What is an Online Business Manager - and how can one help your business grow?
Let me reenact a conversation I had many times with family and friends when I started my business…
THEM: “So, what are you doing for work at the moment, Harriet?”
ME: “Oh, I’ve started my own business!”
THEM: “Wow, what is it you’re doing?”
ME: “I’m an OBM, working with creative business owners”
THEM: *staring blankly at me, like I’ve spoken in gibberish*
ME: “An Online Business Manager? I help people with the behind-the-scenes operations and processes of their business, so they can do the bits they love.”
THEM: *continues staring at me blankly*
ME: “I do all the bits they don’t want to do, while they run their business.”
THEM: “Oh, so you’re a Personal Assistant?”
ME: “Well, no. I manage their operations and processes and help them with launches and team management and project management.”
THEM: *staring blankly once again*
ME: “...”
THEM: “Well it sounds great, best of luck with it all!”
… and rinse, repeat, rinse, and repeat again for the rest of eternity.
I get it though, I really do. In the online business world, OBM gets thrown around a lot and most of us probably have at least a vague idea of what it means. But in the offline world, it’s slightly more of a mystery.
And it doesn’t help that ‘Online Business Manager’ as a role covers a HUGE range of responsibilities, skills and tasks.
But right here, right now, we’re going to iron out once and for all what exactly an Online Business Owner is and how an OBM could be the secret to growing your business…
What is an Online Business Manager (OBM)?
Let’s start with a little bit of history, shall we?
As Millennials, most of us at least vaguely remember a period of time when the internet didn’t exist. The Dark Ages. The pre-MSN era. When calling friends after school on the home phone was a hard-earned privilege.
Back in the late 1990s, when the internet was becoming more easily accessible to us all, the term ‘e-business’ was first used. And from that point onwards, the role of the Online Business Manager has steadily grown. As soon as businesses began to realise the power of the online world, they needed help understanding it and growing their presence and generally doing all the online tech-y bits that they didn’t want to do.
Today, the role of Online Business Manager is generally remote, strategy-driven, and operations focused. Basically, an OBM works with a business owner to handle the internal management of their business - much like an Operations Manager would in the corporate world, but with a focus on online businesses (like yours and mine).
An OBM generally covers a few areas of business focus (which we’ll look at in more detail in a moment):
Project Management: managing launches, new programmes, overseeing new website builds, setting up new technologies, etc.
Operations Management: streamlining processes within the business (including client experience) and ensuring operations are running smoothly and efficiently (often using automation)
People Management: communicating with teams, outsourcing to specialists, tracking the progress of particular projects by overseeing team members’ tasks
Metrics Management: tracking KPIs, reporting to management, and using data-based insights to inform business decisions and suggest improvements
An OBM is intimately involved with the day-to-day running of the business they’re working with, as well as keeping track of the bigger picture too. The ‘Manager’ part of ‘Online Business Manager’ is the secret to understanding what an OBM does: in whichever part of the business an OBM is working, they’re managing the business, its functions and its people, with the goal of growing the business in a simple and sustainable way.
Doesn’t OBM really just mean ‘virtual assistant’?
If you thought that an OBM was pretty much just a fancy way of saying ‘virtual assistant’, I’ll forgive you. It’s an easy mistake to make. On the surface, there’s quite a lot of crossover between the Virtual Assistant and Online Business Manager roles: they both help business owners with parts of their business they either don’t have time for or just don’t want to do.
But that’s where the similarities end.
Because an OBM offers a completely different skillset with completely different priorities too.
While a VA is task-focused, an OBM is strategy-focused.
While a VA requires hands-on direction from a manager or business owner, an OBM works independently.
While a VA works on smaller day-to-day tasks, an OBM looks at the bigger picture and manages medium or long-term projects.
While a VA has no input on the business strategy or direction, an OBM is responsible for using their own initiative to drive business growth.
An OBM can certainly work alongside a Virtual Assistant to help businesses grow, but the OBM will be the one focusing on the bigger picture, strategy stuff, while the VA helps with implementation in their area of expertise.
How can an Online Business Manager help you grow your business?
When I’m working with a business owner as an OBM, I become their Right Hand Woman, FAST. It’s my job to get to know the business inside out: what matters to the owner, where their zone of genius is, what they struggle with, what their long-term goals are, how their business runs right now.
And once I know all that, I get straight to work doing whatever needs to be done to help the business get from its current reality to the dreamed reality we all know it can become!
As we saw earlier, generally OBM skills fall into four categories: Project Management, Operations Management, People Management and Metrics Management.
But what do they really mean? And how can they help you grow your business?
Sit back, relax, and keep reading, because you’re about to find out.
Project Management
How often have you come up with the best idea for your business - and then never had the time to implement it?
Yep, I feel you. When your business relies on you actually doing the work to bring in the money, grand plans get put to the bottom of the priority list all the time. Because you just don’t have the time or the brain power to handle that after a long day of working with clients.
So that’s where an OBM comes in pretty damn useful.
If you want to launch a new service, build an online course, put on an in-person event, sell an e-book, build a shiny new website - all of those things will help you grow your business. But they also all take time.
