different from a traditional chief of staff role:
Executive Assistant as Chief of Staff:
- Acts as a single point of contact for people in your personal and business world
- Answers questions and provides project status updates on your behalf
- Receives communication from you to share with different people
- Handles day-to-day logistics and communication flow
Traditional Chief of Staff:
- Sits in every senior leadership team meeting
- Focuses on 6, 12, 18, 24, 36-month strategic goals
- Usually has an MBA and works at a senior leadership level
- Doesn’t handle daily logistics like an executive assistant does
- Holds C-suite executives accountable for KPIs and long-term objectives
The main difference is that executive assistants focus on communication and logistics, while traditional chiefs of staff focus on strategic planning and accountability.
Can an Executive Assistant Handle Confidential Information?
They should be able to, yes. Handling confidential information is a cornerstone of professional executive assistant work, whether working with in-house staff or outsourced executive assistants. They must maintain complete discretion in all business and personal matters.
Conclusion
Smart executives know their time is worth more than administrative tasks. The most successful leaders delegate effectively and focus on what only they can do. That’s where we come in.
At ProAssisting, we connect you with elite ProAssistants who have supported executives at Fortune 500 companies like J.Crew, Fidelity, and Oracle.
Our ProAssistants bring five-plus years of experience and work with just three clients maximum. You get dedicated support starting at $3,300 monthly with one-hour response times and after-hours availability when needed.
Stop doing busy work. Get started with ProAssisting and focus on growing your business instead.
