Posts Tagged ‘Growing An Online Business’

Wondering if you should hire an Online Business Manager? Here are 5 tell-tale signs that it may be time for you to add an OBM to your team.

1. Your business is growing while your own free-time is shrinking.

I’m betting you started your business to create more freedom in your life yes? Freedom of time, money and choice. Let me ask you – as your business grows are you actually working more or less time?

If you are on the ‘working more time’ side of things you certainly aren’t alone… I can’t count how many times I’ve talked to business owners who have shared how they are actually working more hours in their own business than they ever did in their ‘old job’. However it doesn’t have to be this way… as a business owner you have the ‘freedom of choice’ to be able to make changes in your business, including hiring the right help to get stuff off your plate.

This is exactly what an Online Business Manager does – their main focus is to free up the business owner so that they can focus their time and energy on the things that only THEY can do in their business.

2. You are having to turn away opportunities because you are so busy!

This is a sad by-product of the first point. Are you so busy that you can’t take advantage of the opportunities that are coming your way? Do you ever find yourself saying “I would love to do X and know it would be a great new revenue stream… but I simply don’t have the time for it right now… “

Not only can an Online Business Manager help free up your own time to be able to explore these opportunities, they can also work on bringing some of these opportunities to life for you! An Online Business Manager is very focused on implementation, and can help manage the process of creating new revenue streams in your business from concept to launch.

3. You are still doing things the same things you were doing when you started your business.

Remember when you first started your business and had to wear many hats? You were the cook, hostess, waitress and busboy (so to speak, hehe.) Now that your business is growing, are you still doing the same things as you were in the beginning? Are you still updating your own website? Are you still managing your shopping cart? Are you still answering all your customer service emails?

As your business grows your role will (and should!) change. An Online Business Manager can lovingly ’slap your wrist’ when it comes to you doing some of these things… helping you let go of some of the ‘old’ stuff taking up your time that gets in the way of you growing your business.

4. You have a great team, but find yourself frustrated by them always ‘bugging’ you.

This is actually a very common complaint from business owners – they have a great team of VAs, webmasters and such. And yet they are constantly frustrated by how much their team needs from them. They feel like someone is always tapping them on the shoulder with a question or request.

The thing is, your team does need someone to manage them. They need someone who they can turn to with questions, to get what they need to complete their projects quickly and on time. And if there is not an Online Business Manager on the team who do they turn to? You – the business owner.

As a colleague of mine so eloquently shared:

“My VAs were doing a fine job – it was ME who was unhappy managing them.”

Most business owners really don’t enjoying being managers, and i’m guessing this may be the same for you. An Online Business Manager becomes the key point of contact for your team – all questions, requests and such go to the OBM instead of you.

5. You are stuck at $X revenue and can’t seem to get past that point!

When you find yourself stuck at a certain point in revenue there is usually one thing getting in the way – you! My business partner Andrea Lee calls this the quarter million dollar speedbump (can be more or less than that of course) and a big part of the solution usually requires you removing yourself from the day-to-day of your business.

Start to ask yourself as you go about your day – do I need to be the person to do X? (with X being the many things you spend your time on each day.)

Chances are many things on your to-do list could be passed along to someone else on your team. And an Online Business Manager can help with that process by delegating and managing those tasks on your behalf.

Tina Forsyth is the author of Becoming an Online Business Manager: Playing a Bigger Game with Your Clients and Yourself. She writes and consults in advanced online marketing and business systems for business owners and their support teams. www.OnlineBusinessManager.com

It takes a leader to create momentum. Followers catch it.  And managers are able to continue it once it has begun.  But creating it requires someone who can motivate others, not one who needs to be motivated.  All leaders face the challenge of creating change in their organization.  Just as every sailor knows that you can’t steer a ship that isn’t moving forward, strong leaders understand that to change direction you first have to create forward progress.  Without momentum, even the simple tasks can seem insurmountable.  But with momentum on your side, the future looks brighter, obstacles appear small, and trouble seems temporary.

My heart skipped a beat when I read these words from John C. Maxwell, the Maxwell Leadership Bible during my morning devotion time.  Thoughts sprang to mind of how I sometimes struggle with momentum and most important how my clients struggle with momentum.

