5 Best Roles to Hire Remotely

When I started my first company (venturevalidator.com) with a cofounder in 2019, I had no idea what a Virtual Assistant could do. My initial impression was the same two job responsibilities that everyone else in the world thinks about:

1. Managing email

2. Managing calendar

Sounded like that would hardly be worth the cost! 

But then we needed someone in our company to help us build market research reports. My cofounder and I were already stretched thin and didn’t have much of a budget, so we decided to give it a go. 

Luckily, we found an incredible Virtual Assistant, or VA, (shout out to you, Hanna 😊) who had just graduated from college. This gig would be her first real job and it would be our first hire!

She jumped into the role and easily replicated the work we were doing on these market research reports. Our first VA was doing the work that us founders thought we needed to be doing. Soon enough, she was doing all of the market research reports independently and I was able to focus my efforts on other parts of the business.

The Delegation Cycle

This exact cycle has been repeated hundreds of times now in my internal team, but also for people we’ve staffed for our client’s companies.

We see a job role that doesn’t HAVE to be done by a founder (or an in-person role), write up the SOPs, record a quick tutorial, then hand that off to a VA (also known as an Executive Assistant, or EA). 

But, we’ve seen a much higher success rate with certain remote roles. These are roles that can:

• Easily be done remotely

• Able to be delegated (not Founder-dependent)

The Five Best Roles to Hire Remotely

Now that we’ve hired hundreds of VAs, EAs, SDRs, and PMs for hundreds of companies, I’ve made a list of the absolute best roles to outsource to a VA:

1. Executive Assistant (not what you think)

2. Social Media Manager

3. Bookkeeper

4. General Admin VA (typical VA)

5. Sales Development Rep

Executive Assistant

Sure, EAs can manage your calendar and email, but that’s just the most basic tasks of a great EA. My EA still manages my email by sorting out every morning’s emails into a few buckets (Urgent, Non-Urgent, Other, Spam/Archive). Yes, I do love that being done for me and would recommend it for everyone…

But! They can do so much more if you trust them enough and if you find the right fit.

My secret hack of a great EA: find an emphasis. Most EAs have similar personalities! They like to be more behind-the-scenes, they’re organized, they’re fairly agreeable, and they enjoy working with executives.

And I’ve found that many EAs have some passion outside of managing your email and calendar (big shocker). For example, I know many EAs who love the basic admin tasks, but they also LOVE event management. 

In that situation, the executive likes throwing networking events or getting together with industry peers. The executive will show up of course, and they’ll want a say on a few of the details, but the majority of work to throw an event should be on an EA!

They can research and book the venue, research and communicate with the guests, schedule follow-up communication, put together thoughtful gifts/cards for attendees, etc.

Now this is just one example. 

You likely have some passion project as an executive that you could hand off or collaborate with an EA (especially when every other team member is already focused on their own job). Think of the time and brain power you could save knowing someone is taking care of that for you!

Social Media Manager

A social media manager can also serve as a fantastic pairing to an Founder or Executive, especially ones who know the importance of generating content. Most founders I know have a "Notes" app full of half-baked ideas, but they never see the light of day because of the hurdles they face in editing, captioning, and posting.

A remote Social Media Manager isn't just someone to "post on Instagram." They are your distribution engine. You send them a raw, 2-minute "brain dump" video or a few bullet points from a meeting, and they turn it into a LinkedIn carousel, three Tweets, and a Reel. They take the "thinking" out of the "doing," allowing you to stay the face of the brand without being the full-time editor.

Bookkeeper

I’ll be honest: most founders treat their books like a "scary closet" they don't want to open. We wait until March of the following year to realize we’ve been paying for three SaaS subscriptions we haven't used in twelve months.

Hiring a remote bookkeeper is the highest ROI move for your mental health. Because this role is entirely digital and output-based, it’s the perfect remote hire. They don’t need to be in your office to categorize transactions in QuickBooks or reconcile your bank statements. A solid remote bookkeeper keeps your "financial dashboard" clean, so when you ask, "Can we afford this next hire?" you actually have an answer based on data, not a gut feeling.

General Admin VA (typical VA)

This is your "Utility Player." If the EA is your right hand, the General Admin VA is the engine room. While an EA is proactive and manages you, the General Admin VA is reactive and manages the process.

Think of the repetitive, soul-sucking tasks that keep your business running but don't require your specific genius:

• Data entry from lead forms

• Updating your CRM

• Uploading blog posts (like this one!) to WordPress

• Managing customer support tickets

By offloading these "Level 1" tasks, you aren't just saving time; you’re saving decision fatigue. You’re making room to think about the "Level 10" problems that actually move the needle.

Sales Development Rep

If you want to grow, you need a pipeline. But if you’re a founder, you probably shouldn't be spending four hours a day cold-messaging people on LinkedIn or scraping email addresses.

A remote SDR is a game-changer because they act as the "scout" for your sales team (or you). They handle the grueling front-end of the sales cycle: prospecting, initial outreach, and qualifying leads.

The beauty of a remote SDR is that they can operate in any time zone your customers are in. They fill your calendar with "qualified" meetings, so when you jump on a Zoom call, you’re talking to someone who actually wants what you’re selling. It turns sales from a "hunt" into a "harvest."

Final Thoughts

If you can think of any amount of tasks that could be delegated to save you time/brain power/mental load, there’s a good chance having a VA would save you dozens of hours each week.

Not every role is perfect for every VA, but there’s a VA out there that would be perfect for you! Book a call when you’re ready to start delegating: