Running a business means wearing many hats. Even with a great team around you, dozens of tasks still need your personal attention each day. 

How you handle this daily juggle often decides whether your business thrives or struggles.

Maybe you’ve already tried the usual fixes—better time management, healthier routines, or a bit of meditation. All helpful stuff. But let’s face it—there are only so many hours in a day, and you’re just one person.

This is why you need an executive assistant.

Instead of doing everything yourself until you burn out, you can team up with someone (like a 2nd brain) who’s great at handling the tasks that bog you down. 

But making this partnership work isn’t automatic. It takes some know-how to get it right!

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TL;DR – How to Use an Executive Assistant

Here’s how to get started with your executive assistant:

Do you want to implement these steps but are unsure where to start? 

At ProAssisting, our ProAssistants bring at least 5 years of experience supporting high-level executives, board members, entrepreneurs, and business owners. 

We handle the rigorous vetting process (only the top 5% of applicants get selected) so you can focus on growing your business.

Let’s discuss how a ProAssistant can help you regain 30% or more of your working hours!

Our plans start at $3,000 per month and include daily support with one-hour turnaround times during business hours plus after-hours availability when unexpected needs arise.

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What is the Role of an Executive Assistant?

At its core, an executive assistant’s primary role is to give you back time—your most precious resource. 

But describing an EA’s role as simply “giving back time” is like describing a smartphone as just “making calls.” 

This is far more nuanced and powerful.

Modern executive assistants wear multiple hats, functioning as:

A great EA becomes a true extension of you, anticipating needs and proactively solving problems before they arise.

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Key Areas Where Executive Assistants Add Value

The modern workplace is overwhelming—according to this 2023 Microsoft report, 68% of people struggle to find uninterrupted focus time during their workday. 

The average executive spends over half their time (57%) just communicating—that’s endless meetings, emails, and chat messages. Only 43% is spent on actual creative work—creating documents and crunching numbers.

What does that look like in “hours”?

Top executives spend nearly 9 hours weekly on email alone, with another 7.5 hours in meetings. That’s almost two full workdays lost just to managing communications!

This is exactly where executive assistants make a huge difference. Here are the key areas where they make the biggest impact:

Another area where EAs add a lot of value is professional networking. 

Keeping up with your network often gets pushed to the bottom of your to-do list when you’re swamped with daily operations. 

But here’s why that matters: 

A LinkedIn study shows that 80% of executives say networking is crucial, and 70% landed roles where they had a connection. 

Yet nearly half (49%) say they simply don’t have time for it!

Your EA can help maintain these valuable relationships by scheduling regular check-ins, sending thoughtful follow-ups, and keeping your network warm even when you’re too busy to do it yourself.

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How to Use an Executive Assistant

Now, let’s walk through the step-by-step process of working with an executive assistant. 

It all starts with understanding exactly what you need:

1. Determine Your Support Needs

Your first step is figuring out what kind of support will serve you best. 

Do you need a full-time employee (either an administrative or an executive assistant), or would a fractional executive assistant work better? 

Maybe a virtual assistant would be more suitable for your needs. 

You’ll also need to decide between onshore and offshore options based on your requirements.

As Ethan Bull explained in a recent MSP Mindset podcast appearance, there is a wide spectrum of support options to consider—from $5/hour overseas virtual assistants to full-time executive assistants. 

For higher-end fractional support like the one that our ProAssistant provides, Bull notes that “you really need to be doing north of $500,000 a year in Revenue to justify bringing on a $3,000 a month assistant.” 

However, smaller businesses with more than $300,000 in revenue per year might still benefit from various levels of assistance depending on their specific needs and growth stage.

Take a close look at your daily tasks and think about:

2. Set Up System Access

This is where trust becomes crucial. 

You need to give your remote executive assistant access to your systems—it’s a leap of faith, but it’s where they’ll provide the most value. 

Create their profile in your employee system and give them delegated access to: 

Some situations, like board directors dealing with confidential information, require clear boundaries around system access.

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3. Schedule Dedicated Onboarding

The process of onboarding an assistant starts with impactful one-hour meetings. It can accomplish more than you might expect.

These initial sessions help dramatically cut down the learning curve and get your EA up to speed quickly.

Create a timeline for your first few meetings and focus on: 

4. Build Your Personal Dossier

Help your EA create a detailed profile about you and your preferences. 

This step saves countless hours of back-and-forth questions about booking flights, making reservations, or handling meeting requests. 

Think of it as your personal operating manual.

Include information about: 

5. Introduce Your EA as a Partner

This step is super important—introduce your EA (whether that’s your part-time remote executive assistant or full-time) to your team, company, clients, and prospects as a true partner. 

The amount of respect, praise, and partnership you express through those introductions can go a long way.

Make it clear that they should: 

Your EA should be positioned as “someone who can speak for you” so that a lot of questions that fill up your inbox and your text string are never going to get asked again.