During this last couple of years, it has become very clear to me, as an entrepreneur and a service provider, that a primary pain that I have witnessed in my consults and clients is one of momentum.  The pain of trying to build and grow a business while struggling to create and keep momentum.  Many people start a business with a passion, a passion to serve the world sharing their gifts and talents, but they didn’t bargain on having to actually build a business at the same time.  Every day they are faced with the challenges of time, money, work-life balance, strained relationships, insufficient skills, and need support and don’t know what they need or where to get it.  All of these things can cause us to stop in our tracks and not move forward – loss of momentum.

While it is tempting to wait for the next new superstar hire or bright and shiny program to magically create the momentum we need in our business, it is not always the wisest strategy.  We are the leaders of our own business destiny.

It does not matter what kind of business you run, or what kind of organization you lead, the number one key that will determine your level of your success will be momentum.

One definition of momentum is the “force or speed of movement”.  It will decide how high your business will go and how quickly you will get there.

Momentum, by its nature, requires a lot of upfront push to get the ball rolling.  Here are a few things that I have learned that can help you create positive and life giving momentum to you and your business.

1. Get clear –

• What is important to you?  What are you passionate about? How do you want to serve others in powerful ways? What do you want to achieve? How do you want to distinguish yourself from your competitors?

2. Write down your goals, mission -

• After getting clear on what you want, create a mission statement for you and your business.   Next, write down your goals to help solidify that which you have gotten clear on.  Create the steps needed to push forward, give yourself a target date, and don’t forget to write how you will know that you achieved it.

3. Put away the notion of perfection –

• Growing up in a home with impossible expectations, I lived most of my life chasing after illusive perfection.  Every now and then it can still rear its ugly head, but I have learned to strive for excellence, not perfection. When you are waiting around for things to be perfect before you move forward, you don’t move– that’s the other side of momentum.

4. Take control of fear -

• Fear is a major killer of momentum.  Afraid to fail, afraid to succeed -we simply don’t move, we become paralyzed.  We were not designed to walk in fear, but to walk in freedom.  Freedom is where energy, creativity and focus live.  Make no mistake, I know very well that this is a difficult emotion to acknowledge, accept and embrace.  Fortunately, when we acknowledge the fear and its hold on our lives that keep us from where we want to go and meant to be – fear miraculously begins to loosen it hold on us and freedom begins to show up almost saying, “I can’t wait to show you all the great things that are in store for you”.

5. Put one foot in front of the other -

• As Nike’s campaign commanded us “Just do it”!  Take that first step, complete that first task, even when you don’t feel like it.  Make the commitment to move forward.  Each step that you take and complete will propel you to the next step.  It is extremely energizing to our spirits to” just do it”. I am reminded of the little ditty from Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer that runs on television during the holidays, “put one foot in front of the other and soon you will be walking across the floor, put one foot in front of the other and soon you will be walking out the door”.

6. Stay positive, seek inspiration

• Read books, listen to audio programs and watch videos that will uplift and inspire you – not only related to your industry, but related to life and managing life with more freedom.  Inspirational books of faith and courage, and biographies of others who have gone before and succeeded.  Too many times we fall into false thinking that we are the only ones that are being challenged in certain areas.  Great news – not so!!

7. Create a circle of trust -

• Create a small group of select people that you trust to share your journey as an entrepreneur with.   Confidants that you can bounce ideas and challenges off of without the fear of being judged and betrayed.  Personally, I found early on in my business that I needed to create a circle of trust with fellow women business owners.  Typically people who are not entrepreneurial in nature do not really get us and the challenges we face every day as business owners and service providers.   When I need a strong kick in the pants I know that my circle of trust will tell me the truth – in love of course.  When I leave those conversations I feel stronger for myself and for my clients.    I also feel strong and powerful enough to return the favor when my circle of trust peeps are in need of a kick in the pants – in love of course.

8. Get a support team for your business, you don’t have to do it all, you shouldn’t do it all -

• Hire a business coach, maybe even a personal coach to help you clarify and set goals and business plan for success.  In your business, spend time on only those activities where you must to deliver personally to your clients, such as coaching or speaking, and leave the rest to other professionals such as online business managers, virtual assistants, copywriters, web designers – you get the picture.    You can’t do it all yourself without losing momentum.

