Virtually There
Admin
What areas of business support do you specialize in?
All things administration, communications, client / customer service, writing / editing / proofreading / formatting, and online management support such as social media posts and reputation monitoring.
How do we start working together?
1) Introductory Call:
After our initial contact, we can arrange an introductory call where we'll determine if we're a good match for working together, and if the support you're looking for falls within my scope of practice. I'll ask plenty of questions to get familiar with your needs and to establish the structure of tasks and project details.
2) Onboarding Process:
If we decide to move forward, next is the onboarding process, which for retainer packages or larger projects, will require the completion of documents such as a Terms & Conditions Agreement, Confidentiality Agreement, and Client Services Agreement (all provided by me, unless you prefer providing your own). This stage also involves agreeing upon how best to communicate and track tasks and projects (what online tools and platforms), and any sharing of passwords to access client accounts if needed.
Read my article Considerations for Getting Started With a New Client for We Are Virtual Assistants.
How do you handle passwords to access my accounts?
As it states in the Service Agreement: "Every attempt will be made on the part of the Service Provider to keep Client passwords secure by storing them in a secure password manager vault called LastPass. Should the Client choose to share access to their business and/or personal accounts, they do so entirely at their own risk, and are fully responsible for ensuring the security of their data with robust passwords. The Service Provider cannot assume responsibility for any breach of access to LastPass, and the Client will be solely responsible for any loss, liability or violations that might occur as a result of such access."
That all said, after 8 years as a Virtual Assistant and freelancer, I'm well versed in using LastPass to store mine, and my client's passwords and have never had an issue. After completion of working with a client, I then delete all of their account information from LastPass, and tell them when I've done that.
A note about account security measures...
Log-in security measures are great, except when they’re not. Having someone else (me) logging into any of your accounts (such as Google or Mailchimp) from another location will often prompt a security alert asking for the verification code they just sent to your phone. So it's a good idea to dedicate a window of time for us both to work on that together for initial logins, and to enter verification codes before they expire.
Also - if I am travelling and doing the laptop lifestyle thing and working on the road, security measures will kick in once again with attempted access from yet another location. In those cases, I would either replace your contact number with my own to receive the verification code myself, and then change it back to yours later.
How do you handle confidential documents?
I prefer that most documentation be in the cloud (Google docs and sheets, etc.) However if I'm working with confidential documents that are saved to my computer, it can then be deleted, along with the email / attachment if necessary.
What if you take time off or suddenly disappear?
Well let's hope I don't vanish, but unexpected things can happen, such as power outages and various catastrophes and emergencies of any kind. If I'm in the middle of something weird and can't be online that day, I'll text you. And clients are alerted of vacation / time off with plenty of advance notice.