When you're running your own business, it can often feel like you’ve only got two choices when it comes to getting things done: do it all yourself, or go down the traditional route of hiring someone in-house.

And let’s be honest, sometimes neither option feels ideal.

We all know that doing everything yourself is a one-way ticket to burnout, but hiring a full-time employee is a major responsibility, especially if you're not quite ready to commit to another salary on the books.

But what if there was a third option—one that gave you what you needed without the hefty price tag, long contracts, and even more admin on your plate?

Enter: virtual support.

More and more founders are discovering the benefits of working with virtual assistants (VAs) and remote support teams, especially in a world where every penny and every hour count.

So if you're sick of feeling stretched thin, struggling to find time for strategy, or just need an extra pair of hands, it’s worth understanding how virtual support stacks up against traditional hiring to help you figure out what’s right for your business right now.

Why founders are making the switch

Not just a passing trend, virtual support tackles the real, everyday struggles that have weighed business owners down for years.

Let’s take a closer look...

1. Access to talent

When you're limited to traditional hiring, you're essentially fishing in a small pond. Your talent pool is restricted by geography, salary expectations in your area, and the people who happen to be job hunting at the exact moment you need them.

In fact, the National Federation of Independent Business reported that nearly half (48%) of business owners who were hiring in May 2025 received "few" or "no" qualified applications for the positions they were trying to fill. Not only that, Manpower Group's 2025 Global Talent Shortage report found that 74% of hiring managers struggle to find skilled candidates for roles. The amount of searching (and often, settling!) that now comes with traditional hiring is one of the biggest reasons why founders are turning their backs on it.

Because when you embrace virtual support, geography becomes irrelevant.

Take Time etc, for example. They give you instant access to a talent pool of over 7,000 experienced, professional assistants. You're not settling for whoever happens to live within commuting distance of your office; you're getting matched with someone who actually has the skills you need.

Need someone with specific software expertise? They're there. Looking for someone with industry experience? They've got you covered.

2. Time and effort to hire

Let's talk about something most founders don't calculate during the hiring process: the true cost to your time.

First, there's writing the job description. You sit down thinking it'll take 30 minutes, but three hours later, you're still debating whether "detail-oriented" sounds too corporate or if "team player" is completely meaningless. There goes your entire afternoon—and probably your evening too.

Then comes the resume avalanche. Brace yourself: the average corporate job opening attracts 250 applications. That's 250 resumes to read, 250 cover letters to scan, and 250 decisions about who might actually be worth your time. If you're doing this properly (and let's be honest, you want to!), you're looking at hours upon hours of sifting through everything from overqualified candidates to people who clearly didn't read the job description.

Next up: interviews. Each face-to-face interview averages 40 minutes, but that doesn't include the time you spend preparing questions, scheduling around everyone's calendars, or the inevitable "Sorry, I'm running 15 minutes late" messages. And of course, you can't just interview one person and call it a day. You'll need multiple candidates across several rounds because finding the right fit takes time.

All of this, combined with reference checks, background checks, salary negotiations, and paperwork, means you're looking at an average of six weeks to fill a position. Six entire weeks where you're still working late, missing family dinners, and watching your stress levels climb because all the work you need help with still needs to be done.

This is where virtual support services can make a world of difference. Instead of spending weeks (or even months) trying to find the right person, Time etc does all the recruitment work for you.

Every assistant is screened and vetted by their team (with only the top 2% making it through their rigorous selection process, on average) and matched to your exact needs. All you need to do is explain what you need help with, and you could be up and running with a highly skilled virtual assistant in as little as one or two days.

3. Employee management

Here's another thing they don't always prepare you for when it comes to hiring employees. Just when you think the hard part’s over, it's only just beginning.

Hiring someone starts a whole new chapter of responsibilities. Suddenly, you're not just a founder anymore. You're a manager, too.

That means onboarding sessions, training programs, performance reviews, salary negotiations, handling sick days, managing vacation schedules, and those potentially difficult conversations if things don't work out.