9. Embrace momentum –

• In John C. Maxwell’s book “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”, he says that, “Momentum is really a leader’s best friend. Sometimes it’s the only difference between winning and losing.”  I can’t really add more to that – kinda says it all!

I hope that you have enjoyed this article and pray that it has been an inspiration to you – maybe even a kick in the pants.  Please feel free to share with me your comments, thoughts and struggles around momentum or any other struggle you are having in your business in the box below.   It will be my pleasure to share back.

Say what? Sounds like a crazy thing to say, me being a proponent of “hiring your virtual team” and such… isn’t delegation a part of that?

I actually have a bit of a different perspective on this and it is based on my belief that:

Your virtual team should be taking stuff OFF your plate, not adding work to your plate.

Delegation is actually a lot of work when you think about it. In order to delegate effectively you need to be able to decide – usually on a day to day basis – what needs to be done, who is best to do it, give specifics on how it needs to be done, set deadlines, answer any of their questions, follow up to make sure it is done, etc. Phew!

I’m actually a fan of coming at this from a slightly different but hugely significant angle – releasing instead of delegating.

I recorded a video a few weeks back that talks about the two different mindsets of virtual support professionals – the business mindset vs. the employee mindset.

In a nutshell, someone with a business mindset really gets that they are the expert, they are the specialist and are providing a valuable service to you. When you talk to someone with a business mindset they are going to say something like “here’s how I can help you” – they will TELL you what they can do for you.

Someone with an employee mindset usually has the best intention at heart and really wants to help – but they don’t yet have the understanding, experience or knowledge to approach you as an expert in their field. Instead they approach you from the perspective of “how can I help you?” – they ASK you how they can help.

If you consider this for a moment you can actually feel the difference here… if someone TELLS you how they can help that actually takes work off your plate. They are clear on what they are doing and what needs to be done – it’s like a sigh of relief!!

When someone ASKS you how they can help that actually adds work to your plate. It now becomes up to you to tell that person what to do, how to do it, when to do it, follow up to make sure it gets done, etc… this is A LOT of work for many business owners (and quite frankly something that many of us do poorly as it’s not our strength).

Most of the business owners I talk to would love to have someone with a business mindset – we are hungry to get this stuff off our plates!

Now when you have someone in place who has a business mindset your “job” is no longer about delegation… it’s now about release. You don’t have to tell them what to do – instead they are telling you! Your job then is just to learn how to let go, how to release what needs to be done so someone else can take care of it for you.

This article was written by

Tina Forsyth is the author of Becoming an Online Business Manager: Playing a Bigger Game with Your Clients and Yourself. She writes and consults in advanced online marketing and business systems for business owners and their support teams. www.OnlineBusinessManager.com

Thank you advance and I look forward to comments to this post.   Post right  here on this blog.

As you go through your day, how many projects are you working on for your business? Presently, are you the only one who can complete these projects? What if you were to turn these projects over to a project manager? How much more time would you have available? What would you do with that time? Create new products? Add new services? Take on new clients? The list is endless.

If you want to forecast your full business potential by relieving yourself of these necessary but growth blocking projects, set up a few interviews with some potential Online Business Managers. Let them suggest what might be blocking you from your success and how they can help. This will give you an excellent idea of what your business could be like, should you choose to partner with an OBM.

In addition to being your project and team manager, a good OBM will implement business strategies and resources to save you time and money.

If you would like to learn more about how partnering with an Online Business Manager to grow your online business to new heights be sure to download my new free eBook, “Grow Your Online Business To New Heights With An Online Business Manager” on this web page.

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Online business owners are in a league of their own. It takes hard work and dedication, long hours and determination to be successful among the thousands of competing online businesses.  New products and services, email marketing, joint ventures, networking, teleclasses, and newsletters are just a handful of the various projects an online business owner must handle. Is it any wonder online business burnout is so common?

It’s not that these online business owners aren’t successful, quite the contrary.  Their hard work causes them to be very successful – but at what cost? If you are successful but unhappy then what is the point? Online business owners often take on all the tasks and projects involved in their business; administrative, marketing and technical to name just a few. This can leave little time for taking on new and exciting projects, growing the business and enjoying life outside of the business.

