You are a solo entrepreneur struggling with an endless to-do list that has overwhelmed you and ruined your work-life balance.
You understand that having an executive assistant (EA) can significantly lighten your workload and allow you to concentrate on tasks that have a strategic impact on your business. However, budget restrictions may limit you from hiring a full-time or in-house EA.
You may be wondering: Is a fractional EA at 20-30 hours per week the ideal fit for a solo entrepreneur like you?
The answer lies in how much workload you have and the level of support you need to perform optimally.
TL;DR – Is a Fractional EA a Good Fit for Solo Entrepreneurs Who Need 20–30 Hours a Week?
Short Answer: Yes. For solo entrepreneurs who struggle with routine administrative tasks that consume significant time, a fractional EA for 20-30 hours can provide considerable value.
However, it is not a straightforward process; solo entrepreneurs need to define the expected EA roles and responsibilities, such as:
- Calendar management
- Communication management
- Travel planning
- Documentation
As a 2025 Inc. 5000 company (ranked #2,466), ProAssisting has established that solo entrepreneurs are best supported by fractional executive assistants, where they can utilize ⅓, ½, or ⅔ of their capacity based on support needs.
Download The State of the Assistant in a Remote World to discover how executive assistants working 20-30 hours weekly can undertake various roles, including chief of staff, scheduler, business partner, project manager, and personal assistant, to help solo entrepreneurs reclaim up to 15 hours weekly.
Benefits of Executive Assistant Support for Solo Entrepreneurs
Solo entrepreneurs are frequently overwhelmed with tasks, including strategy development, talent acquisition, and administrative duties. However, they shouldn’t have to deal with all those tasks alone. They can hire a fractional EA to handle calendar management, email correspondence, and documentation, so that they can focus on strategic roles.
Here’s how solo business owners should partner with an EA:
- Reclaiming Time for High-Impact Work: According to a 2023 McKinsey survey, managers spend about 18% of their time on administrative tasks. That is time that could be spent developing strategies to grow their businesses, while their fractional EAs handle repetitive administrative tasks.
Reddit user BenjiGoodVibes shares the same opinion in a Reddit thread highlighting the benefits of hiring an EA:
“Absolutely the biggest life hack you can make, having an EA frees you to focus on the company in a way that is impossible without them. The cost a fraction compared to the time wasted doing mundane tasks, and generally fill an admiration role within the company anyway.”
- Reduced Stress and Burnout: Running a business alone is physically and mentally draining. Delegating tasks to a fractional EA helps reduce your workload and gives you time away from work, improving your work-life balance.
- Cost Efficiency: Many solo businesses operate under tight budgets. As such, hiring a fractional executive assistant helps entrepreneurs receive quality support without incurring full-time salary, benefits, and overhead costs associated with hiring a full-time EA.
- Increased Productivity: Partnering with a fractional EA reduces an executive’s workload, enabling them to achieve more within their designated working hours. Download our book on “The 29-Hour Workday” to learn how a part-time EA can help a solo entrepreneur focus more on their strategic tasks without working extra hours.
- Strategic Support: Exceptional EAs take on roles such as project manager, scheduler, personal assistant, and business partner, which have a strategic impact on their executive’s performance multipliers.
What 20-30 Hours of Fractional EA Support Looks Like
When hiring a fractional EA at 20-30 hours, the support typically involves handling recurring tasks and managing the principal’s operational needs.
Reddit user stealthagents highlights all these roles in a Reddit thread about EA responsibilities:
“Executive Assistants do a lot more than just schedule meetings — they manage calendars, prep reports, handle travel, keep projects moving, and basically make sure their exec stays focused and organized.”
Key areas of support include:
- Email and Inbox Management: The EA will triage emails and other communication channels, classifying messages by urgency and whether they require the executive’s input.
- Calendar Management: Elite EAs are masters of calendar Tetris, including planning strategy meetings when the principal is most productive and time-blocking to allow the executive to reenergize and refocus.
- Travel Planning and Coordination: Fractional EAs leverage a high-touch hospitality mindset when handling their principals’ or guests’ travel and accommodation logistics, ensuring it reflects positively on their executives.