If you've already got too much on your plate, bringing in an extra set of hands should help lighten your load, not add more to it.

That's why, with services like Time etc, you don't just get a dedicated assistant to handle your admin. You also get a dedicated manager to handle your assistant. Everything from payroll to performance is taken care of behind the scenes. If your assistant is sick or goes on vacation, they will find another qualified assistant to cover for them.

And if things aren’t quite the right fit, or your needs change, it’s easy to switch things up. You can get a new or additional assistant quickly, instead of having to start the whole hiring process from scratch.

4. Flexibility and scalability

When you hire employees the traditional way, you’re committing to a long-term arrangement that typically involves a fixed role, fixed working hours and schedules, and a fixed salary.

This kind of setup works in stable, predictable environments. But let’s be honest, most growing businesses are not predictable. Priorities shift, busy seasons come and go, and sometimes things slow down with little or no warning.

Even if sales take a nosedive, salaries still need to be paid in full and on time, no matter what.

And not only that, you’ve also got to make sure your full-time employees have a well-balanced workload to fill their contracted hours. And if business slows down, that can be easier said than done. Many business owners will find themselves scratching their heads, trying to come up with creative ways to keep people busy. Having your team sitting around with nothing to do is frustrating and wasteful for all involved.

That's why another major advantage of virtual support is how effortlessly flexible it can be. With Time etc, you have complete control over the level of support you need, whenever you need it.

Got a busy spell coming up? No problem, you can easily scale up your support hours to handle the extra workload. Want to dial it back when things quieten down? Just say the word.

If your to-do list suddenly calls for a different skill set—say, data, research, or social media—you can add extra assistants to your team, all included in your plan at no extra cost.

There are no long-term contracts tying you down, and you can cancel anytime if things change. You’ll always have the right support, at the right time, without having to pay for more than you actually use. It’s support that flexes with you, just the way it should be.

5. Security and risks

Giving someone access to your business information and internal systems is a big decision. As a founder, you know how important it is to protect your company's reputation and assets, whether your support team is working in your office or remotely.

But here's the thing about hiring in-house employees: all the responsibility for data security and confidentiality lands squarely on your shoulders. You need to create comprehensive internal policies, provide thorough training, and make sure your IT setup is bulletproof. If something goes wrong or someone just doesn't deliver the quality of work you need, you're the one left dealing with the fallout.

Most founders we speak to don't realize just how much work this involves. You might have a basic employment contract, but does it really cover all the scenarios where things could go wrong? And even if it does, do you have the time and budget to enforce it?

Here's where reputable virtual support services make a real difference. We're talking about companies that have invested heavily in top-notch platform security, comprehensive NDAs, detailed contracts, and legal protections that individual employers rarely have the resources to implement properly.

That's why security and confidentiality are built into everything we do at Time etc. We know how important it is to trust the people you work with, especially when they're helping with your most important tasks.

Thanks to our rigorous 10-stage screening process, we usually reject around 2,345 applicants every month to make sure you only work with the very best. As well as skills and experience, we verify each assistant's identity through trusted third-party providers, so you can have complete confidence in who you're working with.

Before any assistant even starts working with us, they must sign comprehensive contracts and rock-solid NDAs that protect your information.

Not only that, our platform's top-notch encryption and security measures have upheld our flawless record of zero data breaches in our 18 years in the remote outsourcing world.

From what our clients tell us, this peace of mind is life-changing. Instead of having to worry about every aspect of data protection yourself, you can hand over tasks with confidence, knowing we've got your back behind the scenes.

See: How To Share Secure Information With Your Virtual Assistant

6. Satisfaction guarantee

Traditional hiring is essentially a gamble. You invest weeks in the recruitment process, conduct multiple interviews, and make your best guess about a candidate's potential—all without any guarantee of success. If that new hire doesn't work out, you're left facing the harsh reality of starting the entire six-week process over again, watching precious time, money, and energy disappear with nothing to show for it.