Laptop screen showing an organized schedule with time blocks for tasks and meetings.

6. Establish Communication Priorities

Create a clear hierarchy for communication. 

For example:

7. Build Trust Through Partnership

Remember, hiring an EA isn’t about creating another employee—it’s about finding a trusted partner. 

Include them in context and information, even for things you might think they don’t need to know (unless it’s confidential). 

The more context they have, the better they can support you.

In the MSP Mindset podcast, Ethan warns against viewing the relationship “in an adversarial light, trying to catch them in a mistake, trying to make sure you’re squeezing every single penny out of them.” 

Instead, he emphasizes that “they’re a partner” and advises transferring some of your “leadership and voice to them in the eyes of your employees and your clients.“

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Best Practices for Utilizing an Executive Assistant

Here are the key best practices to help you partner with your executive assistant and build a strong working relationship:

The goal is to create a partnership where both you and your assistant can continuously improve how you work together.

At ProAssisting, we believe this philosophy strongly and maintain a strict 3:1 client-to-assistant ratio. This allows our ProAssistants to truly integrate into your business and become that trusted partner you need. 

Unlike other companies in our space, we pass 80% of your monthly retainer directly to your ProAssistant. 

This unique model ensures they’re compensated fairly for their expertise. That’s why we get the best of the best talents out there and they also stay with you long term once signed up!

Looking for an executive assistant who can become a true extension of your team? Let’s explore if we’re the right fit.

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Common Challenges When Working with an Executive Assistant

Prialto’s 2024 Executive Productivity Report says, “Executives spend huge chunks of time on tasks they dislike. The top three culprits are—bookkeeping (49%), scheduling meetings (45%), and responding to basic information requests (35%).”

The worst thing is that 73% of them keep doing these tasks because they think it’s “vital to keep the business running.“

So why aren’t they delegating? Based on the responses—“About 42% just don’t trust anyone else could do the task right, and 34% feel too swamped to even find and train someone reliable!”

This leads us to the biggest hurdle: the “I can do it faster myself” mindset.

Many principals bypass their assistants and end up booking their own travel with a new executive assistant because they don’t want to take the time to explain the process. 

Here’s the thing, though—you’re not going to get the compounding benefits of saved time if you keep doing everything yourself instead of training and properly onboarding your assistant.

Host Joe Sanok shares a perfect example in this insightful podcast about leveraging executive assistants—when he first started his podcast, each 30-minute episode took him 2.5 hours to produce. 

After learning to delegate effectively, that same time now allows him to produce four episodes!

Let your assistant do things even if they make a mistake once—it’s okay. Most decisions are “two-way doors” that can be fixed. 

You’re not having a brand-new executive assistant make “one-way door” decisions that can’t be taken back.

Here are the key challenges and how to address them:

Your assistant can’t read your mind, but they can learn your preferences and thought process through open communication and patience.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) 

Let’s address some common questions about working with executive assistants:

How Can I Get the Best Out of My Executive Assistant?

Treat them as a partner and give them your trust from the start. If that trust is ever broken, take time to talk through and describe why and what went wrong.

Here’s what you should focus on:

Is There a Difference Between an Executive Aide and an Executive Assistant?

Not that we know of—these terms generally refer to the same role.

What Personal Tasks Can an Executive Assistant Handle?

Sometimes, companies restrict their executive assistants from handling personal tasks and projects. 

However, from our perspective, if the North Star of being a great executive assistant is giving back time, then personal tasks and projects should be part of the role. In fact, it’s one of the most important ones.

If handling personal tasks allows you to focus on your family or concentrate on business strategy, sales, and client retention, then it’s valuable work. 

Your assistant can help with:

How Do I Evaluate the Performance of an Executive Assistant?

Ask yourself: Do you like them? Do you cringe when you see an email or text from them, or roll your eyes? 

Having this kind of reaction is a clear indicator that you’re not happy with your executive assistant. 

Don’t avoid having a difficult conversation about being unhappy and what it will take for them to level up.

Remember, you don’t want your assistant to feel nervous about asking questions or delivering bad news—they’re just the messenger. 

A great executive assistant should be:

That’s exactly what you hire an executive assistant to do.

Conclusion

Finding and effectively utilizing an executive assistant is more art than science—it requires trust, clear communication, and a willingness to invest time upfront. 

When done right, an EA becomes an invaluable partner who helps you achieve more than you thought possible.

Looking to multiply your productivity without the overhead of a full-time hire? 

ProAssisting provides experienced remote executive assistants who can handle 95% of what an in-house EA does at about 50-80% of the cost. 

Our ProAssistants have at least 5 years of experience supporting C-suite executives at top global companies (like Walmart, J.Crew, and Oracle) and undergo rigorous vetting. Ready to reclaim your working hours? Schedule a free consultation to see if ProAssisting is right for you.