- Research and Reporting: Elite EAs provide decision support to their executives by gathering, analyzing, and presenting data. The reports can be included in the meeting notes to ensure an executive is well-informed on the subject matter when engaging stakeholders.
How to Tell If 20-30 Hours of Fractional EA Support Will Work for You
Some solo entrepreneurs believe that because they’re handling everything alone, they’d only benefit from a full-time, in-person EA. However, the decision between needing a part-time vs. a full-time executive assistant isn’t arbitrary. It’s about assessing how much time they spend on routine administrative tasks and what delegation would unlock in terms of reclaimed time.
Here’s a simple check to know if 20-30 hours of EA support are a good fit for a solo entrepreneur:
- Consistent Workload: Executives who spend a few hours every day handling calendar management, travel planning, and communications management can benefit from a fractional EA to handle these repetitive administrative tasks.
- Scalable Needs: Solo entrepreneurs whose support needs fluctuate, whereby one month they need less than 20 hours of EA support weekly, while the next they need about 30 hours of support, should get a fractional executive support. This allows them to utilize ⅓, ½, or ⅔ of an EA’s capacity depending on their current support needs.
- Need for Expertise: Executives who need an experienced, high-quality EA but don’t have the funds to hire one full-time should get a fractional executive assistant. This helps control their operational expenses and avoid overhead costs, such as renting extra office space or purchasing supplies for an in-office assistant.
- Executives Who Have Specific Outcomes in Mind: Solo entrepreneurs who already have specific responsibilities in mind for a fractional EA are ready to hire one. EAs do not work well in undefined roles, which can often lead to misaligned expectations and outcomes, as well as wasted time and resources.
Solo entrepreneurs who currently spend several hours weekly on administrative tasks shouldn’t hesitate to hire a fractional EA to reclaim their time.
ProAssisting offers fractional EA services for solo entrepreneurs, with its ProAssistants having 5+ years of experience supporting C-suites at reputable brands, including Walmart, Sony Pictures, and JPMorgan Chase. Additionally, ProAssisting maintains rigorous recruitment standards, with fewer than 5% of candidates becoming ProAssistants.
Schedule a call to understand how a fractional ProAssistant can multiply a solo entrepreneur’s performance.
When an Executive Assistant Is Not the Right Fit Yet
Most solo entrepreneurs benefit from integrating an executive assistant into their world. But honest assessments sometimes reveal that an executive isn’t ready to partner with an EA, and that’s perfectly fine.
Executives should take a step back and reevaluate how their principal-assistant partnerships would function if these scenarios apply to them:
- Unpredictable Workload: Solo entrepreneurs with sporadic workload may not be the right fit for an EA. The cost of hiring an executive assistant is justifiable only if there are regular tasks (even during downtime) to keep an EA occupied for at least a few hours a day. Otherwise, they may become disengaged from their work.
- Unclear Roles: An EA needs clear responsibilities, boundaries, and performance outcomes. Solo entrepreneurs who are unsure about which tasks to delegate to an executive assistant should prepare a JD for the role before beginning the hiring process.
Reddit user KeyResist450 highlights the challenges of working for an executive who does not define roles in a Reddit thread about EA challenges:
“I get almost no context for meetings she wants scheduled. I usually have to pull basic details out of her — duration, urgency, who needs to attend — and I’m rarely looped in on outcomes, which makes it impossible to prioritize her calendar intelligently. Yet she still seems to expect me to “just know.”
- Micromanaging Behavior: Executives who are unwilling to let go of tasks that fall within an executive assistant’s responsibilities or who prefer to handle everything themselves should avoid hiring an EA. Otherwise, they risk frustrating their EAs, leading to high turnover for the role.
- Budgetary Constraints: An executive may need an EA; however, their budget may not accommodate hiring even a part-time EA. Such solo entrepreneurs often don’t have a choice but to continue multi-tasking and seek ways to increase their revenue to a point where they can hire an EA.
- Lack of Systems: Entrepreneurs running businesses without organizational structures for tasks such as scheduling, travel planning, and communication would be unsuitable for an EA. They should establish clear workflows and create standard operating procedures to help newly hired EAs function effectively.
How Solo Entrepreneurs Should Structure EA Support for Success
Solo entrepreneurs should lay the foundation for strong executive-assistant partnerships to maximize the quality of support they receive. For that to happen, they need to define the relationship and develop a structure that reinforces it.
Below are ways to structure EA support so that it optimizes your performance multipliers:
1. Define Clear Roles
Executives should provide their EAs with a list of roles and responsibilities they expect them to fulfill.
Clear roles provide clarity and enforce accountability, which boosts EA performance. A practical strategy is to create an executive assistant daily checklist to ensure even small tasks don’t slip through the cracks.
2. Set Expectations and KPI Metrics
Solo entrepreneurs should share their “Executive Bibles” during onboarding, outlining how they like things done. Establishing clear expectations early helps EAs integrate them into their workflows, ensuring consistent output.
Principals should also engage their EAs to set executive assistant key performance indicators to monitor the partnership’s effectiveness, including what is working and areas for improvement.
3. Establish Feedback Mechanisms
Executives should provide ongoing feedback to their EAs to streamline their working relationship and address and resolve issues before they evolve into unsolvable problems.
For example, solo entrepreneurs can have weekly reviews with their EAs where they highlight the week’s positives and negatives and devise ways to overcome any challenges.
4. Leverage Technology
Solo entrepreneurs should invest in executive assistant tools to improve their EAs’ efficiency, which often translates to high-quality support.
For example, ubiquitous tools enable EAs to support their executives remotely, bridging geographical and time-zone gaps. Additionally, project management tools allow multiple members to work on the same document simultaneously, enhancing teamwork and collaboration.
5. Establish Decision Rights
Savvy executives understand the importance of empowering their EAs to make independent decisions on matters without the principal’s input. However, the executives should create boundaries within which EAs can exercise their decisions.
For example, in managing travel expenses, solo entrepreneurs can authorize their EAs to approve payments up to a specific amount, say $1,000.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Below are answers to common questions about whether fractional EAs are suitable for solo entrepreneurs:
Is EA Fit for Solo Entrepreneurs with Irregular Workloads?
Absolutely, an EA can be invaluable to a solo entrepreneur with an irregular workload. They can help you manage fluctuating work demands, organize your priorities, and implement systems and structures that keep your company’s operations consistent despite varying workloads.
How Much Does 20-30 Hours of Weekly EA Support Cost?
The cost of EA support depends on several factors, including the EA’s experience and the region where your company operates. At ProAssisting, executives pay a monthly retainer starting at $3,300.
How Quickly Can a Solo Entrepreneur See ROI From an EA?
Solo entrepreneurs can expect to see an ROI from their EAs within the first few weeks in the form of reclaimed time and early productivity improvements. However, they can expect consistent returns after about 2-3 months once the EA is fully onboarded and handling multiple tasks.
How Do You Measure Success with Part-Time EA Support?
The following metrics can help solo entrepreneurs measure success with part-time EA support:
- Time saved per week or per month
- Task completion rates within set deadlines
- Average response time to emails or requests
- Efficiency in calendar and time management
- Stakeholder satisfaction rates
Conclusion
Solo entrepreneurs need not continue burdening themselves with low-value tasks when they can delegate them to someone who can perform them more efficiently. Hiring a fractional EA for 20-30 hours can significantly reduce a solo entrepreneur’s workload and increase their mental bandwidth, allowing them to focus more on strategic thinking and other high-value tasks.
ProAssisting has decades of experience supporting executives, such as solo entrepreneurs and founders, by helping them onboard fractional EAs who double as project managers, schedulers, chief of staffs, business partners, and personal assistants to optimize their performance multipliers. ProAssistants have 5+ years of experience supporting executives across different roles, including C-suite executives at global companies such as Target and Oracle.
Book a consultation to learn how a fractional EA can integrate seamlessly into a solo entrepreneur’s workflows.
