How Do You ‘Let Go’ And Build Trust With A Virtual Assistant?

You run a small business where until now, you've done most things yourself.

Your business is growing and so is the workload, which means work is taking up more and more of your evenings and weekends.

You’ve made the decision to hire a Virtual Assistant (VA) to handle some of the admin. This will allow you to focus most of your energy on your clients as well as claim back your evenings and weekends

There is a nagging thought at the back of your mind though, and it’s all to do with trusting an outsider with your business.

You have to start somewhere and letting go of things that you’ve always done from day one is easier said than done. 

Building Trust

An obvious concern about working with a VA is one of trust. You are trusting someone you have possibly never met in person with key aspects of your business. 

Of course it’s a concern!

To start with, ensure the contract between you and your VA has a robust confidentiality clause, which stipulates they must not share any confidential information without written consent from you.

A good way of building trust is to start slowly.

At first ask your VA to handle just one or two smaller tasks. Starting this way allows you to get to know them better, how quickly they work and how much initiative they take. 

Passwords

Trusting a VA with your login passwords is most definitely a legitimate concern. After all, they could:

1. Change your passwords without telling you, then
2. Leave you and disappear so you can’t get into your accounts!

To be fair, most VAs are professional and trustworthy but there’s always a rotten egg somewhere.

Fortunately, the solution is a Password Manager. This is a secure and convenient piece of software that generates unique and complex passwords, storing them in an encrypted database, to access online services.

If you do become suspicious of your VA for any reason, or they leave you, you can stop them logging into your accounts simply by withdrawing their access at any time. 

There are many Password Managers available. Research them thoroughly though because not all of them allow you to share passwords. Just ask the question.

Communication

Business relationships are all about good communication.

Talk regularly and be clear in what you are asking them to do. In return, allow them to ask questions, raise any concerns and encourage them to make suggestions if they think there’s a better way of doing things.

Communication (and trust) is a two-way street!

Be transparent at all times. Project management software such as Asana, Trello or ClickUp allows you to see how they are progressing on specific tasks at any given time.

Letting go is a big step for a business owner and trusting other people can be scary. However, you can’t grow a business in a vacuum, it was a leap of faith starting your business and there are always ways to minimise any risk when you put your faith in other people.