Virtual assistant for small business owners who are doing everything themselves
When you run a company of two to twenty people, the owner usually ends up as the receptionist, the bookkeeper's helper, the inbox manager and the person who chases every invoice. A virtual assistant for small business takes that recurring work off your plate for a set number of hours a week. On Aides you search real, ID-verified people by skill and by how many hours they overlap with your workday, message them, run a short paid trial task and then pay your assistant directly, with no agency markup on their rate.
- Every assistant passes an ID and liveness check. No AI personas.
- You pay your assistant directly. No markup.
The work a small business assistant takes over
Most owners start with the tasks that interrupt them every hour and that nobody else on the team is assigned to. Your assistant works inside the tools you already use, such as your email client, shared calendar, CRM, invoicing software and project board, with access you grant and can remove at any time.
- 01 Inbox triage, so customer questions, vendor emails and newsletters land in labeled folders and only decisions reach you.
- 02 Calendar management for you and one or two team members, including rescheduling and sending confirmations.
- 03 Invoice follow-ups, payment reminders and keeping the receivables list current for your bookkeeper.
- 04 Supplier and vendor coordination, quote requests and order tracking.
- 05 Updating the CRM after sales calls and sending the follow-up email the same day.
- 06 Light customer support by email and chat using answers you approve.
- 07 Document formatting, proposal templates, simple slide decks and filing in shared drives.
- 08 Researching suppliers, local permits, event venues or software options and summarizing the choices in one page.
- 09 Posting prepared content to your business profiles and replying to routine comments.
Typical weekly hours and time zone overlap
A typical small business starts with 10 to 20 hours a week. Ten hours covers inbox and calendar for one owner; twenty hours adds invoicing follow-up, CRM upkeep and customer email. Many owners grow to a part-time 25 hours once the first month shows which tasks repeat. Overlap matters less here than for an executive role, because most small business tasks can run while you sleep. Two to three shared hours a day is usually enough for a quick check-in, urgent replies and same-day scheduling. In the Aides search you enter your own working hours and each profile shows how many of them the assistant covers.
- 10 hours a week, inbox and calendar for one person.
- 20 hours a week, inbox, calendar, invoices, CRM and customer email.
- 25 to 30 hours a week, the above plus vendor coordination and research.
How to hire your assistant on Aides
The process is the same whether this is your first hire or your third. You can read the full walkthrough in our guide on how to hire a virtual assistant.
- 01 Search by skill, for example inbox management or invoicing, and enter your working hours so results show overlap.
- 02 Shortlist three to five profiles and read their skills test results and stated availability.
- 03 Message the assistants on your shortlist with a short description of the role and your tools.
- 04 Run a paid trial task of one to three hours, such as cleaning a week of your inbox or drafting five follow-up emails.
- 05 Hire the person whose trial work needed the fewest corrections and agree on hours and a rate.
- 06 Pay your assistant directly each week or month, on the schedule you both agree.
What a small business assistant costs
The assistant sets their own rate. For general small business admin the typical rate band is 8 to 24 USD per hour, depending on experience, the tools involved and the language level you need. A worked example for one month at 20 hours a week and a typical 15 USD per hour is 20 x 15 x 4.33 = 1,299 USD per month, paid to your assistant. Most small businesses start with one person on Starter at 24 USD per month billed yearly and move to Growth when a second or third assistant joins. There is no percentage taken from the assistant's pay. Compare every plan on the virtual assistant cost page.
| Option | What you pay | Who sets the price |
|---|---|---|
| Aides plus direct pay | Typical 8 to 24 USD per hour to the assistant, plus a flat plan from 24 USD per month billed yearly | The assistant sets the rate, the plan price is fixed |
| Managed VA agency | Typically 30 to 60 percent above what the assistant receives | The agency |
| Part-time local hire | Typical hourly wage plus payroll taxes and onboarding time | You and the market |
Why a small business needs a verified person
A small company usually gives its assistant access to the inbox, the invoicing tool and sometimes the bank feed for categorizing. That access should go to someone whose identity is confirmed. On Aides, an assistant's profile stays hidden until a government ID check and a liveness check are passed, the person is confirmed as an adult and the profile photo is shown to be their own. There are no AI personas and no bot-written proposals in your inbox. Read how the checks run on our page about the verified virtual assistant process.
- Identity confirmed against a government ID before the profile is visible.
- Liveness check so the person on the video call is the person on the ID.
- Skills test results shown on the profile, so you compare work, not adjectives.
FAQ
How many hours should a small business start with?
Start with 10 hours a week for two weeks and write down every task you hand over. If the assistant finishes early and you keep adding work, move to 20 hours. Starting small makes the trial cheaper and shows which tasks truly repeat.
What should I hand over first?
Hand over tasks that are frequent, rule-based and annoying to you, such as sorting the inbox, confirming appointments and sending invoice reminders. Keep pricing decisions and sensitive negotiations with you until trust is built.
Do I need a contract with the assistant?
Yes, agree on hours, rate, confidentiality and how either side ends the arrangement in writing. Growth and higher plans include work agreement templates you can adapt. Your assistant usually works as an independent contractor, so check with your accountant how to report the payments.
How do I give access safely?
Create a separate user account for your assistant in each tool rather than sharing your password, use a password manager with shared vaults, and turn on two-factor sign-in. Remove access the same day the work ends.
What if the first hire does not work out?
Message another assistant from your shortlist and run a new trial task. Conversation limits are counted per billing period, so on Starter you can open up to 10 new conversations each month.
Find a small business assistant who covers your hours
Enter the skill you need and your working hours, and see verified assistants with their overlap and typical rates.