When founders compare hiring in-house to outsourcing, they usually compare the wrong numbers: a local salary against a monthly VA rate. That comparison is missing most of the picture, and it almost always overstates the value of the local hire.
Let's put the real, all-in costs side by side.
What a local hire really costs
Say you hire a local assistant for a $48,000 salary. That number is just the starting point. On top of it you're typically carrying:
- Payroll taxes and benefits: often 20 to 30% on top of salary.
- Recruiting: weeks of your time, or an agency fee, to find the right person.
- Equipment and software: laptop, tools, subscriptions, a seat if you have an office.
- Onboarding ramp: the weeks of reduced output while they learn the ropes.
- Turnover risk: if it doesn't work out, you pay the whole cost again.
All in, that $48,000 role often costs closer to $62,000 a year once you count everything, and that's before a single hour of your time spent managing it.
What a managed Surge Pro costs
A full-time managed assistant through Surge runs $1,595 a month, or about $19,140 a year, with a one-time setup fee. That rate already includes:
- A vetted, trained professional matched to your needs.
- Payroll and HR handled entirely by us.
- A dedicated account manager and performance check-ins.
- Replacement coverage if something changes.
- No recruiting cost, no equipment cost, no benefits overhead.
The honest comparison
Even setting aside every hidden cost and comparing salary alone, a managed Surge Pro comes in at a fraction of a comparable local hire. Add back the taxes, benefits, recruiting, and ramp time, and the gap widens further. For most small businesses, that's the difference between "we can't afford help" and "we have a team."
When in-house still wins
To be fair: if a role requires someone physically on-site, deeply embedded in local relationships, or holding sensitive on-premise responsibilities, a local hire can be the right call. The point isn't that outsourcing always wins. It's that you should compare the real numbers, not the sticker price.
The bottom line
Outsourcing isn't just cheaper. It's lower-risk, faster to start, and free of the overhead that quietly eats a small business. If you've been telling yourself help is out of budget, it's worth running the honest math.