VA vs Employee: What's the Real Cost Difference for a Small Business?
- Nicola Stanbridge
- Aug 11
- 3 min read
If you're thinking about getting some admin support, you've probably asked yourself: should I hire someone, or work with a Virtual Assistant (VA)?
It's a fair question and the answer might surprise you.
Most small business owners assume hiring an employee is the "proper" way to get support. A VA feels like a workaround, something you do when you can't afford the real thing. But when you actually run the numbers, the picture looks very different.
Here's an honest breakdown of what each option actually costs and what you get for your money.
The real cost of hiring an employee
When most people think about hiring, they think about the salary. But the salary is just the beginning. When you bring on a full-time employee, here's what you're actually committing to:
Salary - for an experienced admin or operations person, you're looking at $55,000–$75,000 per year as a baseline, depending on your location and their experience level.
Superannuation - add 12% on top of salary. That's an extra $6,000–$9,000 per year minimum.
Annual and sick leave - full-time employees are entitled to four weeks annual leave plus personal leave. You're paying for those weeks whether work gets done or not.
Payroll tax - depending on your location and payroll size, you may be liable for payroll tax on top of everything else.
Equipment and workspace - computer, desk, software licences, phone. These costs add up fast.
Recruitment - job ads, interviews, reference checks, onboarding time. Weeks of your time before they even start.
Management overhead - someone has to manage them, handle HR issues, conduct reviews, and deal with performance concerns if they arise.
Add it all up and a "experienced admin person" on a $55,000 salary can easily cost your business $70,000–$80,000 per year once you factor in everything above. And that's before you consider the risk, if it doesn't work out, you're dealing with notice periods, potential redundancy, and starting the recruitment process again.
The real cost of working with a VA
A VA works on a flexible retainer or hourly basis. You pay for the hours you actually need nothing more. Here's what that looks like in practice:
A 10-hour monthly retainer covers emails, scheduling, basic invoicing and document preparation for most small businesses. That's a fraction of the cost of a part-time employee with no super, no leave, no equipment costs, and no management overhead.
There's no recruitment process. No onboarding paperwork. No HR risk. A good VA gets up to speed quickly, adapts to your systems, and gets on with the work.
And crucially if your workload changes, you can scale up or down. Quiet month? Fewer hours. Big project on? Add more. You're in control.
So when does hiring an employee make more sense?
There are situations where an employee is the right call:
You need someone physically on-site every day
You need a highly specialised role that requires full-time focus
Your business is large enough that the management overhead is justified
You need someone embedded in a team dynamic that requires in-person presence
But for most small business owners and trades businesses who need reliable admin support? A VA delivers the same outcome for significantly less cost and complexity.
The smarter first hire
If you're at the stage where admin is eating your time but you're not ready to commit to an employee, a VA is almost always the smarter move. You get experienced support, flexible hours, and none of the employment risk.
The best hire isn't always the biggest one. It's the one that actually fits where your business is right now.
Want to know what VA support would cost for your business?
I'm Nicola — I work directly with small business owners and trades businesses to take admin off their plate. Book a free 30-minute call and let's talk numbers.
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