An OBM can take a huge chunk of that time-necessity off your plate. Whether it’s mapping out promotional periods for your launch, developing the tech platform for your course, or handling the outsourcing of your website build to designers, copywriters and developers, an OBM can do all of that while you’re working with your clients.
Deadlines will be met, stakeholders will be managed and your project will come together so easily with the help of an OBM. We’ll oversee every step of the process, so that you can relax knowing that things are progressing behind the scenes without you needing to lift a finger. Take an extended lunch break, go for a mid-afternoon run, head to a yoga class whenever you fancy - because your big picture business plans are taken care of.
Project Management by an OBM might look like:
Creating timelines, deadlines and breaking down responsibilities between team members
Setting up a central project task list for everyone to access, organised by priority level, deadline and whose responsibility each task us
Managing outsourced specialist tasks
Monitoring progress and adjusting schedules where necessary
Setting up technology to aid in the final service or the project management itself
Overcoming stumbling blocks or bottlenecks to make sure the project progresses
Operations Management
While Project Management, by its nature, is usually focused on a particular final deliverable (like a launch, a new website, etc.), Operations Management takes a more internal look at things and improves, streamlines and automates the day-to-day runnings of your business.
If your onboarding process doesn’t exist or it takes you three-hundred emails to arrange a catch-up call with a client or you spend your evenings sending out reminder emails for unpaid invoices - stop right now (thank you very much). Because an OBM can help with all of that.
The goal of Operations Management is to make your business life easier.
So if that means setting up something like Dubsado to manage your incoming enquiries, automate your invoices, and let clients schedule calls straight into your calendar, that’s what we’ll do.
If that means establishing procedures and processes (Standard Operating Procedures, for those in the know) for every scenario your business faces, that’s what we’ll do.
If that means moving all of your client details out of a spreadsheet and into a CRM so that your team can actually find what they’re looking for, that’s what we’ll do.
The name of the game is simplicity. Simplifying your business operations will free up so much time for you (and your team) to work on things that push your business forward and generate revenue, instead of spending time on the admin stuff that you never signed up for.
Operations Management by an OBM might look like:
Developing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for internal processes
Strategising and building client onboarding/offboarding processes
Developing automated workflows for common business tasks
Managing technologies to streamline processes
Monitoring processes to make recommendations for efficiency improvements
People Management
Whether you already have a team or not, business growth will inevitably lead to bringing extra people into your business at some point. And that can be a terrifying transition for you - particularly if you’re used to running everything yourself!
But it can also be simple. And it will free up more of your time to do what you love.
An OBM can help manage an existing team (by monitoring performance, assigning responsibilities, overseeing communications, etc) and can help prepare your business for its next hire, by developing hiring strategies, job descriptions, employee onboarding processes and everything in between.
Basically, if it relates to people in your business, an OBM can help. Unlike technology, people can be unpredictable and tricky to manage - but with an OBM by your side, you don’t need to worry about that. Day-to-day and bigger picture people management is taken care of.
People Management by an OBM might include:
Strategising new hires, responsibilities and positions within the business
Managing hiring processes
Creating staff onboarding processes
Day-to-day performance management of staff
Performance reviews and staff support
Metrics Management
I’d bet almost anything that you didn’t start your business because you absolutely love numbers and graphs and measuring and tracking. I’d also bet that you’re much much better at the creative side of your business than the numbers. Am I right?
That’s what most of my OBM clients feel too. They started their businesses because they’re really great at whatever it is they do - but they suddenly find themselves needing to be a number-lover too. And they’re just not cut out for it.
And that’s where an OBM, once again, comes to the rescue. It’s an OBM’s job to help you keep track of the metrics, measure what’s important, and use our strategic know-how to use those numbers to help you grow. Whether it’s analysing revenue reports to inform marketing budgets or checking social media engagement levels to help your next launch be amazing, we’ve got your number-hating back covered.
Metrics Management by an OBM could look like:
Establishing and monitoring core KPIs related to your business goals
Monitoring and tracking revenue
Building data-driven strategies for growing your business
Supporting decisions about budgets, priorities and strategic action
So, are you ready to hire an Online Business Manager?
If you’re nodding along as you read this thinking, “Daaaamn, I need that in my life!”, hiring an OBM might be the best thing you ever do for your business!
It might feel like a big step, particularly if you’ve not outsourced anything for your business before now - but just look at what I’ve helped clients with so far:
Launching new services: managing landing page builds, managing team responsibilities, timelines and deadlines, promotional strategies
Internal systems and processes: building Dubsado Workflows, establishing Standard Operating Procedures, automating lead nurturing, creating brand and team guidelines, improving and automating onboarding processes
Team management: building an internal team to support the business, managing hiring processes, creating staff handbooks, overseeing internal communications, monitoring team performance
The list is almost endless. Because working with me means I bring alllll of my juicy experience, technological know-how and strategic expertise into your business, and us all of that in the best possible way to help your business grow.
If you think you’re ready for an OBM, great! I don’t offer my OBM services anymore sadly but here’s how you can work with me. I’m ready when you are!