So how do online business owners create time for business growth and a personal life? They partner with another online business owner – more specifically – an Online Business Manager (OBM). Not to be mistaken with a Virtual Assistant, an OBM does not perform individual tasks but actually manages your business. This can be done in a variety of ways; for example, often an OBM will manage a team of online professionals who will complete the business tasks at hand.

Imagine having a team of virtual professionals dedicated to your business. Your OBM will manage and monitor all assigned projects and team members, ensuring that all tasks are being completed with excellence and on time so that your business continues to run smoothly. Imagine what you could do now with all that available time!

Partnering with an OBM is an absolute must for successful businesses that want to experience growth and whose owners want to avoid or eliminate business burnout. Some online business owners try outsourcing essential business tasks only to discover that it is even more time consuming to watch over the outsourced projects. To create the time needed for business growth and reduce burnout, there should be someone else in charge of project management – an Online Business Manager.

Online business owners who have successfully partnered with an OBM have more peace of mind and feel a better sense of control and accomplishment in their business.  For example, since your OBM has an active and comprehensive role, vacations can now be enjoyed rather than skipped or compromised by worry.  You can count on your OBM to provide continuous follow-up with their outsourced team, allowing you, the business owner to focus on creating new products or contacts which lead to increased revenue.

Therefore, it is important to choose the right OBM; someone you feel comfortable with and who you can trust. Your business is your baby, so choosing the right OBM may take some time. Be sure to have your business information, goals and needs organized along with specific interview questions. You may find that the first OBM you interview is “the one” or you may have to interview a few OBMs to get a good feel for what you’re really looking for.

Are you interested in finding out more about Online Business Managers? “Grow Your Online Business to New Heights with an Online Business Manager” is a free ebook that explains what an online business owner should know before hiring an OBM. It provides many resources such as interview questions and prep sheets to fully prepare the reader for the interviewing process.  Also, included is a 7-Day eCourse that walks you through critical questions to determine whether your business is ready for an OBM.  In summary, it is a fantastic resource for a successful business interested in growing bigger and better with the help of an OBM.

For more information please visit Brenda Violette, Your Online Business Manager at www.vbsvirtualassist.com

Copyright © 2010 COPYRIGHT BRENDA VIOLETTE, VBS VIRTUAL ASSIST, LLC. All rights reserved.

Building a strong foundation for your online business is critical to its long term success.  A business can only grow so far.

The role of the Online Business Manager (OBM) is to ensure that all business systems, procedures and tools are in place and functioning smoothly.  This will bring peace of mind to the business owner knowing that everything is under control and the business can handle taking on more projects and clients to grow their business.

A great first project for your new OBM is the creation of a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) manual.  Many small business owners can see the benefit of having one, but just can never find time or inclination to create one.  Usually it is quite a relief to the business owner having someone take on the project of creating one.  Tina Forsyth mentions in her book; “Becoming An Online Business Manager” that a business is really not grown up until it has a SOP.

A good SOP solves many problems such as:

• What happens if there is an emergency and you cannot pay as much attention to the business as you normally would.
• An SOP saves you time and money, because all procedures are documented and systems are automated.
  • Less time (time is money) for training new team members.
  • Less time searching for important information related to repetitive tasks and projects.
  • You will typically pay less for an automated system than for a person to do the same task.
  • The busy business owner can actually take a vacation and not worry about what is happening at the office.

As you can see from the few examples listed above having an Online Business Manager adds value to your business by getting your operations under control and creating a strong foundation so that you can grow your online business to new heights.

Watch for the release of my new eBook next week, “Growing Your Online Business to New Heights with an Online Business Manager”.  As an additional gift and resource to you for downloading the eBook, you will receive my 7-Day eCourse, “Are You Ready for an Online Business Manager”.  Each day of the course walks you through important questions to help you determine whether your business is ready to hire an Online Business Manager.

Scheduled to be released next week!

Quite simply put, an OBM succeeds when you succeed. They have a passion for working with business owners to accomplish their growth goals.  You will find that many OBM’s have a wide variety of experience; like me, many were former corporate employees who have chosen to take their vast knowledge to a new playing field – their own online business. They are naturally motivated and compelled to take not only their own business but yours to new heights of profitability and manageability!

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