Why Cheap Virtual Assistants Cost More Than You Think

Looking for cheap virtual assistants? You know, the $5-$20 an hour Unicorn VA who can masterfully handle your inbox, manage your calendar, post on social media, and keep your systems running so you can focus on leading your team, growing your business, or driving results?

A lot of people are searching for VAs who fit that description, and honestly, you might even find someone at that price.

However, what you won’t find is a unicorn.

Because what most people don’t realize is that they’re describing a version of virtual support that breaks the moment you actually try to use it, and it’s not what most growing businesses actually need.

When someone says they hired a VA for $5 or $15 an hour, this is usually what they bought:

That kind of work is real, but it’s also interchangeable. Honestly, almost anyone who can follow instructions can do it. That’s why it’s priced like commodity labor. So, if all you need is someone to click buttons for you, that price makes sense, but that’s not what most business owners and organizational leaders are actually looking for.

The $5-$20 an hour model only works when:

…you’re no longer buying labor. You’re buying judgment, and judgment isn’t priced like data entry.

When people complain that hiring a virtual assistant made their life worse, this is usually what happened:

So now they’re paying someone to create more questions, like “Should I do this?“, “Is this right?“, “What do you want me to do next?“, or “How should I respond?“

That’s not support, that’s overhead. Additionally, this isn’t a people problem; it’s a model problem. You can’t buy “run this part of my business” for $5 or $15 an hour.

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We don’t offer task-based virtual assistants. We provide function-level virtual support specialists via our Imperative Support Model.

That means you’re custom-matched with someone who already understands the type of work you need done. Not someone learning on your time. So if you need administrative support, you don’t have to sit there holding that person’s hand. If you need someone to skillfully set up an email marketing campaign, it’s done without you having to tell them how to do it. Instead, they could show you how to do it better.

You’ll get someone who:

They’re not waiting for instructions. They’re responsible for the result.

That’s why our pricing reflects specialist-level work. You’re paying for expertise that prevents problems, not just time spent fixing them.

Here’s something most $15-$20 an hour VAs won’t tell you:

Half the tasks you’re hiring them for could probably be automated or handled by AI.

But that would require someone who can:

That’s strategic work, and it would mean you need fewer hours from them. Most budget VAs either don’t know how to do this, or they’re not incentivized to tell you. Truthfully, their business model depends on you needing more hours, not fewer.

A strategic virtual support specialist, on the other hand, is focused on solving the problem, even if that means using technology to reduce the manual work.

The result? You might not need that $5-$20 VA at all. You leverage technology and work with an expert to tweak it when needed. That’s more cost-effective in the long run.

So be careful of the trap most people fall into when hiring cheap virtual assistants.

A $5 to $ 20-per-hour VA who needs constant direction isn’t cheap.

They cost you:

A specialist who costs more but doesn’t need to be babysat is almost always the better deal because the work actually gets done.

Here’s what this looks like in practice:

You hire someone for $15 an hour to manage your email marketing. Over 60 days, they need 40 hours to execute campaigns, but they also need:

Total cost: $600 in VA fees + 9 hours of your time

If your time is worth $150 an hour, that’s $1,950 in real cost over 60 days.

You purchase a 5-hour time block for $500 to use over 60 days. You’re matched with an email marketing specialist who uses approximately 2.5 hours per month because they already know the workflows and tools.

They don’t need explanations. They catch issues before they become problems. You review the strategy once a month for 30 minutes.

Total cost: $500 in specialist fees + 1 hour of your time over 60 days

Real cost: $650.

The “expensive” option just saved you $1,300 every 60 days and gave you back 8 hours.

Expensive isn’t the hourly rate.

• Expensive is paying someone who can’t work without you.
• Expensive is staying late to fix what should have been done right the first time.
• Expensive is the opportunity cost of spending your $150/hour brain on $15/hour problems.

If you’re shopping for the lowest hourly rate, Imperative Concierge Services is not the right fit.

But if you’re done subsidizing “affordable” with your own expertise, that’s precisely why Imperative exists.

Book a discovery call to explore how function-level virtual support specialists work, without rigid retainers or roster-based assignments.

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