Outsourcing by the Numbers: How Virtual Assistants Drive Business Growth

You’re not the only business person or professional wondering if hiring virtual assistants (VAs) can really make a difference in your commercial growth. Too many people still think all they do is provide admin help. The reality? Yes, they do. But there’s more to their roles. Top companies hire VAs as strategic growth engines. Let’s see what data reveals.

Businesses that hire VAs do see real economic impact.  The payroll savings they get from outsourcing are reinvested into marketing, product development, or sales staff.

Virtual assistants liberate leadership. When founders or managers stop sinking into emails and scheduling meetings, they can focus on producing, innovating, or scaling. That simple shift changes the entire panorama. 

We’ve seen clients grow 3 times faster after outsourcing work to our team of virtual assistants. It’s not a magic formula, it’s pure logic, it’s work optimization and time management. Not for nothing, as a Business Research Insights report indicates, the global virtual assistant market is estimated to reach USD 4.6 billion in 2025, and reach almost USD 28.14 billion by 2034. This growth requires the combination of the best talent and the adoption of AI tools. 

What Happens When You Outsource to Virtual Assistants? Growth! 

Outsourcing is not a new operative strategy. It’s a practice that started as a means of cutting manufacturing costs for big companies. Yes, as a study conducted back in 2009 by the Anderson School of Management and the College of Business Administration already mentioned, even admin tasks could be outsourced by small and mid-size businesses. This helped them with international competitiveness by reducing costs, serving clients more efficiently, and taking advantage of skilled foreign collaborators.  

And companies kept adopting this practice as the results were noticeable. In fact, according to Deloitte’s Global Outsourcing Survey from 2024, 80% of executives plan to keep or increase their investment in third-party outsourcing, while 50% of them use outsourcing services for front-office tasks, including sales, marketing, and research. These tasks are typically delegated to specialized virtual assistants. 

An article published by Brainz Magazine claims that U.S. businesses opt for offshore outsourcing, as this can cut their costs by up to 70%. Business service providers (BPOs) help to improve productivity and quality at reduced costs since they hire virtual assistants from areas where labor costs are much lower than in the U.S. 

Take a look at our pricing page, and you’ll see how we translate those reduced costs to our fees. Through us, any business can outsource to a professional virtual assistant to boost their growth. 

Companies analyze metrics, look for results, and those drive their decisions. 

These are some things that happen when businesses work with skilled virtual assistants (VAs): 

• Cost reduction: Businesses cut worforce costs. A report by 99 firms claims that companies save up to 78% of costs by hiring virtual assistants. Note that although cost reduction is real, the percentage can vary from one industry to the other.
• Productivity gain: According to SQ Magazine, in 2025, businesses partnering with virtual assistants increased an average of 28% in their overall team productivity. 
• Time recovery: As published in an article by the Harvard Business Review, by delegating non-core tasks, such as administrative ones, business leaders can free up to 20% of their workday and focus on the responsibilities that really matter to them and their business, and bring revenue.  

These aren’t guesses. They’re verified outcomes, as you can verify on the case studies and research we are sharing. 

Our clients at Virtudesk report similar results. One e-commerce owner reduced the order processing time of their shop by 70%. Another real estate agent closed 12 more deals in 90 days after handing off client communication and social media management to their VA.

Virtual assistants don’t just complete tasks. They unlock capacity and nurture growth.

Case Studies: Companies That Grew Using Virtual Assistants 

1. Zapier: Scaling Automation With a Remote-first Mindset

Zapier, the workflow automation platform, grew from being a side project to becoming a USD 5 billion company without hiring a traditional, in-site customer support team.

Instead, they hired virtual assistants for tier-1 support, scheduling, data entry, and CRM updates. Their team of remote VAs handled 70% of routine inquiries, freeing engineers to build new integrations.

The results they got?

• Customer satisfaction stayed above 90%.
• Support response time dropped to under 2 hours.
• They scaled from 10 to 300+ employees in 5 years, but only 12% were in customer service.

2. Buffer: 100% Remote, Zero Office, High Growth

Buffer, the social media scheduling tool, has been fully remote since day one. Their entire operations, including customer success, billing, and content coordination, depend on outsourcing those tasks to virtual assistants.

They hired VAs from the Philippines to manage email tickets, update analytics dashboards, and follow up with trial users, to mention just a few.

