As a follow up to that book, I want to share with you a new series called, “What Can An Online Business Manager Do For Me?”

I know that your time if valuable so each week I will share with you in small bites (this post will be the longest) all the ways that you can partner with an OBM to grow your businesses to new heights of manageability and profitability.

The official definition of an Online Business Manager (OBM) is:

A virtually based support professional who manages online based businesses, including the day-to-day management of projects, operations, team members and metrics.

However I like to look at the role from a bit of a different angle – what is the purpose of an Online Business Manager beyond ‘what they do’?

The role of the OBM boils down to one simple thing:

To free up the business owner so that you can focus your time and energy on the things that only YOU can do in your business.

This includes all business building activities like marketing, sales, working with clients, product development, strategic alliances and big picture business planning – all of which are essential to the growth of a business.

You need to be spending your time here – everything else can be managed by an Online Business Manager.

Most business owners look to hire an OBM when they simply cannot grow their business anymore being the only one in charge. You’ve reached the point where you have a solid business plan, revenue is flowing in and you are tired of being the one who has to “take care of everything.”

In order for you to take your business to the next level you need to pull yourself out of the day-to-day management activities and focus on growth.

Note: The role of the Online Business Manager is to delegate and not do. Although they may not be the one actually “doing the work” they are the ones responsible for establishing and managing the team that does.

Over the next several weeks I will share with you all the ways that the professional services of an Online Business Manager can bring invaluable rewards in the management and growth of your online business in the following areas:

Managing Projects

Managing Your Team

Managing Your Operations

Tracking Your Metrics

Managing Your Revenue Streams

Managing Your Website

Managing Your Ezine Schedule

Managing Your Launches

Managing Your Affiliate Programs

Managing Your Joint Venture (JV)
Partnerships

Managing Your Speaking Engagements

Managing Your Marketing Implementation

Finally, Freeing up your time so that you
can focus on what you do best in your business and creating balance between
work and play.

• Creation of a project plan, including time line, process, people and other resources
• Setup and maintenance of an online project management tool
• Delegating details of the project to various team members
• Communication of project status and ongoing details to all players
• Following-up with players as necessary to ensure that “stuff gets done” on time
• Managing the budget for the project
• Handling challenges for the project as they arise, with a focus on finding a solution quickly

If you have any questions about working with an online business manager, please feel free to schedule a free 30 minute consult to answer any questions you may have.

Copyright 2010 | International Association of Online Business Managers, Used with Permissions

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

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!

If you identify with any of the above questions, you will want to download my new eBook, “Grow Your Online Business to New Heights With An Online Business Manager”.  Scheduled to be released next week!

Do you find that there is little time to spend on your core services?

Are you making good money, but just can’t grow your business further?

Would you love to have someone who is committed to growing your business, so that you can focus on what you so best?

COMING SOON!

Watch for my new eBook, “Grow Your Online Business to New Heights With An Online Business Manager” to learn more about partnering with an Online Business Manager.

If you were building your business in the offline world you would choose a physical storefront, such as a restaurant, boutique store, executive office, etc. to sell your products and services.  Businesses that are selling their products and services primarily offline still need to have an online presence and I will talk more later in a upcoming posts.

In the online world your storefront is your website.   This is the place where potential customer’s window shop to see what you are all about and have to offer them.  How does your product and services solve their problems?  The importance of having a website is extremely important if you are running an online business.  Better than a physical store front, an online store front (your website) is open 24/7, 365, and does not shut down for holidays.  Potential customers can visit your business anytime that is convenient for them.  Over the past couple of years I have heard it said many times that a website in today’s marketplace is the business owner’s business card.

What is your websites purpose?

What is the purpose of your website?  What do you want your potential customers to do when they visit your site? If you are an online business wanting to sell your products and services to your target market you will want build relationship with your target market.  You will want to offer them the ability to subscribe to your list to receive more information, you will want them to be able to contact you, you will want them to have the ability to make a referral, and most important you will want them to press the buy button.

What does your website look like?  Is it a marketing machine or just pretty?  Does it have a professional look that inspires trust in your audience? Can your audience tell immediately what it is that you are offering and how it can fix their problems? Is the next step, your call to action, immediately apparent? Just recently I heard that most internet surfers do not stay on a website more than 5 seconds.  How are you making the best of those 5 seconds?  The purpose of your website is to get business.

It is extremely important to do your research regarding this area of your business.  I know it’s not fun, but it is critical to your business success.  Too many times business owners will think and say to others that my products and services can be for anyone.  Believe it not the more narrow your target market the more successful you will be in your business.  You will waste precious energy and marketing dollars while trying to market to the whole world.  If you have a nothing to small marketing budget you will need to spend as wisely as possible.  Some questions you will want to ask yourself:

1. What skills/knowledge/expertise do I have to offer?
2. What professions are in need of what I have to offer?  How am I solving their problems with my services?
3. What type of industry would benefit and be willing to pay for my services?  If an industry does not need your expertise or are not willing to pay for it, you may be better off finding another industry that does.
4. What kind of clients do you want to work with?
5. Do you prefer to work with men or women? What age group?  Do you work best with people that are older or younger than you?

With a clearly defined target market you can speak and market directly to those you want to attract to your business.  Then your business will begin to grow.

Listen: My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-b46d4047eb3d243ba12fa6248d064774}

I am so pleased to be one the world’s first Certified Online Business Managers.  The training was conducted by Tina Forsyth and Andrea Lea who coined the term “Online Business Manager” (OBM).   I purchased Tina’s book, “Becoming an Online Business Manager” and knew instantly that I wanted to take the training, learn the skills that online businesses are looking for and become a certified business manager. Prior to starting my virtual assistant business, VBS Virtual Assist two years ago, I worked nearly 30 years in the offline traditional office space as a high level administrative professional.  I knew instantly as read through the pages of Tina’s book that in my heart, I was an online business manager.   I have always had a passion to help business owners grow their businesses using my administrative, organizational and management skills and have enjoyed a great and long professional administrative career.  Tina and Andrea are leading the way for aspiring OBM’s and the businesses that need them to enjoy bigger growth in their online multiple streams of income businesses.

I am thrilled to have experienced this tough, but phenomenal training and feel so prepared to help virtual business owners to grow their businesses to newer or more profitable levels.   The certification process has been  such a growth experience for me.   Click on the video below to quickly determine if you and your business are in need of an OBM.

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