The Time Cost of Running a Business
Research consistently shows that a large portion of a business owner's working day is consumed by tasks that do not directly drive revenue. According to a 2024 Entrepreneur survey, business owners report spending an average of 68% of their working hours on administrative, operational, and coordination tasks — leaving only 32% of their time for the strategic and client-facing work that grows their business.
Virtual assistants exist to rebalance that ratio. The data on how much time they recover is substantial.
Average Weekly Hours Recovered
Survey data from multiple VA service providers reveals consistent findings on time savings:
- Belay Solutions (2024): Clients recovered an average of 12.2 hours per week after VA onboarding
- Time Etc. (2025): Clients reported saving an average of 10.8 hours per week, primarily from email and calendar delegation
- Boldly (2024): Premium VA clients reported 13–16 hours per week recovered after the first 60 days
- IVAA member survey (2024): Business owners using VAs full-time (20+ hours/week) reported saving 18–22 hours per week across all task categories
These figures align closely with independent research. A 2023 McKinsey Global Institute report estimated that automating or delegating routine knowledge worker tasks could free up 28% of a professional's working week on average — approximately 11–12 hours in a standard 40-hour week.
Where the Time Comes From
The specific tasks that account for the most recovered time, according to a 2025 Clutch.co survey of VA clients:
- Email management and inbox triage: Average 4.3 hours/week saved
- Scheduling and calendar coordination: Average 2.8 hours/week saved
- Social media management: Average 3.1 hours/week saved
- Research and data compilation: Average 2.5 hours/week saved
- Invoice management and follow-up: Average 1.9 hours/week saved
For business owners handling all of these tasks personally, the aggregate is 14.6 hours per week — more than a full day and a half of recovered time.
What Business Owners Do With Recovered Time
A 2024 Belay Solutions client survey asked business owners what they did with the time recovered from VA delegation. The results:
- Deepened client relationships: 68% of respondents
- Worked on business strategy or planning: 61%
- Pursued new business development: 54%
- Invested in personal health, exercise, or family time: 49%
- Developed new products or services: 38%
The ability to invest recovered time in personal wellbeing alongside business growth is a finding that appears consistently across multiple surveys and is explored further in the quality-of-life impact research.
Time Savings in the First 30 Days
A concern some business owners have about VA hiring is the onboarding investment — time spent training and building systems with a new VA. Time Etc.'s 2025 client analysis found that even accounting for onboarding time, most clients achieved a net positive time return within the first 30 days. The break-even point was typically week two, after which clients began recovering more time than they were investing in delegation setup.
Time Savings by Business Size
Time savings are not uniformly distributed. Solo entrepreneurs and businesses with two to five employees consistently report the highest per-owner time savings from VA delegation, because they are typically handling a broader range of administrative tasks personally. A 2024 Small Business Trends study found:
- Solo entrepreneurs: Average 13.4 hours/week saved
- 2–5 employee businesses: Average 10.7 hours/week saved
- 6–20 employee businesses: Average 7.2 hours/week saved
- 21+ employee businesses: Average 5.1 hours/week saved (for the individual executive delegating)
The Long-Term Compounding Effect
Business owners who have used VA support for 12 months or more report a compounding effect: as the working relationship matures, the VA takes on more complex tasks with less guidance, creating progressively greater time returns per dollar invested. A 2025 Belay Solutions longitudinal study found that time savings increased 34% between the 3-month mark and the 12-month mark in established VA-client relationships.
For business owners ready to start recovering hours each week, Stealth Agents matches businesses with experienced VAs who can begin delivering time savings from day one.
Sources
- Entrepreneur, Business Owner Time Use Survey, 2024
- Belay Solutions, Client Time Recovery Report, 2024
- Time Etc., Client Time Savings Survey, 2025
- Boldly, Premium VA Client Impact Study, 2024
- International Virtual Assistants Association (IVAA), Member Survey, 2024
- McKinsey Global Institute, Automation and Delegation Report, 2023
- Clutch.co, VA Client Task Delegation Survey, 2025
- Small Business Trends, VA Time Savings by Business Size, 2024