Admin VA · Virtual Executive Assistant

Virtual Executive Assistant UK: senior support for founders and directors from £5 per hour

Hire a virtual executive assistant who runs the operating rhythm of your week: diary and priorities, inbox and correspondence, board and travel preparation, expenses and approvals, and the follow-ups that keep stakeholders moving. One dedicated, senior VA, matched to you, working from our managed office in Cairo on your hours, with a UK team supervising quality. It is the senior end of our virtual admin assistant service, from £5 per hour on the entry rate, for founders and directors who would otherwise hire in-house or go without.

Diary and prioritiesInbox and correspondenceBoard and travel prepStakeholder follow-up

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✓ From £5/hour ✓ UK-managed ✓ Dedicated EA, not shared ✓ No long-term contract

What They Own

What a virtual executive assistant owns

Diary and priorities

Runs your calendar against your priorities, not just your availability: protects focus time, sequences the week, resolves clashes and moves meetings with the people involved rather than around them.

Google CalendarOutlookCalendly

Inbox and correspondence

Triages, drafts and sends on your behalf within the limits you set, keeps a clean record of what was promised to whom, and brings you only what needs your judgement.

OutlookGmail

Board, meeting and travel prep

Assembles papers and agendas, circulates pre-reads, takes minutes and actions, and builds travel itineraries with confirmations and contacts ready before you leave.

Expenses and approvals

Processes receipts and expense reports, routes approvals, chases signatures and keeps the finance team supplied without you in the loop.

Stakeholder follow-up

Tracks commitments across investors, clients, suppliers and your leadership team, and chases them to closure so nothing depends on your memory.

Slack

Projects, documents and research

Owns the documents behind a project, prepares briefings and research summaries, and keeps the shared files in a state someone else could pick up.

Different stack? These are examples. Your EA is trained on your tools and your ways of working during onboarding and works inside your accounts, not ours.

Which role

Executive assistant, administrative assistant or PA: the difference

An administrative assistant keeps the business's paperwork moving: filing, data entry, documents, supplier emails. A personal assistant runs one person's working life: inbox, diary, travel, expenses. An executive assistant does the personal assistant's work and then works a level up: preparing the board, managing the leadership team's calendars and stakeholders, owning projects and follow-ups on your behalf, and making judgement calls inside the limits you set.

If your need is your own inbox and diary, the virtual personal assistant UK page is the better fit and costs the same. If the need is running the operating rhythm of a leadership team, this is the page. The longer comparison is in executive assistant vs administrative assistant.

Who It's For

Who a virtual executive assistant is for

Founders and CEOs of growing UK businesses

The company has outgrown your calendar. An EA takes the diary, the board cycle and the stakeholder chasing, and gives you back the hours the business needs from you.

Directors and partners in professional services

Client work is billed; the admin behind it is not. Your EA prepares the meetings, manages the correspondence and keeps the follow-ups moving between engagements.

Leaders whose in-house EA has left or was never affordable

A UK in-house EA is a salaried hire with the overheads that come with it. A dedicated virtual EA gives you the same coverage at a fraction of the cost, with recruitment, management and replacement handled by us.

Cost Comparison

What a virtual executive assistant costs in the UK

The entry rate is £5 per hour for the first 6 months on the Entry tier, 3 months on Mid and 1 month on Expert. It covers your dedicated EA's time, our office facilities in Cairo, and the supervision and management that keep quality up. After the promotion, the admin rate card applies: Entry £6.30 per hour full time (160 hours a month, £1,008), Mid £7.25 and Expert £7.88 per hour full time; part time (80 hours a month) from £6.50 per hour. Most executive-assistant placements sit on the Mid or Expert tier, where the assistant brings longer experience of senior support.

Set that against a UK in-house executive assistant once salary, employer National Insurance, pension, holiday and a desk are counted; the comparison card on this page shows the calculator's model, and the full calculator gives your exact figures for your hours.

