You started it because you are good at the work. Then the quotes started stacking up, the invoices started slipping, and the phone started ringing while you were halfway up a ladder with your hands full. At some point every growing trades business hits the same wall. There are only so many evenings you can spend catching up on admin before something gives. Usually it is the quotes that go out three days late, and the customer who has already booked someone else. So you decide to get help. Then comes the harder question. Do you hire someone properly, bring in a freelancer when things get busy, or work with a virtual assistant? There is no single right answer, but there is a right answer for where your business is now. Here is how the three options actually compare once you look past the hourly rate. First, work out what you are really handing over Before you compare options, spend two weeks writing down every admin task you touch and roughly how long it takes. Most trades business owners are surprised by the result. The list usually looks something like this. Answering calls and returning missed calls Booking and rescheduling jobs Typing up and sending quotes Raising invoices and chasing late payment Ordering materials and tracking deliveries Keeping certificates, insurance and compliance paperwork up to date Replying to enquiries from your website and social media Basic bookkeeping and getting records ready for your accountant Add the hours up. If the total is under ten hours a week, a full time employee will spend most of the day looking for something to do. If it is closer to 35 hours and growing, that changes the picture entirely. This one exercise removes most of the guesswork. Option one: hiring an employee What it looks like You recruit someone on a contract, put them on payroll, and they work set hours for you and only for you. They learn your business inside out, they answer your phone in your company name, and over time they can take on far more than admin. The true cost This is where a lot of trades businesses get caught out. The advertised wage is only part of the picture. Current government guidance on employer duties means you should also budget for the following. Employer National Insurance contributions on earnings above the secondary threshold Pension contributions under auto enrolment, with a minimum employer contribution set in legislation Statutory holiday of 5.6 weeks a year, which is paid time you are not receiving work for Statutory sick pay, maternity or paternity pay where it applies A desk, a computer, a phone and software licences Employers liability insurance and the admin of running payroll As a rough planning figure, many small business advisers suggest budgeting somewhere in the region of 20 to 30 per cent on top of gross salary once these are added together. On top of that sits recruitment cost and the time you spend on it. When it makes sense An employee is the right call when you have genuinely steady, predictable admin work for 30 hours a week or more, when the role will grow into office management or coordination, and when you have the cash flow to carry a fixed monthly cost through a quiet January. Worth knowing: employment rights and obligations begin from day one of employment, so it pays to get contracts, right to work checks and probation terms in place properly rather than informally. If you are unsure, a short conversation with an HR adviser is cheaper than getting it wrong. Option two: bringing in a freelancer What it looks like You find a self employed person who invoices you for the work they do. There is no payroll, no holiday pay and no notice period beyond whatever you agree. You use them when you need them. The trade offs Freelancers usually charge a higher hourly rate than an employee costs per hour, which is fair enough because they are carrying their own tax, pension, kit and downtime. The bigger issue for trades businesses is availability. A good freelancer is juggling several clients, and the week you are drowning may be the week they are already booked. There is also the question of employment status. If you take on a freelancer, set their hours, tell them exactly how to work and use them exclusively for months on end, HMRC may take the view that the arrangement is really employment. That is a risk that sits with you, not with them. Keep the relationship genuinely independent, or hire properly. When it makes sense Freelancers are excellent for defined pieces of work with a clear finish line. Cleaning up a year of receipts before your tax return. Building a quoting template. Setting up your job management software. Writing your website copy. For ongoing daily admin they are usually the least reliable of the three options. Option three: working with a virtual assistant What it looks like A virtual assistant works remotely and handles your admin on an agreed number of hours each week or month. With a specialist provider you are not hiring one individual and hoping for the best. You are buying a service, with cover, quality control and a replacement if the fit is not right. The trade offs You pay for hours rather than a person, so there is no wage bill sitting on your books when work goes quiet. There is no National Insurance, no pension, no holiday pay, no desk and no payroll to run. You can usually start within days rather than weeks. The honest limitation is physical presence. A