OBMs and VAs - Understand The Difference And Know Which Will Work Best For You.
Want to outsource to reduce overwhelm in your business? Coming up to the festive season, it feels like we are running out of hours in the days.
If you don’t know precisely what you’ll be outsourcing, stop now. To get the best bang for your buck, you’ll need to do a little prep work before you step out in search of a new team member. And before we dive into the reasons why you might outsource to an OBM over a VA (or vice versa), let’s be clear on how they differ.
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, reporting and team. OBMs swoop in to help you manage your business - they get to know you, your business and your goals; they help with keeping systems ticking over, team and projects on track and report back to you regularly. If you haven’t identified the systems and processes you do have (and I promise, you have them!), an OBM will work with you to document and improve them.
In comparison and generally speaking, a Virtual Assistant (VA) is a team member who has a set list of tasks to complete, rather than ensuring the business as a whole is running smoothly. The key word here is ‘set list of tasks’ - if you don’t have this, it could become a costly exercise that yields mediocre results.
One of the biggest complaints about outsourcing is that business owners don’t know what to outsource or don’t feel like they have the time to train a new team member. If this is what you are relating to right now, consider an OBM to assist you over a VA. Working with an OBM to identify and document systems and processes within your business will give you the structure you need to outsource successfully. Once you draft a task list and relevant experience needed, crafting your ‘help needed’ ad is going to be more specific and help you manage expectations.
Working with an OBM will also give you the opportunity to identify all the nitty-gritty tasks you have to do in your business - following up on team tasks, ensuring the projects are meeting milestones, automations and tech are connected correctly. This may lead to you either having a clear understanding of how to further outsource tasks or keeping your OBM on retainer.
What could you be creating and building if you were able to claim back the time you’ve been working in your business?
If an OBM sounds like a natural next step for your business, jump on and book a discovery call with me. We can work together to see what the ideal next step would be for your business.