UK In-House · Mid level

UK in-house executive assistant (calculator model)

£3,044 a month gross salary, full time (the calculator's admin benchmark at the Mid band, ONS ASHE 2025)

Monthly salary£3,044

Benefits (5% of salary)£152

Equipment and office£442

Management time (2 hrs a week)£230

~£3,868/mo

~£46,418 / year

Ant Assist VA · Mid

Dedicated Virtual Executive Assistant

160 hrs a month · £5/hour for the first 3 months on Mid (£800/mo), then £7.25/hour on the admin rate card

VA hours (160h at the Mid standard rate)£1,159

Management and supervisionIncluded

Recruitment and onboardingIncluded

Office infrastructureIncluded

£1,159/mo

£13,910 / year at the standard rate

You save ~£32,508 / year at the standard rate (est.)

What the £5/hour entry rate includes

Dedicated VA, never shared
UK-hour aligned support
Management and supervision included
Recruitment and onboarding included
Office infrastructure included
VA replacement available
No NI, pension, or holiday costs
No long-term contract, rolling monthly

These are typical estimates. Get your exact numbers in the full calculator.

Calculate your exact savings →

Process

How to hire a virtual executive assistant: from first call to active support

First call

A 15-minute call about how your week and your leadership team run today: the diary, the board cycle, the inbox, the tools and the hours you need.

Matching

We select an EA from our in-house team with the experience your role needs, matched to your industry and the way you work, and introduce them to you.

Onboarding

Together we document your priorities, your calendar rules, who your EA may answer for you and what always comes to you, and the reporting rhythm you want.

Active support

Most clients have their VA active within 5 to 7 working days of signing up. Your EA works your hours from our managed office.

Ongoing management

A UK team supervises quality, reviews the work with your EA, and adjusts hours and scope as the business changes.

Book a free 15-min call

Why Managed

Why a managed EA beats a freelance EA or a recruiter

Managed, not just placed.

A recruiter hands you a candidate and leaves. We recruit, train and supervise your EA from our own in-house office, and stay accountable for the work.

Replaceable without restart cost.

If the fit is wrong, we replace the EA and carry the handover. No re-recruitment fee, no starting from zero.

No NI, pension, or holiday overhead.

One hourly rate; the employment costs sit with us.

Language and cultural alignment with UK clients.

Trained on your tone, your priorities and your stakeholders before they send a word on your behalf.

Your data stays yours.

Every EA signs an NDA and a data-processing agreement, works through password managers, and you can revoke access at any time.

Rolling monthly.

Scale hours up or down, pause, or cancel with 30 days' notice.

Rated 5.0 on Google.Trusted by our clients

FAQ

Common questions about hiring a virtual executive assistant

Yes. Our EAs are comfortable scheduling across time zones using tools like Calendly, Google Calendar and Outlook. They handle the back-and-forth of finding mutually available slots, block focus time, and send prep information ahead of meetings.

All Ant Assist VAs sign NDAs and data processing agreements as part of their contracts. Access to your systems is managed via password managers (we recommend 1Password or Bitwarden) so credentials are never shared in plain text. You retain control and can revoke access instantly.

Both work well. Some clients have a fixed daily workflow their EA follows. Others send tasks throughout the day via Slack or a task manager. We help you find the communication rhythm that suits you during onboarding.

No long-term contract is required. We operate on a rolling monthly basis. You can scale hours up or down, pause, or cancel with 30 days' notice. EAs tend to become deeply embedded in how founders work, and most clients stay long-term.

Yes. Ant Assist provides real, office-based human VAs. We are not an AI product. Every VA is recruited, managed and supervised from our Cairo offices. Your EA is a real person who follows your process and works under your brand.

Ant Assist can replace the VA. We take responsibility for quality and will match you with a more suitable candidate rather than leaving you stuck with an underperforming arrangement.

Didn't find your answer? Browse more common questions in the Help Center.

Get Started

Run your week at a higher level.

One dedicated executive assistant, from £5 per hour. Book a free 15-minute call.

Book a free 15-min call Calculate your savings →

Discovery callRole briefVA matchedOnboarded into your tools

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