Within 18 months, they achieved:

• Customer retention increased by 34%.
• Time-to-response for support tickets fell from 12 hours to 1.8 hours.
• Founders regained 15+ hours per week to focus on product roadmap.

3. Rachel Stevens, a Life Coach Who Was Burning Out 

Her weeks stretched to 55–60 hours, much of it spent on emails, scheduling, and back-end administrative tasks rather than focusing on client-centered work. Gains had plateaued at about $8,500 per month, and she was unable to scale beyond her 12 one-on-one clients.

Then, she decided to hire a virtual assistant to handle day-to-day support tasks: managing her inbox, organizing appointments, editing newsletters, and maintaining her CRM. With those repetitive duties off her shoulders, Rachel changed her focus and efforts to launching group coaching programs and refining her marketing strategy.

Within 18 months:

• Revenue increased by 185%, nearly tripling her monthly earnings.
• Cut her workload by 30%, regaining evenings and weekends.organizations during peak seasons.
• She expanded into group programs, serving far more clients without sacrificing quality

Rachel’s case shows how even a solo entrepreneur can achieve rapid, measurable growth by delegating to a skilled human virtual assistant. You can read her full story by following this link.

The Collegiate Lineup (TCL): Saving Costs to Fuel Growth

The Collegiate Lineup, a custom apparel and printing company, wanted to scale but found that administrative work was draining their resources. They outsourced back-office functions such as HR, IT support, and bookkeeping to remote assistants.

The impact was immediate:

• Overhead dropped by 20%, freeing up capital to reinvest in production capacity and marketing.
• Order fulfillment turnaround improved, enabling the company to serve more schools and sports organizations during peak seasons.
• Leadership could focus on expanding product lines instead of getting bogged down in paperwork.

By outsourcing non-core functions to virtual assistants, TCL redirected its energy and resources to areas that directly drive growth.

How a SaaS Startup Grew 200% Using Virtudesk Virtual Assistants

A Boston-based SaaS (Software as a Service) company had 4 employees. Their founder spent 60% of his time managing CRM entries, calendar bookings, and customer onboarding emails.

He hired two virtual assistants from our staff at Virtudesk. One handled CRM cleanup and email sequences. The other managed client onboarding flows.

Within 4 months:

• Customer onboarding time dropped from 7 days to 2.
• Lead response time improved from 48 hours to under 2 hours.
• Sales conversions rose 42%.

The team didn’t add headcount. They added efficiency.

They grew revenue by 200% in one year, without hiring a single full-time employee.

This isn’t rare. It’s repeatable. And you could be the next one. 

What Some of Our Clients Say

Why not be proud of our work? At Virtudesk, we do our best to meet the exact needs of our clients and match them with the virtual assistant or assistants that best fit their working requirements and, why not, also their personalities. 

Today, we’ll share with you some of the priceless testimonials of our clients. Note that, for privacy reasons, we won’t share their personal information. 

“Great company. All my VAs are from this company, and they are fully trained in basic real estate tools and concepts. My production has gone up because of the help I receive from the VAs and ISAs” Robert G, Real Estate.

“We now have 4 VAs and are taking on a 5th next month. They are vital to our day-to-day operations. Virtudesk VAs are great at self-management, accuracy, communication, compliance, finance, and auditing. We could not do this without them!” Sony B, Real Estate

“Jiomalee has been great, and really eager to take on new tasks. She is able to understand the objective of a task, make progress and follow up with suggestions on what she thinks needs to be done next. I am very happy with her performance.” Terrel T., Accounting.

But there’s much more, and we don’t want to take your valuable time. If you are interested in reading more reviews and testimonials, feel free to read them on our website or under the Google Reviews section. 

We also want to take this occasion to thank the hundreds of clients who trusted and continue to trust us.  

Which Tasks Deliver the Highest ROI When Outsourced to a VA?

Not all tasks are equal. Some outsourced roles return 10x the investment. Others barely break even.

Focus first on outsourcing the following:

• Customer support: Reduce churn. Improve NPS (Net Promoter Scores).
• Lead follow-up: Turn cold leads warm. Capture missed opportunities.
• Data entry & CRM management: Clean data equals better decisions.
• Calendar & email management: Free your most expensive asset, your time.
• Social media scheduling: Stay visible without burning out.

One client in legal tech delegated 15 hours/week of invoicing and client reminders to a VA. She recovered 3 billable hours daily. That’s $1,200+ in extra monthly revenue, just from delegation.

