Free Articles for Business Owners

Drumroll please… I’d like to give congratulations to the world’s very first Certified Online Business Managers.

Let’s give a round of applause to:

Charly Alexander

Denise Milligan

Donna Frindt

Heike Miller

Janet E. Smith

These ladies tackled our admittedly tough Certification process last week and came out shining, and so it is our absolute pleasure to award them the designation of Certified Online Business Manager. Feel free to click their names to learn more about these truly talented women (and yes, they are available for hire.)

Our next Certification Week starts September 28th, getting ready for round 2!

Do you want to hire an Online Business Manager? We’ve just launched a brand new Request for Proposal (RFP) system at the International Association of Online Business Managers. Along with browsing our member profiles in the OBM Directory, you now have the option of completing an RFP form and sending your information directly to our members… who will then be able to apply directly to you if there is a fit.

Get to the front of the line and be one of the first to submit your RFP here.

As any good Online Business Manager will tell you – juggling is an essential part of the job! With so much going on every day you need to be able to keep all those ‘balls in the air’ so to speak.

Whether you are juggling balls or projects, here are a few tips to help you out:

Decide what you are going to juggle.

Balls? Beanbags? Apples? Recommend that you start with something simple, don’t attempt to juggle chainsaws on your first try! (Saw a guy do that on America’s Got Talent the other night, yowza… had to cover my eyes.)

What you decide to juggle will make a big difference in your success (and enjoyment!) Don’t attempt to juggle all the pieces of a huge project in your business if you are already overwhelmed, stressed or new to the task at hand.

Start with 3 items and build up from there.

Any juggler will tell you to start with 3 items, and slowly build up to 4 or 5 when you are ready.

One of my favorite productivity strategies is to pick 3 things each day that you want to get done. Pick those that are closest to the money – the ones that you *really* want to finish and will bring you (or your clients) closer to increased revenue. Work on those first, and then dive into any other projects (time permitting). This is a great way to ensure you are making progress in your business and not getting caught up or distracted by your giant pile of to-dos… and not actually accomplishing anything by the end of the day.

Get rid of distractions.

It’s really hard to juggle when you are constantly being interrupted by email, phone, kids, barking dogs, etc. Find yourself a quiet place where you can relax and focus. Close the office door. Shut down your email (and Twitter account!) Maybe play some nice music in the background.  

Get help if need be.

If you are buried in ‘to-dos’, perhaps it is time to pass a few of those balls along? Again, it’s really hard to juggle more than a few things at a time… if you have lots of balls to juggle give yourself a break and explore hiring someone to take a few off your plate.

When you are frustrated step back and take a breath…

If you are feeling frustrated and stressed out you will start to drop the balls! The best juggling occurs when you are calm, focused and ‘in the zone.’  Stop for a moment, take a short break and come back to it when you are feeling re-energized.

Juggling is meant to be fun.

There is a reason that clowns like to juggle – it’s fun! This may sound wierd, but I actually get alot of enjoyment out of the online business ‘juggling’ that I do – it’s the OBM geek in me, hehe. When i’m in the zone, juggling away and getting lots of stuff done I love it! The hallmark of a great OBM is how much they enjoy juggling…

And for you business owners in the crowd – if you don’t like juggling or it’s getting to be a bit much for you, perhaps it is time to hire an Online Business Manager? Check out the OBM Directory for a list of top notch folks.

Be it the economy, cash-flow issues or even just ‘taking a look at expenses in the biz’ i’ve had a few support professionals share lately that “my client asked me to cut back my hours as they can’t afford me right now”.

When faced with lowering revenues or rising expenses it can be easy to think “oh, we have to cut back!” However I like to look at it another way - what can we, as a business, do to increase revenues quickly?

This is the topic of one of my favorite chapters from our book Money, Meaning and Beyond (co-written by moi and my biz partner Andrea Lee).

What is your fastest path to money?

This is an important question in any business - so much so that i’m including the whole chapter here for your reading pleasure. It’s a short little PDF, quick read I promise.

This question is just as important for the Online Business Manager to consider on behalf of their clients. Where is your client’s business struggling? Where is their business thriving? What can you do to perhaps shift a bit of focus/energy to the areas that are flowing right now (and maybe let go of some projects/etc that are really stuck).

As an OBM we do our client’s a disservice if we don’t consider their business from this angle as well. Our client’s look to us to be able to ‘think on behalf of their business’, and this is a prime example of that. It could be that they aren’t seeing the struggle in the same way that you are (and likewise may not be seeing the opportunities that naturally arise). Being involved in the day-to-day activities of the business gives us (as OBMs) a different perspective that the business owner may be seeing, so don’t be shy in sharing your insights!

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I just had to ditto this post by Seth Godin last week - A clean sheet of paper. It’s a must read… go ahead, read it now.

This is so very very true! I’ve seen it time and again… business owners struggling and complaining that they aren’t getting what they want. When in reality, they haven’t defined the parameters of what they want in the first place.

One of my favorite questions when a coaching client tells me that they want a new website is to ask them:

“Great - what action do you want people to take when they visit your site?”

Seems like such an obvious question, and yet many times they have no clue what the answer is. And so we work together to figure that out first before they get anywhere near hiring a web designer to start on the site. Otherwise it can be REALLY easy to go down the road of spending loads of money to get something that isn’t going to serve their business.

