I don’t know about you but life felt so easy when there was just one password to remember, but now it seems that everything we do has a password.  As your VA business grows, you’ll find yourself having to manage not only dozens of them for your business but potentially hundreds, depending on the number of clients you have and the work that you are doing for them.

Keeping track can become overwhelming, if you try to manage them with a paper notebook or an excel spreadsheet.  Neither of which are very secure and have the potential to be stolen or lost.

I was a little skeptical about moving passwords to an online application but after a lot of research and trialling a couple of the online tools.  Here are 3 reasons, I chose Lastpass to manage the passwords for my business and my clients.

Improves Security

Do you keep your passwords in a spreadsheet or – even worse – in your browser? By managing sensitive information with these unencrypted tools, you risk exposing it to the world. Imagine how much time and money would be lost if your passwords were compromised and your website (or that of a client!) were hacked? That’s the risk you take if you’re not taking steps to protect the passwords you use.  This way, I only have to remember one main password and the system does the rest!

Password Generation

Last pass has a password generation tool within it, that also allows you to specify the number of characters you need in your password and can be customisable for your individual needs.  Then, the system remembers it for you – so you no longer have to be “smart” in trying to remember or type in those random words.  When I was serving in the military – I would spend weeks trying to remember the 9 character random letter password that the computer system generated for me every 3 months and often it could be found on a post it note inside my notebook or under the keyboard! But don’t tell the IT Security department…

Easy Password Sharing

Another great feature is the ability to share passwords via digital encryption and/or without actually having to tell someone what the password is ever.  This is a greater security benefit but allows the client to revoke access easily.

Sometimes on bespoke projects, a client may wish to share access to something temporarily and want to revoke access when the job is completed – this makes it easy to do so.  Personally, I create folders within my LastPass for each individual client and so if I needed to share a set of passwords with an associate, I can share it easily and not have to panic about making sure I have given them access when they don’t necessarily need it at that stage.

An Affordable Solution

When starting out in your VA business, it can feel everything has a cost associated it to it.  Well, you might be interested to know that there is a free version of the software and for the majority of people this is sufficient.  If you’d like to use LastPass on your mobile device or have the ability to synch between your phone, your iPad and your computer etc, or to track logins, you can upgrade to a premium account for just $24 per year.  (There is another layer, which is called an Enterprise account, yes it has even greater advantages, but for most VAs, especially on start up – you don’t need it.)

Security online—especially when you’re dealing with client websites and other accounts—is critical to your business success and reputation. LastPass makes it easy to keep client records safe, and because it’s so easy and fast, you’ll find you rely on it not only for it’s safety, but for the convenience of one-click logins everywhere.

(Please note this is NOT an affiliate post – but just me sharing the tools that I use in my VA business – Your Executive Secretary Limited)