I Outsourced Some of My Full-Time Job Responsibilities to a Virtual Assistant, Then Turned That Into a Business

This is the one Business Insider ran as-told-to, meaning it's entirely my own account, lightly edited by their team. It's the real origin story: how a side hustle inside a Fortune 500 job became VA Staffer, and what it actually cost to build it.

How It Actually Started

I was an IT project manager at Philips, a Fortune 500 company, making $93,000 a year. I hired my first virtual assistant to handle documentation I didn't have time for. Colleagues started asking what my secret was, so I started finding and placing assistants for them, free of charge.

One of them described what my Fiverr contractor did, and I pointed out he was describing a virtual assistant. He asked if I could find him one, then said I could be his "VA staffer." He named my company without meaning to. I bought the domain that day. By late 2014, I'd registered VA Staffer as an actual corporation.

What It Cost

The side hustle grew while I still had the day job, until it couldn't stay quiet anymore. My father was diagnosed with cancer and I wanted to be closer to him during treatment. The company denied my request, reasoning it couldn't find anyone to replace me, the same job I was already quietly proving didn't need me full-time. My grandfather was bedridden with Valley fever. My wife had a miscarriage and I asked for time to care for her. Both times, I was told there was no one to fill in.

My wife and I broke our lease early and moved to the Philippines to cut costs and build the team in person, since all of the assistants were based there. I funded it with savings and had clients pay in advance. By May 2016 I had a full-time office manager and 11 virtual assistants.

What I Got Wrong, Then Right

I started out hiring for skills and experience. That was a mistake. What actually predicted success was adaptability, people who could learn and adjust, not people who already knew the most. Once I hired for that instead, the business started compounding.

The Numbers Now

• arrow_forwardSince the pandemic, the team grew from 47 employees to 171 full-time staffers, 21 of them hired that year alone.
• arrow_forwardOf the 171: 25 on the creative team, 11 project managers, 135 virtual assistants assigned directly to clients.
• arrow_forward20 corporate clients, plus roughly 100 individual entrepreneurs and small businesses.
• arrow_forwardRevenue crossed $500,000 that year, and has grown well past it since.

Why This One Matters

Every other press piece covers what VA Staffer does now. This is the only one that covers what it actually cost to build it, in my own words, not a marketing summary of it.