Virtual Assistants

To be honest... the last place I would look for this kind of VA would be o-desk. That is why I have a wife LOL but really, you are talking about entrusting someone with credit card numbers etc.

I would be looking more in the lines of a local, close by geography wise Single parent type to help with these types of things. maybe even someone that is living next door or the like that might be retired and might really enjoy the company needed once a day to lay out what needs to be done etc.

I say stop looking over seas and start looking in your back yard!

Sound like you need a real world assistant.

Va's are not going to understand some of the day to day things because of the cultural
differences, language barriers etc.

That's not even mentioning the time you will invest in teaching them what you need
and how you need it. Va's come and go. Assistants tend to stick around while you
grow that important relationship with them.

Eventually your going to rely on them and there judgment.

maybe expand it to nanny, housecleaner, personal assistant

I have a housekeeper for my hotel who does all that 'house management'
during the week for clients she started with as a housecleaner. She even
inventories their groceries and prepares shopping lists.

Virtual Assistants sure make our lives easier. They handle day to day data entry tasks so you don’t have to worry about things like setting up appointments, updating calendars, searching for products or services, looking for guest bloggers and so on. You just need to train them so they will be in sync with your business and activities. If you can find a VA who is a good content writer or blogger then you’re lucky.

An afterthought, if you give this person access to any of your accounts, such as banking, cc, cell phone, cable, set up limits to their access with the provider. Perhaps setting up a separate small bank account they can use for paying bills and small daily needs purchases.

You want a virtual assistant that will be for you office and other personal purposes. Try someone locally whom you are gonna going to trust, else you will be in losser or your VA will theft all the monies.

Some people steal your ideas to make their own business, if they did, then what you will do?

This idea has been built up over the last few years, but you hit on the main issue...can you trust someone to handle your personal details. Personally I would have a very hard time doing this with someone that I have not met face to face.

We had a client who trusted a local person with checking accounts, credit cards and believed her lovely professional background and ethics without ever "googling" her name, running a criminal background check or asking for/calling references. You might think "this won't happen to me." This guy sells a million/year and let his "gut instincts" -- "Know Like Trust" -- get in the way of common sense. This woman had a criminal history of stealing cash, forging signatures on checks and "borrowing" business credit cards. And one of the people whose name she dropped in the interview said he wouldn't trust her from his desk to the door. The business owner found out all this after he called the guy, whose name she'd dropped, to follow-up on a finished project. When he got off the phone, he went to the bank and looked through the actual checks written to see just how much damage she'd done in the name of "office equipment," leases and travel expenses. Whatever you decide to do, research and run a background check and get a pre-paid credit card with a fixed amount loaded on it to minimize your financial risk.

Good point Barbara. Even face to face, fraud happens all the time, especially in small business. Also there are levels of security and it's probably not wise to remove yourself from the equation entirely. It only takes a little time to sign checks or better yet, punch a button and authorize the day's transactions.