VA cannot sign for a delivery, meet a customer at your unit or tidy the office. If your admin genuinely needs someone in the building, that is a real argument for an employee. The other thing to be clear about is that a VA works best when you give them proper access and a proper handover. Owners who keep everything in their own head and drip feed tasks never get the value. Owners who hand over the inbox, the diary and the invoicing process get their evenings back within a month. When it makes sense A virtual assistant fits best when you have five to 25 hours a week of ongoing admin, when the work can be done from anywhere, and when you want the burden lifted without adding a permanent fixed cost. For most trades businesses making their first admin hire, this is the lowest risk starting point. It is also worth saying that choosing a VA now does not close the door on hiring later. Plenty of businesses use a VA to prove how much admin support they actually need, then recruit an employee once the workload clearly justifies it. By then you know exactly what the job description should say. Five questions that will decide it for you How many hours of admin do you actually have each week, based on your two week log rather than a gut feeling? Does the work need someone physically present, or can all of it be done remotely? Is the workload steady all year, or does it swing hard between seasons? Could you comfortably pay a fixed salary plus on costs in your slowest month? Who covers the work when that person is ill or on holiday? If your answers point to fewer than 25 hours, remote friendly work, seasonal swings and no obvious cover plan, a virtual assistant is almost certainly the sensible first move. What to hand over first Whichever route you choose, do not try to hand over everything in week one. Start with the tasks that cost you the most money when they slip. Missed calls and enquiry responses, because a call answered within the hour is the one that becomes a job Quote follow ups, because most quotes are lost to silence rather than price Invoicing and payment chasing, because this is the fastest way to see a return on the cost Once those three are running smoothly, add diary management, supplier orders and compliance paperwork. Build the handover in layers and it sticks. Three mistakes to avoid Hiring for the workload you hope to have Recruiting a full time administrator on the strength of one busy quarter is how small firms end up carrying a salary they cannot justify. Hire for the workload you have now, with room to scale. Handing over tasks without handing over the information If your prices, your supplier accounts and your customer history all live in your head, nobody can help you. Spend an afternoon writing down how you actually do things. It is the single highest value hour of the whole process. Judging the decision on hourly rate alone An employee at a modest hourly wage can cost more per productive hour than a VA at a higher headline rate, once you add on costs, holiday and the hours where there is nothing urgent to do. Compare total annual cost against hours of useful work delivered. Frequently asked questions How many hours of admin support do I need to start with? Most trades businesses start somewhere between five and ten hours a week. That is usually enough to cover calls, quotes and invoicing. You can increase it once you see where the pressure still sits. Is a virtual assistant cheaper than an employee? For part time workloads, usually yes, because you pay only for hours used and you avoid National Insurance, pension, holiday pay, equipment and payroll admin. For a genuine full time workload, an employee often becomes the better value option. Can a VA answer my phone in my company name? Yes. Call handling is one of the most common tasks trades businesses hand over, and callers simply hear your business answering promptly instead of going to voicemail. What about my customer data and passwords? A professional VA service will work through shared access tools rather than passing passwords around, and should be able to explain how your data is handled and protected. Ask about this before you sign anything. What if the VA is not the right fit? With an agency you ask for a different assistant and the handover notes go with you. That is a meaningful difference from an employee, where a poor fit means a difficult conversation and a recruitment process all over again. The bottom line Your first admin hire is not really a choice between three job titles. It is a choice about how much fixed cost and risk you want to take on while you find out what support your business actually needs. An employee is the right long term answer for a business with a full time admin workload. A freelancer is the right answer for a defined project. For most trades businesses standing at this crossroads for the first time, a virtual assistant is the answer that gets the paperwork off your kitchen table without betting the cash flow on it. Start with the two week log. The hours will tell you what to do next. Not sure which route is right for you? At VA4Trades we work with electricians, plumbers, builders and roofers who reached exactly this point. If you would like a straight answer on whether a virtual assistant fits your business, or whether you would be better off recruiting, get in touch for a no pressure chat. We will tell you honestly either way.