Confidentiality has a big relevance to small business owners in this inconstant technological society. Everyday, many secrets are revealed, online to off, through harmful content and carelessness. Trust and confidentiality became major issues in outsourcing work of any kind.
I have repeatedly heard the questions, “How can I know that you are not going to sell the information that I am giving you to someone else?”, and, “How can I know that you will be cautious about protecting my information from being exploited?” These are valid kinds of questions which should be inquired of any assistant, whether they’re in or out of your office.
Virtual Assistants are owners of small businesses who worked hard to take their businesses off the ground. They have had spend many hours researching their industry, making a website, logos, and marketing just as the one that you have. It could be months perhaps years before their businesses will start thriving, and they’ve invested a lot to get that result. It is not just a job for them but it is also their passion, their life, and livelihood. No thinking owner of a business will endanger their work over an issue as relevant to the customer as confidentiality. If a Virtual Assistant is careless about confidentiality, they might get a warning or lose their work. And, they lose much more because they are dependent on their reputation to make safe additional work, there are no rules which say you can’t tell an individual exactly why you have terminated them.
Information should be protected from unintentional loss, as well as from being careless and threats from the outside. A virus in the computer is expensive to the Virtual Assistant and client but the VA has the most lose. They will lose time, they may also have to spend more money for repairs, and if important information is lost, they should make compensation to the client. Anti-virus and etc. are essential components on the computer of any VA. A firewall, security passwords and encryption software are the basic elements that a VA installs and uses.
Printing information is just as susceptible as the technological info. The simple safety measure of shredding and then destroying all sensitive documents when the job is done guarantees that the info is destroyed in a way that it can’t be reconstructed. Sensitive documents can be protected throughout the project, by storing them in a secured cabinet and the key is kept by the Virtual Assistant.
If you have concerns about confidentiality on hiring a virtual assistant, here are a few questions that you can ask them:
1. How do you make safe of the confidential information on your PC?
2. How do you make safe of the confidential documents that are printed?
3. What are you going to do with the confidential documents as the conclusion of a project?
4. What are your policies in regards to sharing information among clients?
5. What information you consider to be confidential?
The answers to these questions will produce you important information in regard to picking a diligent and cautious Virtual Assistant so that you can start to build a long term bond with an individual who is going to aid you throughout your business.
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Posts Tagged ‘Small Businesses’
Confidentiality Between You and Your Virtual Assistant
December 30th, 20095 Reasons to Hire Virtual Assistants
December 16th, 2009A Virtual Assistant (or VA) is an independent contractor specializing in the provision of administrative and business support and solution services. Virtual Assistants support their clients in a continuous, collaborative and professional relationship. They work from remote locations, utilizing current technology such as email, online communication, telephone and fax, emerging technology in the field of communication, as well traditional methods such as snail-mail and courier.
Virtual Assistants are ideal for businesses at all levels but are commonly used by entrepreneurs, solo-professionals and small businesses. There are literally hundreds of reasons to hire a Virtual Assistant but I’ll present you with 5 common ones. 1. Save money.
You’re in business to make money. Why spend money on in-house personnel that can instead be used towards the development of your business? With a Virtual Assistant, you don’t have to concern yourself with the paying of employee-related taxes, insurance, payroll expenses, paid vacations, bonuses as well other expenses associated with having an employee. Additionally, since a Virtual Assistant works from their own office, there is no need to purchase office equipment, furniture, stationery or computers. You are only responsible for paying for the time your Virtual Assistant has spent working on your behalf. 2. Freedom to focus on building your business.
As a business owner you wear many hats. Having a Virtual Assistant affords you the opportunity to relinquish some of these hats and focus your energies on revenue generating projects and ventures. By delegating to your Virtual Assistant, you can take comfort in the knowledge that comes from knowing that you have reliable and professional support, working behind the scenes, taking care of the projects that are mundane, tedious, boring, time consuming, or do not make up the core of your business, but still need to get done. 3. Service is customized with you in mind.
Whether you’re just looking for a Virtual Assistant to handle your calls or to act as your virtual office manager, Virtual Assistants are versatile and well able to perform a range of duties. They are also flexible and many are prepared to tailor their billing structure and services to fit the unique needs of their clients. With Virtual Assistants, there is never a one size fits all mentality. 4. Professional partner and sounding board.
Virtual Assistant are entrepreneurs too. They network, market their services, communicate with clients and provide services just as their clients. They make good partners and ‘sounding boards’ because they understand the intricacies of growing and running a business. Tapping in to their knowledge base and resources can benefit your business. 5. Highly trained and skilled personnel.
Virtual Assistants are professionals that have training and work experience in a variety of fields. As business owners they tend to provide services that are reflective of their accumulated skills and knowledge. Whatever your need, you’re sure to find a Virtual Assistant with the skills and experience to meet your needs.
Virtual Cio Tips For Helping Your Clients Understand Your Role
December 10th, 2009Are you trying to set yourself up as a trusted Virtual CIO for your clients’ businesses? If so, you need to know how to convince small business owners that signing a long-term service agreement is in their best interest. You have to know what small businesses will need from you. As a Virtual CIO, you provide an outsourced Virtual IT department for your clients and become an extension of their businesses. You will have to give them the continuity of knowing you will be there every week, every month and over the course of several years (at least!) to oversee their IT needs. You will help with strategic planning as well as execution of technology plans, management, supervision and training, as well as coordinating all different types of IT vendors. An on-going service agreement solidifies your role as a Virtual CIO and formalizes your relationships with your clients. Use these 3 steps to get clients to understand your role so you can build long-term relationships. Establish Yourself as the Main Technology Contact. Your small business clients are not going to have the patience to deal with a lot of different technology vendors. As a Virtual CIO, you need to have the attitude of the-buck-stops-here, and be able to take care of everything IT-related, soups-to-nuts. Use Strong Prospect Qualification Strategies. To attract clients that will be receptive to your role as a Virtual CIO, establish effective strategies to make sure they are a good fit for your services. A prospect survey is a good way to ask important questions that will weed out those prospects that will not be interested in long-term relationships. Ask important questions about the size of your prospects’ businesses, where they are located, how many PCs and servers they have, and which type of industry they are in. You can fax, e-mail or mail this survey directly to prospects, or establish an area on your Web site that allows them to fill it out online. Leverage Your Rate Card. If you want to be a Virtual CIO offering on-going service agreements, you need to have a one-page rate card to show qualified customers the difference between “pay-as-you-go” and service contract rates. This rate card is both a marketing document and a reference for your existing clients. It outlines the unique benefits you provide as part of your service contracts and defines your company as their outsourced Virtual IT department. Stress benefits such as better rates, waiving some premiums, better response time and proactive monitoring to help show customers why they need to sign service agreements to protect and grow their businesses. In this article we talked about 3 tips to help you sell yourself as a Virtual CIO to local small businesses. Learn more about how you can attract great, steady, high-paying clients as a Virtual CIO now at http://www. VirtualCIOKit. comCopyright (C), VirtualCIOKit. com, All Rights Reserved
