Sponsored by: Plus Forty helps CPG and e-com brands scale with vetted offshore talent – without the admin or the overhead. From executive assistants to media buyers and sales support, they handle sourcing, pre-vetting, contracts, payroll, insurance, and more, so you can confidently grow your business.

The Reality of Early-Stage Chaos

Launching a CPG brand is often fueled by passion, but it doesn’t take long before the operational chaos sets in. Founders find themselves stretched thin, juggling everything from product development to customer service to retail outreach, often in the same day. While the vision is focused on growth, distribution, and brand building, most of the time gets consumed by admin-heavy tasks that keep the business afloat but not necessarily moving forward.

Inbox overload. Endless spreadsheets. Trade show follow-ups that get pushed to “later.” For many founders, the day-to-day demands leave little room for strategic thinking, innovation, or even rest.

The Real Cost of Founder Burnout in CPG

CPG is a fast-moving industry with thin margins, intense competition, and constant pressure to scale. Founders who try to do it all often pay the price in productivity and mental bandwidth. When every small task is done manually and by the same person, it slows down the business.

More importantly, it creates a dangerous bottleneck: the founder becomes the single point of failure. If you’re the only one who knows how to manage retail outreach or process incoming orders, a single busy week or personal emergency can stall critical business operations.

Burnout doesn’t just impact health, it stalls growth. The inability to delegate leads to missed retail opportunities, delayed shipments, and overlooked customer communications. Over time, it chips away at both momentum and morale.

Tasks That Drain CPG Founders (and Can Be Delegated to a VA)

Most CPG founders don’t need more hours in the day-they need to offload the tasks that are important but repetitive. A well-trained virtual assistant (VA) can take over a wide range of responsibilities, freeing up 20+ hours a week so founders can focus on growing the business.

Here are some of the most impactful areas to delegate:

1. Email Management

From buyer inquiries to co-packer updates, inboxes can get out of control quickly. A VA can help organize, flag priorities, draft responses, and ensure no messages fall through the cracks, especially during busy seasons like product launches or trade shows.

2. Retail Outreach Coordination

Retail expansion is a game of consistency. That means researching target stores, sending pitch emails, following up with category managers, and keeping track of responses. A VA can manage this workflow and maintain a CRM to help founders stay on top of every opportunity.

3. Order Tracking and Logistics

Keeping tabs on orders, whether DTC, wholesale, or distributor-based, can be time-consuming. A VA can update spreadsheets, send shipping confirmations, follow up with carriers, and help manage platform integrations like Shopify or Faire.

4. Trade Show and Sampling Follow-Ups

After investing in a trade show or sampling campaign, timely follow-up is essential to convert interest into sales. A VA can create and send follow-up emails, gather contact details, and organize leads into your sales funnel for future outreach.

5. Customer Service & Experience

As order volume grows, customer inquiries increase fast – across email, chat, and social channels. A VA can manage customer support inboxes, respond to common questions, process returns and refunds, and escalate issues when needed. This protects brand experience, maintains fast response times, and frees internal teams from reactive, repetitive work.

6. Influencer & UGC Coordination

Consistent UGC requires structured coordination. A VA can source creators, manage outreach, track responses, coordinate product seeding, and organize content deliverables. They can also maintain creator databases and usage rights, ensuring your content engine runs smoothly without the brand or marketing lead chasing creators day-to-day.

Why the Right VA (and the Right Setup) Matters

Not all virtual assistants are created equal. The difference between a frustrating experience and a high-leverage one often comes down to quality, vetting, and structure.

Rather than simply hiring “cheap help,” founders benefit most from working with qualified VAs who are carefully screened for communication skills, reliability, and role-specific competencies. While some VAs may come with backgrounds in e-commerce or consumer brands, what matters most is that they are capable, adaptable, and supported by clear systems and expectations.

A strong VA isn’t meant to replace a founder’s industry expertise – they’re meant to extend it by reliably owning the execution.

How Plus Forty Supports High-Quality VA Placements

At Plus Forty, the focus isn’t on promising one-size-fits-all industry expertise – it’s on delivering qualified, pre-vetted talent matched to the role and supported by a robust operational framework.

Founders typically benefit from:

• Role-based vetting: VAs are screened based on the actual skills required (admin, ops, sales support, marketing, etc.), not generic profiles.
• Thoughtful matching: Communication style, tools, time zones, and working preferences are factored into every placement.
  Reduced risk: Contracts, payroll, insurance, and compliance are handled centrally, removing operational burden from founders.
  Ongoing support: Plus Forty remains involved post-placement to help ensure alignment, continuity, and performance.

The goal is simple: make delegation feel safe, structured, and effective.

Getting Started with a Virtual Assistant (Step-by-Step)

If you’re considering offshore support, here’s a practical way to approach it:

1. Audit your time: Identify tasks that are repetitive, admin-heavy, or not directly tied to growth.
2. Define the role: Be clear about outcomes, not just tasks.
3. Start with leverage: Begin with areas like inbox management, admin, or coordination before expanding scope.
4. Build feedback loops: Regular check-ins and documented processes help VAs improve quickly.
5. Measure impact: Track time saved, responsiveness, and workload reduction to assess ROI.

Building a Support System for Long-Term Growth

The most effective CPG founders aren’t the ones doing everything themselves – they’re the ones who know what only they should be doing and build systems around everything else.

Delegating to a capable virtual assistant isn’t about giving up control. It’s about creating space to think strategically, protect energy, and lead the business forward.

Reclaiming even 20+ hours a week can be the difference between constant firefighting and sustainable growth.

Ready to Build Your Operational Support Team?

Plus Forty connects CPG and e-commerce founders with qualified, pre-vetted offshore virtual assistants, while handling the admin, compliance, and ongoing support behind the scenes.

If you’re ready to offload execution and focus on growth, Plus Forty helps you build a support system that scales with your business – without adding unnecessary complexity.