Top 25 Tasks to Outsource to a Virtual Assistant

If you have ever felt like you are spending your entire day on tasks that keep the business running but do not actually grow it, you are not alone. Most business owners and executives lose 10 to 15 hours per week on repetitive administrative work that a skilled virtual assistant could handle just as well—or better.

The key to successful delegation is knowing exactly which tasks to outsource to a virtual assistant. Below, we have organized 25 of the most impactful tasks into five categories: administration, marketing, sales, customer service, and bookkeeping. For each task, we explain what it involves and how VantaStaff's managed virtual assistants handle it.

Administrative Tasks (1–7)

Administrative work is the number one time drain for busy professionals. These are the tasks that keep your operation organized but do not require your personal expertise.

1. Email Management and Inbox Organization

Your VA triages your inbox, responds to routine messages, flags urgent items, unsubscribes from junk, and keeps your email organized with labels and folders. VantaStaff assistants learn your communication style within the first week so replies stay on brand.

2. Calendar Management and Scheduling

Coordinating meetings across time zones, handling rescheduling requests, blocking focus time, and sending reminders. Your assistant becomes the gatekeeper of your calendar so you never double-book or miss a critical meeting again.

3. Travel Booking and Itinerary Planning

Researching flights and hotels, comparing prices, booking reservations, and assembling detailed itineraries with confirmation numbers, addresses, and backup options. Especially valuable for executives with frequent business travel.

4. Data Entry and Database Management

Entering records into spreadsheets, CRMs, or internal systems. VantaStaff VAs are trained for high accuracy and can process hundreds of records per day, freeing your team from tedious manual input.

5. Document Preparation and Formatting

Creating, formatting, and proofreading reports, presentations, proposals, and internal documents. Whether it is a polished PowerPoint deck or a standardized contract template, your VA ensures every document is professional and consistent.

6. File Organization and Cloud Management

Structuring your Google Drive, Dropbox, or SharePoint with consistent naming conventions, folder hierarchies, and access permissions. A well-organized file system saves your entire team hours of searching each week.

7. Meeting Minutes and Follow-Up

Attending virtual meetings, taking detailed notes, summarizing action items, and distributing follow-up tasks to the relevant team members. Nothing slips through the cracks when your VA owns the follow-up process.

Marketing Tasks (8–13)

Marketing is essential for growth, but it involves a high volume of recurring tasks that are ideal for delegation. Explore our full marketing VA services for more detail.

8. Social Media Management

Scheduling posts, engaging with followers, responding to comments and DMs, and maintaining a consistent posting calendar across LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok. VantaStaff VAs use scheduling tools like Buffer and Hootsuite to keep your brand active every day.

9. Blog Writing and Content Creation

Researching topics, drafting blog posts, optimizing for SEO, and formatting articles for publication. Your VA can produce one to three polished articles per week, keeping your content pipeline full without you writing a single word.

10. Email Marketing Campaigns

Building email lists, segmenting audiences, writing newsletter copy, designing templates in Mailchimp or ConvertKit, and analyzing open and click-through rates. Consistent email marketing drives repeat business—your VA keeps it running on autopilot.

11. SEO Research and Optimization

Conducting keyword research, optimizing on-page elements (title tags, meta descriptions, headers), monitoring rankings, and identifying link-building opportunities. These are time-intensive tasks that yield compounding returns when done consistently.

12. Graphic Design Coordination

Creating simple graphics in Canva, coordinating with designers for larger projects, resizing assets for different platforms, and maintaining your brand asset library. Your VA ensures every visual touchpoint stays on brand.

13. Competitor and Market Research

Monitoring competitor websites, pricing changes, social media activity, and industry trends. Your VA compiles weekly or monthly reports so you always know where you stand in the market and can make data-driven decisions.

Sales Tasks (14–18)

Sales tasks are high-impact but often include a large volume of repetitive work that does not require your top closers. Let a VA handle the groundwork so your sales team can focus on closing.

14. Lead Research and List Building

Using LinkedIn, Apollo, ZoomInfo, and other databases to identify ideal prospects, verify contact information, and build targeted outreach lists. VantaStaff VAs can deliver 50 to 100 qualified leads per day.

