| Monthly Cost Comparison | AndWeSupport | Local Hire ($25/hr) | Local Hire ($20/hr) |
| Working Hours | 160 | 160 | 160 |
| Direct Monthly Cost | $1,740 | $4,000 | $3,200 |
| Estimated Benefits | $0* | $1,714.29 | $1,371.43 |
| Total Monthly Cost | $1,740 | $5,714.29 | $4,571.43 |
| Monthly Savings | — | $3,974.29 | $2,831.43 |
| Recurring Cost Savings | — | 69.6% | 61.9% |
| Annual Savings Before Setup Fee | — | $47,691.43 | $33,977.14 |
More orders should mean more opportunity, not more overhead. Here’s how dedicated Virtual Assistant support can help distributors control costs and give their sales teams more time to sell.
A customer needs 500 branded tumblers for an upcoming event.
Your sales rep finds the products, prepares the quote, and wins the order.
Great. But the work isn’t finished.
Someone still needs to confirm inventory, coordinate artwork, send the purchase order, follow up with the supplier, track production, and make sure everything arrives on time.
Multiply that by 20, 50, or 100 orders.
That’s a lot of work happening behind every sale.
For promotional products distributors, this creates a familiar challenge: How do you handle more orders without constantly hiring more people?
One option is a dedicated, promo-industry-trained Virtual Assistant.
With AndWeSupport, distributors can get 160 hours of dedicated monthly support for $1,740, potentially saving nearly 70% compared with the estimated compensation cost of a local employee earning $25 per hour.
Here’s what the numbers actually look like, what you can delegate, and how to decide whether this approach makes sense for your business.
What Does Hiring a Local Employee Really Cost?
When you’re considering a new hire, the hourly rate is usually the first number you look at.
But it’s not the only cost.
Let’s say you need someone to help with quotes, order processing, supplier communication, and customer follow-ups.
For 160 working hours per month:
- At $20/hour: Monthly wages total $3,200.
- At $25/hour: Monthly wages total $4,000.
Then come employee benefits.
These may include health insurance, paid leave, retirement contributions, and legally required benefits.
For our comparison, we’ll use an illustrative compensation model in which wages represent 70% of total employer compensation costs and benefits represent 30%.
This is broadly consistent with the national private-industry compensation proportions reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, although actual costs vary by employer and role.
Under this assumption, a $25/hour employee costs approximately $5,714 per month, not just the $4,000 in wages.
And that’s before considering other potential expenses such as recruiting, equipment, and office space.
The important distinction: What you pay an employee and what that employee costs your business are not always the same.
AndWeSupport vs. Local Hiring: A Side-by-Side Comparison
AndWeSupport offers a dedicated, promotional-products-trained Virtual Assistant at $1,740 per month for 160 working hours.
Let’s compare that with two local hiring scenarios using the same number of hours.
| Monthly Cost Comparison | AndWeSupport | Local Hire ($25/hr) | Local Hire ($20/hr) |
| Working Hours | 160 | 160 | 160 |
| Direct Monthly Cost | $1,740 | $4,000 | $3,200 |
| Estimated Benefits | $0* | $1,714.29 | $1,371.43 |
| Total Monthly Cost | $1,740 | $5,714.29 | $4,571.43 |
| Monthly Savings | — | $3,974.29 | $2,831.43 |
| Recurring Cost Savings | — | 69.6% | 61.9% |
| Annual Savings Before Setup Fee | — | $47,691.43 | $33,977.14 |
The comparison assumes 160 working hours per month. Local employee benefits are estimated at 30% of total compensation, equivalent to approximately 42.86% of wages. AndWeSupport is a service rather than a direct employment arrangement; the $0 benefits entry means no separate employee benefits charge is included in the stated service price. Figures are illustrative, and actual costs may differ.
What Could Those Savings Mean for Your Business?
Consider a distributor planning to hire someone locally at $25 per hour.
Under our assumptions, the estimated monthly compensation cost is $5,714.
AndWeSupport’s monthly service price is $1,740.
That’s approximately $3,974 in monthly savings, or $47,691 over 12 months before the one-time setup fee.
Even at a lower local wage of $20 per hour, the estimated difference is more than $2,800 per month.
Those savings could help fund additional sales activity, customer acquisition, marketing campaigns, or other business priorities.
