VA - how far to trust?

[Ross]

I've got some ideas about where to get a VA from searching this forum - oDesk, for example - but before I get one, I was wondering whether anyone has any thoughts on how far to trust them.

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't give them access to my brokerage accounts with instructions to place orders, but what about adsense, affiliate accounts, passwords to my websites, and so on? A dishonest VA could really go to town.


How far do you trust your VA?

[vmgbpo]

Ross, you are absolutely correct, a dishonest VA could go to town. It is important to check references (I mean really talk to someone, don’t just read testimonials). Finding a VA or VA firm via oDesk or a similar site (Elance, Guru, Freelancer, etc) provides a measure of protection, too.

Compartmentalize as much as possible. If you must pass on credit card information use one that has a low limit and is used solely for this VA. And keep a close eye on things in the beginning until you build up trust.

And start slow. Get to know your VA and how their work. Educate them on how you work. Communicate clearly and honestly.

But don’t be afraid to start either. When you think about hiring a VA vs hiring an in house employee there are some similarities. Would you hand an employee the keys to the castle in the very beginning? No. Relationships take time and trust builds over time. But only if you start.

[Ross]

Thanks for the excellent suggestions.

I trust my in-house staff with all kinds of things, not to mention the cleaning staff. I wouldn't have gotten very far if I was unable to establish relationships of trust.

I'll pick some safe projects to start, and see how it goes.

[msbeauvais]

I am a VA and have a current client that uses 4 different VA's in various roles. All of the VA's were hired from elance.com. I work on the marketing, social media (I have access to all of their blogs & social media accounts), and many other admnistrative assistant tasks. I also have a company email address for a professional appearance for customers. Another VA I work closely with handles all personal tasks for the business owner, from making airline reservations, personal appointments, and even helping him coordinate a surprise proposal - all with access to his personal credit card.

The key is working successfully with a VA is to work closely with them (especially at first) which will build trust over time, and be diligent about establishing expectations. If you'd like to talk more about VA's, I'd be happy to chat with you in more detail. Please feel free to contact me anytime.

[FrozenCanuck]

If your VA is fully employed by you then to them, the position is their job. They want to keep their job, usually. They are not out to harm you. They want to help you make more money, just the same as any typical employee wants his company to be successful so he earns a raise, etc.

If you hire your VAs full time, you can probably give them access to lots of stuff piece by piece.

I have one guy that's been with me close to 2 months now and he doesn't know much about cPanel and wordpress yet. But I want him to learn it so I'm getting a new hosting account for $6/month (HostMonster, probably) and I'll simply "hand him the keys" and let him drive. This way he won't be able to screw anything up since it's a brand new account.

I'll also make a new Adwords account for him to use to create new campaigns. Same deal. Trust him with a blank slate, and he can do very little harm. Once he knows how to do these things I'll just give him my passwords to other accounts.

I haven't blogged about this yet, but I will be. This is where my other outsourcing blog posts (http://doing-business-online.blogspot.com/search/label/outsourcing) are right now. I hope they are helpful to you.

[networkmemetics]

I recommend you compartmentalize the tasks that VA performs so that they can't reverse engineer your business.

I also recommend you treat VA's as outsourcers until your business is large enough to handle multiple part of full time employees.

You need to have redundancy. If one quits, you can't pick up their slack. So make sure you have multiple individuals (or a company that can provide such a service)

[PreneurAssist]

Hi there.

I think you should take things slow. Allow your VA to handle menial tasks firsts and see how that goes. It would also be advisable if you constantly check the status of your accounts and sites, if you have to give important access information to your assistants.

I think compartmentalizing is also a good idea to prevent a single person from knowing and using all important data regarding your business.

What I can suggest further are:

1.) that you always keep one eye on what your VAs are doing; do a weekly or monthly check of your accounts.
2.) and approach an established and licensed BPO company to provide you with VAs.

See, BPO companies have more to loose, as compared to freelancers, if one of their employees break your trust and do not uphold his/her end of the contract. So they will always make sure that they serve you satisfyingly.

Kind regards,

Em Gomez.
Executive Virtual Assistant To Pete Williams
Author: How To Turn Your Million Dollar Idea Into A Reality [John Wiley + Sons Publishing]