If you are asking this question, it is rarely because you are casually weighing up options. It is usually because something has started to creak. You are spending too much time in your inbox. Follow ups are slipping. The diary feels like a moving target. Invoicing gets pushed back until you are already worrying about cash flow. Customer replies take longer than they should. None of it sounds dramatic on its own, but together it creates that constant low-level pressure where you never properly switch off.
So, you get to the fork in the road that most growing businesses hit eventually. Do you hire someone and bring admin in house, or do you outsource admin support to a VA.
There is no universal right answer. Both can be the best move, and both can go wrong if you choose based on what sounds easiest rather than what your business actually needs. The point here is to lay it out honestly, with enough context that you can make a decision you will not regret six months from now.
What you are really trying to buy is not admin
Most people think they are buying tasks being done. In reality you are buying one or more of these things.
You are buying headspace because your brain cannot carry the volume anymore.
You are buying consistency because things slipping is starting to cost you in reputation or revenue.
You are buying leverage because you are spending high value hours on low value work.
If you are clear on which one you need most, the hire versus outsource decision becomes less emotional and more practical.
The appeal of hiring an admin employee
Hiring often feels like the cleanest solution. One person. Your person. Properly part of the business. Available when you need them. Learning your way of doing things. Building knowledge over time. In the right situation, it can be brilliant. A good admin employee can become the backbone of the business. They can create order where you have been winging it, catch things before they become problems, protect your time, and make the business feel calmer and more professional.
But hiring is not just swapping money for hours. It is committing to being an employer. That means recruitment, onboarding, training, supervision, and the reality that people need managing, even the good ones. It means holiday cover and sickness cover. It means you might invest time in getting someone up to speed only for them to leave sooner than you hoped. None of that is a reason not to hire. It is just the part people conveniently skip when they say, just hire someone.
If you are already overloaded, adding management responsibilities can either create relief or become another pressure point, depending on how ready you are to lead someone day to day.
The appeal of outsourcing admin support to a VA
Outsourcing appeals for different reasons. It can feel like a smaller step, less commitment, and less risk. You get support without taking on the obligations of employment. You can start with a few hours a week, test what works, and scale up or down depending on what is going on in the business. You can move faster too, which matters when you are already behind and you do not have the luxury of a lengthy recruitment process.
There is also the experience factor. Many VAs have worked across lots of businesses and seen the same patterns again and again. Messy inboxes. Scattered information. Unclear
processes. Owners doing everything. A good VA often brings structure and suggestions, not just task completion. For some businesses, that outside perspective is the real value.
But outsourcing has its own realities, and it is better to name them upfront. A VA is not physically in your office. If you rely on constant last minute ‘can you just’ requests all day long, you might struggle unless you change how you work. Outsourcing works best when there is a rhythm. Clear priorities. Shared tools. A simple way to hand work over and track what is happening. If you are hoping you can throw random tasks over the fence with no context and it will magically sort itself out, it will feel disappointing. Not because VAs are not capable, but because admin is connected work. It needs understanding, decision making, and a sense of what matters most.
Cost is not just salary versus hourly rate
People ask which is cheaper and it is a fair question, but it is rarely as simple as comparing an hourly rate.
With an employee, you have salary plus employer costs, plus recruitment, plus equipment and software, plus the time you spend managing and supporting them. You are also paying for availability, even when workload dips.
With outsourcing, you tend to have a retainer or ad hoc hours. You pay for what you use, without the long-term obligations. The hourly rate may look higher, but you are not paying the same overheads, and you are often paying for experience and autonomy as well as time.
The biggest trap is assuming the cheapest option on paper is the cheapest in reality. Hiring too early can leave you paying for downtime and feeling resentful, which is a horrible dynamic in a small team. Outsourcing too late can mean you are so overwhelmed that you cannot onboard properly, you drip feed tasks in a panic, and then you decide it is not working when actually you have not created the conditions for it to work.
Control and why it matters more than people admit
Hiring can feel safer because the person is there and you can see what is happening. Outsourcing can feel like you are handing over the engine room of your business to someone outside it.
But control is not really about physical presence. It is about visibility and process.
You can feel completely out of control with an employee if everything lives in their head and you rely on verbal handovers.
You can feel very in control with a VA if there is a shared task list, clear priorities, a weekly check in, and a system for tracking what has been done and what is pending.
If you know you need to see everything, you can set things up that way. If you know you want admin off your plate entirely, you need someone confident enough to take ownership rather than waiting for constant instruction.
When hiring is usually the better choice
Hiring tends to work best when the workload is stable and substantial, ideally close to a consistent part time or full-time requirement. It is a strong move when you need someone physically present, or when you want someone embedded day to day, building long term knowledge and taking ownership in a way that is harder to replicate externally.
It also suits owners who are ready to lead someone, set expectations, and invest in training because they are thinking beyond this month.
When outsourcing is usually the better choice
Outsourcing is often the right step when workload fluctuates, when you need flexibility, or when you are not ready to take on the responsibility of being an employer. It suits businesses that need help quickly and want to start with a defined set of tasks, then expand once trust and rhythm are in place.
It also suits owners who know they need structure and support, but do not yet have the clarity to write a perfect job description and commit to a hire.
When neither option fixes the real issue yet
Sometimes the problem is not a lack of hands. It is that your systems are chaotic. If the work is leaking everywhere, adding a person can feel like throwing them into the same mess you are already drowning in.
In that situation, what you might need first is a short reset, not a dramatic overhaul. Just enough structure so support can stick. A tidier inbox. A clear place for tasks. A basic weekly admin rhythm. A simple process for enquiries and follow ups. Once that is in place, both hiring and outsourcing work better, and your choice becomes calmer.
A final thought that might save you a headache
The most expensive decision is usually waiting until you are in such a state of overwhelm that you choose in panic. Both routes need onboarding. Even the best admin support in the world cannot read your mind. Making the decision a little earlier than you think you need to can be the difference between support that genuinely changes your week, and support that feels like another thing to manage.
If you are still stuck, ask yourself one simple question. Do I need consistency or flexibility. If you need someone there every day and the work is predictable, hiring will make you feel safer and more supported. If you need breathing room, fast relief, and the ability to scale up and down without commitment, outsourcing is often the sensible first step. And if you suspect you will eventually need an employee, outsourcing can still be a smart bridge, because it can stabilise the business and help you define what the hired role should actually be, based on real work, not guesswork.