Do I need a VA or a PA?

It depends on what the work is, not where the person sits. A PA runs one person's working life: inbox, diary, travel, expenses and the small decisions that keep a day moving. A VA is any assistant who works remotely, for any kind of work. If your own week is the problem, you need a PA, and the only real question is whether they sit in your office or work as a virtual PA.

Ask two questions. First, whose work is it? If the answer is "mine": my inbox, my calendar, my travel, my receipts, then the role is a personal assistant, whatever the job title says. If the answer is "the business's": customer messages, lead lists, product listings, a shared inbox for a team, then it is a virtual assistant matched to that function, and the PA label does not apply. Second, does the work need someone in the room? Greeting visitors, handling post, sitting in meetings and reading the room need an in-house PA. Everything that happens on a screen or a phone, which for most owner-managers is almost all of it, does not.

Most people who ask this question turn out to need a virtual PA: one named person, working remotely on your hours, who takes the inbox, the diary, the travel and the expenses as one job. The difference from an in-house PA is the employment model. An in-house PA is a salary plus employer National Insurance, pension, holiday, a desk and the recruitment when they leave. A dedicated virtual PA from Ant Assist is one hourly rate, from £5 per hour on the entry rate for the first 6 months on the Entry tier, with recruitment, supervision, office and replacement included and no long-term contract. Hours run from 20 hours a week to a full 40-hour dedicated assistant, on UK business hours.

The person is real and dedicated, not a shared assistant and not a tool: recruited, trained and supervised from our own in-house office in Cairo, with a UK team supervising quality, working inside your accounts through a password manager under an NDA and a data-processing agreement. If the fit is wrong, we replace the VA and carry the handover. Most clients have their VA active within 5 to 7 working days of signing up.

For the full comparison, including when an in-house PA is the right call, read virtual assistant vs personal assistant. For the role itself, the virtual personal assistant UK page describes what a virtual PA does each week and what it costs by the month.