Virtual executive assistant preparing for a board meeting

Admin VA · Virtual Executive Assistant

Virtual Executive Assistant UK

Senior support for the founder or director whose week runs on diary, inbox and preparation. One dedicated executive assistant keeps the operating rhythm, working your hours from our managed office. Here is what they take on.

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

Rated 5.0 on Google.Trusted by our clients

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Our Clients

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.

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 EA is for

Founders and CEOs of growing businesses Your EA runs the diary, board cycle and stakeholder chasing.
Directors in professional services Meetings prepared, correspondence managed and follow-ups kept moving.
Leaders without an in-house EA Full EA cover for a fraction of a UK salary, managed by us.

Virtual executive assistant with a ea progress card: board pack, investor call, travel

Cost Comparison

What a virtual executive assistant costs depends on where you hire

With Ant Assist 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.

A dedicated Ant Assist VA compared with a UK in-house hire and a UK agency, full time.
	RecommendedAnt Assist£1,159 a month	UK in-house hire~£3,868/mo	UK agencyapprox. £3,500 to £4,500
Who manages the work	IncludedOur UK team supervises	Not includedYou do	PartlyThe agency
Recruitment and onboarding	IncludedIncluded	Not includedYou recruit and train	IncludedThe agency matches
Employer NI and pension	IncludedNone to pay	Not includedYou pay both	PartlyBuilt into the rate
Office and equipment	IncludedIncluded	Not includedYou provide	PartlyVaries by agency
Holiday and sick cover	IncludedCover provided	Not includedYou find cover	PartlyVaries by agency
Replacement if it is not right	IncludedReplaced, no restart cost	Not includedRe-hire from scratch	PartlyVaries by agency
Contract	IncludedRolling monthly, 30 days' notice	Not includedEmployment contract	PartlyVaries by agency

UK agency figures are an approximate range around the £25 per hour agency benchmark our calculator uses.

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. Or read how much a virtual assistant costs in the UK.

Calculate your exact savings →

Process

How to hire a virtual executive assistant

First call

A short call about your tasks, your tools and the hours you need covered.

Matching

We pick a VA from our in-house team for your work and introduce them to you.

Onboarding

Together we write down your rules and set up your access before day one.

Active support

Your VA starts on your hours from our managed office, supervised from the UK.

Ongoing management

A UK team reviews the work each week; hours scale up or down as you need.

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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

A PA runs one person's working life: inbox, diary, travel, expenses. An executive assistant does that and works a level up: preparing your board and leadership meetings, managing the leadership team's calendars and stakeholders, owning the follow-ups and the projects you delegate, and making judgement calls inside the limits you set. The difference is judgement, not the task list.

From the calendar and the correspondence. Your EA reads the invitation, the thread and the last set of notes, prepares a one-page brief with the decisions due, and chases the papers from the people who owe them. You arrive with the brief, not the search for it.

Yes, in your name and within rules you set: who they may book, chase or decline on your behalf, and what needs your word. Senior EAs on the Expert tier have done this before for founders and directors; introductions are made at onboarding so the team knows the EA speaks for you.

Matched to the role. The Mid and Expert tiers exist for exactly this: people with longer experience supporting directors, who can be trusted with the board pack, the confidential thread and the stakeholder who needs handling. Every EA is recruited, trained and supervised from our own office, not sourced from a marketplace.

Start with the diary and the inbox, because they carry the rest: meeting preparation follows from the calendar, follow-ups follow from the correspondence. Expenses, travel and board preparation join in the second and third weeks once the rules are proven. By the end of the month the EA owns the operating rhythm of your week.

£5 per hour for the first 6 months on the Entry tier, then the admin rate card: £6.30 per hour full time (£1,008 a month for 160 hours) with Mid at £7.25 and Expert at £7.88 per hour full time, or £6.50 per hour part time (£520 a month for 80 hours). An in-house EA costs a UK salary plus employer costs, holiday and a desk; here the employment sits with us.

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

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