Of course, the lowest-cost option isn’t automatically the best one. The real value depends on whether the support fits your workload and helps your team operate effectively.
That’s where understanding what you can delegate becomes important.
Five Tasks Your Sales Team Shouldn’t Have to Handle Alone
A distributor’s day rarely follows a perfect schedule.
One moment you’re discussing a new order. The next, you’re checking artwork approvals, chasing a supplier update, or answering a customer asking where their shipment is.
These tasks matter. But not all of them require your sales team’s personal attention.
Here are five areas where a dedicated AndWeSupport Virtual Assistant can help.
1. Quotes and Product Research
A customer needs 1,000 branded notebooks, delivered before their annual conference.
Your sales rep shouldn’t have to spend the entire morning gathering product details from multiple suppliers.
A Virtual Assistant can help research options, check pricing and availability, organize product information, and prepare quote details for review.
What changes: Your salesperson can spend more time helping customers make decisions instead of collecting every detail manually.
2. Purchase Orders and Order Processing
Winning the order is just the beginning.
Product specifications, quantities, decoration details, shipping addresses, and deadlines all need to be accurate.
Your Virtual Assistant can help prepare purchase orders, update records, and follow up on outstanding order information.
What changes: Your team gets additional support managing the details that keep orders moving.
3. Artwork and Proof Approvals
A missing artwork approval can delay an otherwise straightforward order.
A Virtual Assistant can help monitor proof status, coordinate follow-ups, and keep the relevant people informed.
What changes: Routine approvals are less likely to be overlooked in a crowded inbox.
4. Supplier Follow-Ups and Shipment Tracking
Has production started? Is the order ready to ship? Has the tracking number been shared?
Your Virtual Assistant can help request supplier updates, organize shipment details, and support customer communication.
What changes: Your team spends less time repeatedly chasing the same information.
5. Customer Service and Back-Office Administration
Customer records, order updates, CRM data, and routine administrative requests can consume hours every week.
A dedicated Virtual Assistant can help manage assigned tasks within your existing processes.
What changes: Your internal team has more room to focus on customer relationships and new opportunities.
The Real Opportunity Isn’t Just Saving Money. It’s Getting Time Back.
Imagine two distributors handling the same volume of orders.
At the first company, the salesperson manages everything: customer conversations, quotes, supplier updates, artwork reminders, purchase orders, and shipment tracking.
At the second, a dedicated support resource handles many of the repeatable administrative steps.
Both businesses still need oversight, clear processes, and attention to detail.
But the second sales team has more time available for conversations that can lead to new business.
That’s the opportunity behind delegation.
The goal isn’t to remove people from the process. It’s to make better use of their time.
For a growing promotional products business, that can be just as valuable as the staffing savings themselves.
What Makes AndWeSupport Different From a General Virtual Assistant Service?
Promotional products distribution has its own workflows.
A purchase order isn’t just another document. Decoration methods, proof approvals, supplier lead times, split shipments, and event deadlines can all affect how an order moves forward.
Someone unfamiliar with the industry may need time to understand these details.
AndWeSupport focuses specifically on supporting promotional products distributors.
Its Virtual Assistants receive industry-focused training and can assist with tasks across sales support, order management, customer communication, and back-office operations.
Dedicated Support, With Team Oversight
AndWeSupport’s service model includes a dedicated Virtual Assistant backed by a team lead and floor manager.
That gives distributors an additional support structure for work coordination and oversight.
Your business still defines the responsibilities, establishes priorities, approves important decisions, and provides direction.
The Virtual Assistant helps execute the assigned work.
The result is a support model built around your workflow rather than a generic list of administrative tasks.
What About the One-Time Setup Fee?
A fair cost comparison should include the full first-year expense.
AndWeSupport’s pricing used in this example includes a $1,000 one-time setup fee.
That brings the first-year service cost to:
$1,740 × 12 months + $1,000 = $21,880
Here’s how that compares with the estimated annual cost of hiring locally.
| First-Year Cost Comparison | AndWeSupport | Local Hire ($25/hr) | Local Hire ($20/hr) |
| Annual Staffing Cost | $20,880 | $68,571.43 | $54,857.14 |
| One-Time Setup Fee | $1,000 | Not included | Not included |
| Total First-Year Cost | $21,880 | $68,571.43 | $54,857.14 |
| First-Year Savings | — | $46,691.43 | $32,977.14 |
| First-Year Savings (%) | — | 68.1% | 60.1% |
These estimates include the stated AndWeSupport setup fee but exclude additional potential expenses associated with local recruitment, equipment, and office overhead. They assume unchanged pricing over 12 months and comparable scheduled hours, not identical productivity or job responsibilities.
