Questions we get on every call
Answered here so you do not have to book a call to find out. If something is not covered, it is because we have not published a number for it yet — ask on the call and you will get a straight answer.
Cost and terms
How much does a FERO executive assistant cost?
A full-time executive assistant is $3,000 a month for 40 hours a week. Part-time is $1,750 a month for 20 hours a week. Both are one flat monthly rate with recruiting, training, equipment, management and backup coverage included.
Is there a minimum contract or a lock-in period?
No. The agreement runs month to month. There is no 90-day minimum and no annual contract.
How does that compare to hiring in the US?
A $60,000 US role costs $86,412 fully loaded, because benefits add 44.02% on top of wages according to the BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation series for private industry at the median wage percentile. The same work through FERO is $36,000 a year, which is 41.66% of the cost.
Is part-time or full-time better value per hour?
Full-time. Part-time works out to $20.19 an hour and full-time to $17.31. Stepping up from part-time to full-time buys the second twenty hours at $14.42 an hour, which is why most clients start at full-time.
What does the support desk cost?
The desk starts at $6,000 a month for two full-time agents plus a coverage manager who owns onboarding and holds your KPIs. The manager is included. Smaller desks are quoted on the call.
Hiring and onboarding
How long until someone is actually working?
Two to three weeks from signed agreement to your assistant working. Week one we source against your role, weeks one to two you interview and pick, and weeks two to three we onboard with a named manager who owns the rollout.
Do I choose the person, or do you assign one?
You choose. We source against the role you described rather than assigning someone off a bench, screen written and spoken English, run background checks, then send video intros and CVs for the candidates who cleared screening. You run the interview. If nobody fits, we go back and source again.
What happens if the fit turns out to be wrong?
We source a replacement and cover the handoff. One named manager owns your account and your KPIs throughout.
Who manages the assistant day to day?
You direct the work; we handle the management around it. A dedicated onboarding manager runs the rollout, holds the KPIs and stays on the account.
What roles can you hire for?
Executive assistants, operations managers, receptionists and customer support, plus franchise sales support, paralegal, bookkeeping and lead generation. We source against your role and train against your SOPs before day one.
How the work runs
Where is your team based, and what hours do they work?
Guatemala and Colombia, one to two hours off US Central. They work your business hours, so nine of your ten business hours overlap with ours. A team twelve hours away overlaps with none of them.
What happens when my assistant takes time off?
We cross-train a backup on your account and document SOPs for the tasks that matter, so coverage holds when someone is out.
Are they trained on AI tools?
Yes, and it is ongoing — an hour of AI training every week. They arrive knowing how to automate the repetitive half of their own job.
Can you work inside the phone system and booking software we already use?
Yes. If you already have a phone system and a booking platform we staff into it. If you do not have one, we will build it.
Do you offer an AI voice or text agent as well as people?
Yes. We design and build the AI layer too: a voice agent that answers the phone and a text agent that handles inbound SMS and web chat. It can run in front of the desk to take first contact or behind it to draft replies. It is priced on top of the desk and scoped on the call.
Security and access
How do you handle logins and passwords?
Credentials live in a shared 1Password vault your business owns. Your assistant signs in without ever seeing the password, and access ends the day they roll off your account.
Is there an NDA?
Yes. A signed service agreement and a mutual NDA are both in place before your assistant sees a single system. Every placement is background checked.
Are you SOC 2 certified?
No. FERO holds no security certification, and we would rather say so plainly than let you discover it during a vendor review. What we offer instead is a model where your business holds the credentials and can revoke access without going through us.
For franchisors
Can I offer this across my franchise system under my own brand?
Yes. You set the price your franchisees pay and keep the spread. We handle sourcing, training and management, and you keep the relationship — nothing we send your franchisees carries FERO branding.
Does this work at a small number of locations, or only at scale?
Both. We run 40 receptionists across 300 salon locations and, separately, three receptionists across a two-location medspa brand. The same model works at two locations and at three hundred.
Still deciding?
Thirty minutes. Bring your staffing pain points, leave with a plan. Or read the published rates and how we handle your systems first.