Virtual assistants multiply your output. Not your monthly expenses.

Finding Your Virtual Assistant and the Secrets to Success

Finding the right virtual assistant or the virtual assistants’ service provider can make or break your entire experience. You have two main options: 

• Hiring by yourself through a freelance marketplace like Upwork or Fiverr
• Partnering with a business service provider or agency, like Virtudesk

If you opt for finding a candidate through freelance sites, you will find a plethora of options and, typically, at the lowest hourly rates (if you hire someone from a country with lower wages). Although this may seem tempting if you are on a budget, you need to consider that you’ll be alone when it comes to vetting skills, training, and determining goals. 

It’s hard to predict the outcome; you might find a VA capable of adapting fast to your business and working independently, or you might end up spending more time managing them than doing your work. 

On the other hand, an outsourcing business service provider (BPO) will do all the hard work for you. Take us, for example. At Virtudesk, we hand-pick our virtual assistants, train them on general and specialized roles, and guide you through the simple process of integrating your virtual assistant into your company or professional practice. If your VA happens to suffer any inconvenience, won’t be helpless, we’ll immediately assign you a replacement. 

Regardless of the work system you choose, once you have found your VA, it’s not just about assigning them tasks. Communication is crucial. You need to provide them context, explain your goals and values, and what you expect from them. We strongly recommend using tools like Teams, Slack, or Zoom to stay connected.  

Note that, besides providing our virtual assistants with the latest tech tools, our clients have access to Timedly, our AI-powered time tracking tool that enables you to monitor your virtual staff's progress without having to micromanage. 

Why Most Companies Underuse Virtual Assistants and How to Fix It

Many businesses treat VAs like temporary helpers. That’s why they don’t see growth.

Their mistake? Limiting them to low-value tasks.

The fix? Scale strategically.

Start with these steps:

• Phase 1: Outsource repetitive tasks (email sorting, data entry, appointment setting).
• Phase 2: Add high-impact roles (lead nurturing, social media, basic bookkeeping).
• Phase 3: Delegate strategic functions (CRM optimization, market research, competitor tracking).

At Virtudesk, we guide our clients through this progression. Our VA management services help you identify where and how to delegate next.

One client, Heidi, started with 10 hours/month of VA support. Now she runs a $2M business with 8 VAs handling operations, marketing, and finance reporting.

She still owns the strategy. But she doesn’t own the clutter anymore.

Virtual assistants become extensions of your team, not replacements.

The Hidden Advantage: Access to Global Talent Without the Risk

Hiring overseas doesn’t mean compromising quality. It means accessing highly trained professionals.

Our VAs in the Philippines undergo 80+ hours of training before onboarding. They dominate tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, QuickBooks, and Calendly, learn your industry jargon and adapt to your unique workflow.

And you pay less than half the cost of a U.S.-based hire. Plus, you get backup coverage. If one VA is sick, another steps in. No downtime, hidden fees and recruitment delays.

These are some of the reasons why 87% of our clients renew their service within 90 days (internal data, 2024).

Virtual assistants give you stability. Not just savings.

How Virtudesk Makes Outsourcing Simple and Scalable

You don’t need an HR department to hire a VA. Here’s how we make it easy for you:

• Pre-vetted candidates: No screening calls. We match you with qualified VAs based on your needs.
• Dedicated account manager: One point of contact for smooth onboarding and performance reviews.
• Timedly Time Tracker: Monitor hours worked without micromanaging. Transparency built in.
• Training academy: Our VAs learn compliance, communication, and tool mastery continuously.
• Flexible scaling: Need 2 more VAs next week? Done. No contracts. No penalties.

We don’t just send you workers. We build your operational backbone.

Clients tell us they feel like they hired a new department, not a few individuals.

Final Thoughts: Growth Isn’t About Working Harder

Growth comes from working smarter.

Every hour you spend on admin is an hour stolen from innovation, sales, or strategy.

The numbers prove it: businesses using virtual assistants grow faster, spend less, and retain more customers.

You don’t need to outsource everything. But you do need to outsource the right things.

Start with one task. Track the time saved. Measure the result.

Then scale.

If you’re ready to turn your VA from a helper into a growth lever, let’s talk.

Contact us today by calling +1 (800) 470-8136 or schedule your free discovery call. We’ll show you exactly how to start, and where to go next.