Even with the setup fee included, the estimated first-year cost difference remains substantial.
And because the setup fee is a one-time charge, the ongoing comparison in subsequent years returns to the recurring monthly savings, assuming pricing and other costs remain unchanged.
Is a Dedicated Virtual Assistant Right for Your Distributorship?
Not every business needs the same kind of support.
A dedicated Virtual Assistant may be a good fit if:
- Your salespeople regularly spend hours on supplier follow-ups and order administration.
- Your order volume is increasing faster than your team’s capacity.
- You’re considering another administrative hire but want to compare alternatives.
- Your customer communication or order updates are becoming difficult to manage.
- You have repeatable tasks that can be documented and delegated.
The key is to start with the work, not the price.
Identify which responsibilities are taking the most time, which tasks can be delegated, and what level of oversight they require.
Then determine whether a dedicated Virtual Assistant can support those processes effectively.
A local employee may still be the better choice for responsibilities requiring in-person work, specialized expertise, or direct on-site management.
But for many repeatable, remote-friendly back-office tasks, dedicated Virtual Assistant support is worth evaluating.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much can promotional products distributors save with AndWeSupport?
Using the illustrative local hiring scenarios in this article, recurring monthly staffing savings range from approximately 61.9% to 69.6%.
Actual savings depend on local wages, benefits, service requirements, and other costs.
How much does an AndWeSupport Virtual Assistant cost?
The full-time plan used in this comparison is $1,740 per month for 160 working hours, plus a $1,000 one-time setup fee. Confirm current pricing and service terms before purchasing.
Can a Virtual Assistant handle promotional products orders?
A trained Virtual Assistant can support order-related activities such as preparing purchase orders, coordinating supplier follow-ups, tracking shipments, and organizing order information.
The exact responsibilities depend on the agreed service scope, training, and business processes.
Is hiring a Virtual Assistant better than hiring locally?
It depends on your business.
A local hire may be preferable for work requiring a physical presence or specialized in-house responsibilities. A dedicated Virtual Assistant may offer a more cost-effective approach for appropriate remote administrative and operational tasks.
Will a Virtual Assistant replace my sales team?
The purpose is to support your sales team, not replace the customer relationships and judgment that help your business succeed.
By delegating suitable administrative work, salespeople may have more time available for prospecting, customer meetings, and account development.
Your Business Doesn’t Have to Grow Its Overhead as Fast as Its Orders
More orders are a good problem to have.
But when every new order adds another layer of administrative work, growth can start putting pressure on your people and your margins.
Hiring another local employee is one option.
Delegating appropriate tasks to a dedicated, promo-industry-trained Virtual Assistant is another.
With AndWeSupport, distributors can access 160 hours of dedicated monthly support at a predictable service price.
Based on the illustrative cost comparison in this article, that could mean up to approximately 70% in recurring monthly staffing savings.
But the bigger question isn’t simply how much you could save.
It’s what your team could accomplish with more time to focus on customers and growth.
Find Out What You Could Take Off Your Team’s Plate
Every promotional products business works differently.
Tell us which tasks are taking up your team’s time. We’ll help you explore what can be delegated and how dedicated Virtual Assistant support could fit your operation.
See How Much Your Business Could Save →
Sources and Calculation Methodology
Compensation benchmark: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation. View official BLS data.
Comparison assumptions: 160 scheduled working hours per month; local employee wages of $20 and $25 per hour; estimated benefits equal to 30% of total employer compensation. The benefits ratio is a broad illustrative benchmark, not a role-specific hiring estimate.
AndWeSupport pricing: $1,740 per month and a $1,000 one-time setup fee, subject to confirmation of current service terms.
Savings methodology: Savings percentages equal the difference between estimated local compensation cost and AndWeSupport service cost, divided by estimated local compensation cost. First-year calculations include the setup fee. Values are rounded for display.
Important: The comparisons are illustrative, not guaranteed savings. They do not establish identical productivity, availability, responsibilities, or employment arrangements. Actual business outcomes and costs will vary.
