To save yourself time and money, create your three lists of freedom: Things you hate doing every day, things you can’t do yourself and things you shouldn’t be doing. This creates a blueprint of what your virtual team should work on, and allows you to effectively manage it. A common issue most entrepreneurs have found is to decide where to begin.

Communication is important for all entrepreneurs, but when you work with people across the globe, it’s even more so. You need to know what your team is doing, but not to the point where you micromanage them. A daily update proves valuable to both you and them. This is what you should ask them to send: Enter date and hours worked in total. What they did today. Two challenges encountered. Three questions they have for you. Ask you team of VA’s to send you daily updates and in the long run it will save you several hours of extra work.

Share your business vision with your VA, as it gets them on board with the bigger picture of why they do what they do. It also gives them ownership over their role, as they know what you’re trying to achieve as a team.

By creating clear step-by-step procedures for how certain tasks should be performed, you can remove the guesswork and confusion that usually prevent teams working under micromanagers from being proactive and productive.

Don’t look at virtual assistants or any employees through how much they are costing you. You are much less likely to be happy working with an assistant if all you are thinking about is how much they are costing you, and that kind of mentality may hinder your business in the long run.

Do look at your VA as an investment. Essentially, an assistant is an investment in your business. They will help you take the load off, do the boring admin, they will be independent and brainstorm ideas and bring a fresh perspective which can help grow your business and your income.

Create solid back up plans for if the worst case scenario were to happen. Virtual assistants come and go, and your direction as a business may change. But, the one constant is you, so the processes, back-up plans and alternatives you create today make all the difference tomorrow.

Fortunately, plenty of project management tools are out there to help you better manage your VA and other members of the team.

Don’t feel the need to double-check everything and micromanage. It will have a totally opposite effect of what you were trying to achieve. Not being in the same office as your virtual assistant is challenging but you hired them for a reason, so you need to have a little faith in them. Give your assistant as much freedom as possible and you will be delighted with the results. Your workload will be lighter and you will feel much more successful. Instead of checking all the time, book a 30-minute call with your VA every week just to make sure things are on the right track and so you can provide them with some feedback.

Make sure you understand what you’ll give your virtual assistant access to and what you should give them access to. You shouldn’t let anyone have complete access to every part of your business.