ProAssisting delivers high-quality full-service executive assistant support to clients

ProAssisting's business model for providing fractional, remote executive assistant (EA) support services was developed from more than 34 combined years of top-level EA experience by co-founders, husband and wife Ethan and Stephanie Bull. 

The company offers fractional top-level executive assistant services to clients who don't need a full-time EA, and it allows clients to save on the costs associated with the process of finding, interviewing and employing the right candidate full-time. Unlike regular virtual assistants, ProAssisting’s executive assistants have real-life, extensive EA experience and could command six-figure compensation packages working in-office in the US’ major metropolitan areas, but they are now working remotely because of an assortment of factors. This mirrors the Bulls’ experience, having moved from New York City to upstate New York in 2015. 

According to Co-founder Ethan Bull and prior to launching ProAssisting, both he and Stephanie found out that most virtual assistant service companies matched their assistants with 6 to 12+ clients a month which doesn’t align with their idea of what great executive assistant support is, as the assistant’s time and focus is too divided to deliver an excellent job. In their past full-time roles, both of them led teams of assistants and they discovered that a 3:1 executive-to-assistant ratio was the “sweet spot” in terms of the time and focus received by the client and income earned by the EA. Ethan and Stephanie proved the efficacy of this model by working with three clients each themselves with great success. 

“When we launched ProAssisting in 2018, we adapted our experiences into our business model, meaning our executive assistants are only partnered with a maximum of three clients. This allows them to feather the work of each client throughout the day, day in and day out, to provide that feeling of full-service support at a fraction of the cost of a full-time employee,” he says. 

Bull says that this is one of the main features of ProAssisting’s model, coupled with the fact that it does not charge by the hour. Instead, it charges by resources. Currently, it costs $3,000 per month to have one-third of an EA’s resources, and 80% of that goes to the EA, which Bull says is unheard of in the remote support space. This allows the company to partner with very high-level executive assistants, who can make more than $86,000 per year when partnered with three clients. 

He explains that time is indeed part of the resource equation, but it also includes the EA’s career experience, the exclusivity of the partnership, and the EA’s legacy knowledge about the client, and their business, personal commitments,  preferences and industry, which builds over time and creates more efficiency. Thus, the EAs’ compensation is consistent each month, allowing them to focus more on providing exceptional support to the client, rather than looking for more hours from either current or new clients.   

ProAssisting EAs serve a variety of roles and categorize them under five verticals, which are business partner, chief of staff, project manager, scheduler, and personal assistant. Having a high-touch hospitality mindset is also important for an EA, and ProAssisting screens for this during the recruitment process, as well as provides training to further cultivate this quality. 

CEO Stephanie Bull says that all EAs are independent contractors running their own businesses under ProAssisting’s umbrella. This not only keeps the company’s expenses lean, but it also gives EAs the benefits of being business owners themselves, such as being able to write off their business expenses, control their schedule, and create direct relationships with their clients.  

She adds that ProAssisting has had clients that have been with them for more than five years, dating back to when the company was started in the spring of 2018. 

“Like us, most of our EAs have moved away from the big cities, and yet are still making the same amount or more than what they were making before. So, it's a long-term play from a business perspective. We’re proud that we pass 80% of our retainers directly to our Partner EAs because we want long-term relationships with our clients and we want long-term, top-level executive assistants to support them. We want them to get compensated based on their experience and to give them the freedom and flexibility to do what they do remotely, working for clients instead of bosses,” Stephanie says.