How do I safely share my passwords with my Virtual Assistant?

​You have realised that a Virtual Assistant will be a great asset to your business, but you are now starting to worry about how things will work from a practical point of view.  Lots of “how..?”, “when..?” and “what if..?” questions.  But the one that makes you sweat the most is, “what about my passwords?”. 
 
Maybe you have the same password for everything or maybe you have a super-secure system.  Either way, you don't want to risk the security of any of your accounts by sharing your passwords.  Well, I have some good news for you.  Your Virtual Assistant doesn’t want to know your passwords!  In fact, saying, “shall I give you my password?” to a Virtual Assistant is likely to send them into a state of panic.  Think of it from the Virtual Assistant’s point of view.  It is great that you trust your VA and the last thing they want to do is anything that compromises your business (it would compromise their business too).  But, what if something does happen?  What if your account gets hacked, now or in the future?  Understandably you will question anyone that has access to your accounts and your Virtual Assistant does not want to be in that position.

Luckily there are some great password manager services that mean you can share access to certain accounts with your Virtual Assistant without actually sharing your password.  Some of these services are paid and some are free.  Your Virtual Assistant will tell you if they have a preferred service.  The most popular service I have found from my experience and speaking to other VAs is LastPass.  Although there are other password manager services that do the same job, such as 1Password, Keeper and Dashlane.
 
Password manager services are easy to use and your Virtual Assistant can talk you through how to set them up.  Essentially they work by sharing a ‘key’ with your Virtual Assistant.  Equally importantly, your VA should also tell you how to withdraw permission if you no longer wish your VA to have access to that account or if your contract or project with them ends.

You may already be using a password manager service for your personal accounts and they are great for personal use too.  Hopefully, you can now see they are also a simple, safe and effective way to work with a Virtual Assistant.