In fact, the financial impact of hiring mistakes runs deeper than most business owners realize. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that the cost of a bad hire can reach as much as 30% of that employee's first-year earnings—and that's often just the beginning. Factor in lost productivity, training costs, and the ripple effects on team morale, and the true cost becomes staggering.

Quality virtual support services like Time etc understand this challenge and offer something traditional hiring simply can't: a 100% satisfaction guarantee. This isn't a hollow marketing promise, it's a commitment to making things right when expectations aren't met. If you're not completely satisfied with your virtual assistant's performance, they'll work with you to find a solution as quickly as possible.

Need an assistant with different skills than what you originally needed? No problem, they'll match you with someone who better fits your needs. Not seeing the productivity gains you expected? They'll work closely with you, adjusting approaches and strategies until you achieve the results you're looking for.

That's the kind of guarantee traditional hiring will never be able to offer, and exactly the kind of protection you and your business need to thrive.

When traditional hiring still makes sense

When it comes to choosing between hiring someone in-house or getting virtual support, it’s not always a clear-cut, black-and-white decision.

Because, let's be honest, there are cases where an in-house hire will make the most sense. Some roles require a deeper knowledge and understanding of your business's operations, goals, policies, or procedures, which can only be gained through regular, daily immersion in your company culture and direct collaboration with you or other team members.

But here’s the thing: that doesn’t mean every role has to be in-house. It doesn't have to be all-or-nothing. A hybrid model can give you the best of both worlds. You might keep your core team on the ground while bringing in a virtual assistant to handle your inbox, scheduling, research, and any other admin tasks that are weighing you down.

Many founders also use virtual assistants to support their in-house team members, creating space for everyone to focus on what they do best. Your marketing manager can focus on strategy instead of scheduling social media posts. Your sales director can close deals instead of updating CRM systems. Your operations head can optimize processes instead of managing calendars.

The trick is being smart about what needs to be done in person and what can be handled brilliantly by skilled virtual professionals.

That’s exactly why we built our to-do list optimizer tool.

Just enter your regular tasks into the tool, and it’ll show you which ones should stay in your list and which ones could be taken care of by an assistant. You might be surprised by how much (or how little!) actually needs to stay on your plate!

What's the bottom line?

The way founders can get support has come a long way, and it's easy to see why so many founders are switching things up. Because when you're juggling a million different things and every minute counts, it makes sense to really think about where your time and energy should be going.

The question is: do you honestly have the time or headspace for drawn-out hiring processes and the constant demands of managing employees, on top of everything else it takes to run your business?

Traditional hiring alone forces you to become a recruiter, manager, and HR department all rolled into one. Virtual support lets you stay focused on being a founder.

And the great thing is, you don't have to go all-in from day one. There's nothing stopping you from starting small with virtual support—handing over a few tasks to a virtual assistant, seeing what works, and growing from there. Maybe you keep certain roles in-house while outsourcing others. The beauty of virtual support is that you have the freedom and flexibility to find the right mix that creates more space and less stress.

Ready to experience the difference for yourself?

Time etc has got you covered.

Since 2007, more than 22,000 founders and high-level executives have partnered with us so they can get more done, reach their goals faster, and sleep better at night.

Why us? Because we know exactly what you're going through. More importantly, we know exactly how to help.

Our entire service is designed around one thing: making your life easier.

Here's a glimpse of what you get:

• Access to our talent pool of 7,000+ screened and vetted assistants
• Your own dedicated assistant matched to your needs and ready to start in days, not weeks
• Top-tier security and data protection across our platform
• Up to 90% lower hiring costs than traditional hiring
• No daily hassle of managing your assistant—we do it all for you
• Add extra assistants at no extra cost when you need more hands
• Total flexibility—scale your support up or down anytime
• Our lifetime happiness guarantee—because your success is our success.

Sound good?

Just speak to our expert team to tell us what you need, and we’ll take it from there.

P.S. Want $150 off your first month of virtual assistant support? Answer a few quick questions to get personalized task recommendations and unlock your welcome discount. It takes just 2 minutes and could save you hours!