15. CRM Data Entry and Pipeline Management

Logging interactions, updating deal stages, cleaning duplicate records, and ensuring your Salesforce, HubSpot, or Pipedrive CRM reflects the current state of every deal. Clean CRM data means accurate forecasting.

16. Cold Email and LinkedIn Outreach

Personalizing and sending outreach sequences, following up with non-responders, and booking meetings with interested prospects. Your VA handles the volume; your closers handle the conversations.

17. Appointment Setting and Confirmation

Coordinating demo calls, discovery meetings, and follow-up appointments between prospects and your sales team. Includes sending calendar invites, reminders, and rescheduling when needed.

18. Proposal and Quote Preparation

Drafting proposals, assembling pricing quotes, customizing templates with client-specific details, and formatting documents for a professional presentation. A polished proposal can be the difference between winning and losing a deal.

Customer Service Tasks (19–22)

Outstanding customer service builds loyalty and drives referrals. These tasks are perfectly suited for a dedicated virtual assistant who can represent your brand with professionalism and care.

19. Email and Chat Support

Responding to customer inquiries via email, live chat, and messaging platforms. VantaStaff VAs are trained to follow your brand voice and escalation protocols, maintaining response times under two hours during business hours.

20. Helpdesk Ticket Management

Triaging incoming tickets in Zendesk, Freshdesk, or Intercom, resolving common issues, escalating complex cases, and closing resolved tickets with follow-up messages. Organized ticket management prevents issues from falling through the cracks.

21. Order Processing and Tracking

Processing new orders, updating customers on shipping status, handling address changes, and coordinating with fulfillment partners. Essential for e-commerce businesses that need to maintain a seamless post-purchase experience.

22. Review and Feedback Management

Monitoring online reviews on Google, Yelp, Trustpilot, and industry-specific platforms. Your VA responds to reviews promptly, thanks happy customers, and flags negative feedback for your attention. Proactive review management protects your reputation.

Bookkeeping and Finance Tasks (23–25)

Financial administration is critical but repetitive. A skilled bookkeeping VA keeps your numbers accurate without the cost of a full-time accountant. See our bookkeeping VA services for more information.

23. Invoice Processing and Accounts Receivable

Creating and sending invoices, tracking payment status, following up on overdue accounts, and reconciling received payments. VantaStaff VAs are proficient in QuickBooks, Xero, FreshBooks, and Wave.

24. Expense Tracking and Categorization

Recording business expenses, categorizing transactions, reconciling credit card and bank statements, and maintaining organized financial records. Accurate expense tracking simplifies tax preparation and gives you real-time visibility into spending.

25. Financial Reporting and Payroll Assistance

Compiling monthly profit-and-loss statements, balance sheets, cash flow reports, and budget-versus-actual analyses. Your VA can also assist with payroll processing, time tracking, and contractor payment management.

How to Get Started

The most effective way to begin outsourcing is to start with the tasks that consume the most time and require the least of your personal judgment. For most business owners, that means inbox management, scheduling, data entry, and social media—the tasks that eat hours every day but do not move the needle on their own.

With VantaStaff's Starter plan at $699 per month, you get a dedicated part-time assistant (4 hours per day) who can take on five to ten of the tasks listed above from day one. As your confidence grows, you can upgrade to the Professional plan at $899 per month for full-time support or the Enterprise plan at $1,699 per month for two full-time assistants covering multiple functions.

Every plan includes a dedicated success manager, streamlined onboarding, quality assurance, and free replacements if the fit is not right. There are no long-term contracts and no hidden fees.

Stop Doing Everything Yourself

The most successful business owners are not the ones who work the hardest—they are the ones who delegate the most effectively. Every hour you spend on tasks that a virtual assistant could handle is an hour you are not spending on strategy, sales, product development, or the high-level work that actually grows your business.

These 25 tasks to outsource to a virtual assistant represent hundreds of hours per month that you can reclaim. The question is not whether you can afford a virtual assistant—it is whether you can afford not to have one.

Schedule your free consultation with VantaStaff today and find out which tasks your dedicated VA can take off your plate this week.