And I can tell you from the perspective of someone who has worked as an online support professional for years now… it can be really frustrating to not get clear direction up front. Nine times out of ten the client will end up dissatisfied or even upset! So for all of us on the ‘providing services’ side of the coin - if you aren’t clear on what someone wants dig a bit deeper, insist that they get specific and if they can’t that suggests to me that they aren’t yet ready to hire you (or anyone) at this point.

Don’t assume that the business owner ‘knows what they want’ because they might not. Don’t assume that they want what ‘you have to offer’ as it may be way off track. And don’t be afraid to turn down business and suggest that they figure it out before you can start working with them - less headaches for all concerned and really, that is part of being a professional imo.

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A sure sign of being a geek is when finding a new system just makes you want to sing out loud in glee! I will admit that I am a geek, and have recently ’sung out loud’ about the (relatively) new membership management system Wishlist Member.

We’ve been using Wordpress to manage our membership sites for years now - basically just piecing together some stuff in the blog to make it work. Well Wishlist Member takes a regular Wordpress blogsite and turns it into a full fledged membership system. Tres cool!

What makes it so great? Let me share a few of my favorite things…

• As per any great membership system, it allows you to setup separate login accounts for each member vs. doing the ‘one login for all’. So you can give/remove access for people as they come and go in your membership. REALLY important.
• It connects to the 1ShoppingCart system - so people can automatically get access to your membership site when they join the membership vs. having to load them manually. And it will also remove access for people who fall behind on payments.
• You can email members direct from this system - which I love! It’s super quick and easy to send messages to members vs. sending through the cart (which can be slow at times).
• You can have more than one level of membership setup in the same Wordpress blog. So people will get access only to the stuff that applies to them, and not those areas that they aren’t a member of. This really opens up some pretty cool opps for expanding membership offerings!
• It’s really easy to add a nice ‘login’ box in the sidebar of the blog. Makes the site looks so professional and is of course easy for folks to know how to login to the site (which can be surprisingly hard to find on some sites.)

Want to see a sample of Wishlist Member in action? We recently implemented Wishlist for the Thomas Leonard Success Strategies program - click here to check it out. Unless you are a member you won’t be able to access the material of course, but you can see the overall flow/layout of this membership site.

There are many other cool features in this system beyond my favs, go to the Wishlist Member site to learn more.

Want to learn how to use Wishlist? Or get someone on your team up to speed?

 We are offering a brand new course for VAs and online support professionals on how to manage memberships using Wishlist Member. Be sure to check it out - early bird registration is in effect until May 29th ($100 savings).

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We all have those days right?

• someone on your team just doesn’t seem to listen and did ‘it’ wrong again
• you can’t get something to work and have spent hours trying to fix it to no avail
• your website is down right before a big promo
• you are having a misunderstanding with one of your clients

You know, the kind of day where you just want to scream, yell, perhaps chuck your computer out the window? This happens to all of us, it’s just a fact of life imho. My question to you is:

What do you do when you feel that way?

You know how volcanos always have a little bit of steam seeping out through the cracks? I don’t know the exact science behind this but I believe that the volcano is releasing a bit of steam to ease up on the pressure building up inside -  so as to prevent an eruption!

Same thing applies to us - we need to find ways to release a bit of steam now and again so we don’t errupt! (which can be damaging to us and our biz relationships).

I really do think it is necessary to vent now and again - in business and in life. Quite often just releasing a bit of ’steam’ will go a long way towards fixing the problem (and may even dissolve the problem altogether). The key is to do it in a constructive way. A few ideas:

• Have a venting buddy - I’m quite fortunate to have a few close biz colleagues that I can call up when i’m annoyed, frustrated, angry and just VENT! And I will actually say that, “i’m so annoyed by X, just want to vent… yadda yadda”.
• Use your anger ’energy’ in a constructive way -  do something physical like go for a run or clean the kitchen. Do something creative like write an article or paint a picture.
• Get out of your environment - I find that I will get frustrated and angry much easier when i’m super busy or just plain tired. Sometimes just taking a break can make a big difference, get out of the house, go for lunch with a friend and most importantly, leave your computer behind!
• Talk to the person direct - if you are having a challenge with another person, your best (only) way to fix it is to have a conversation. Don’t start the conversation when you are angry or frustrated, best to wait and let things diffuse a bit first if need be.
• Get help! - if it is a technical or ‘how-to’ problem find someone who can help. Just yesterday I was beating my head against the wall trying to figure out something wierd with a new ezine tempalte… and finally decided to ask a super smart colleague if he knew how to fix. He did, and if I had asked him sooner it would have saved me a good hour of time and frustration. 

What do you like to do to vent? Do tell.

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It is by far the question I am asked most often, and for good reason.

Although similar in nature, there are some very key differences between the role of Online Business Manager and Virtual Assistant.

If you are a VA or aspiring OBM it’s really important for you to understand these differences, so that you can a) decide which role is the best fit for you and then b) be able to clearly articulate the difference to your clients.

If you are a business owner it is really important for you to get clear on a) what your business actually needs and then b) look at whether you need to hire a VA or OBM to fill that need.

There is alot of ‘grey area’ right now when it comes to understanding the difference in these roles, and so i’ve put together a comparision chart to help illustrate each role and how they work together. (And to also clarify when a business owner is ready to hire either a VA or OBM).

>> Click here to download the Comparison Chart

Feel free to share this report with your clients and colleagues, you have my blessing to do so as long as you don’t make changes to the PDF.

I was talking to a colleague of mine yesterday who was sharing that she loves her Virtual Assistant, but in her words:

“the one thing that she won’t do is nag me to get stuff done… I need someone to nag me like my mom does!”

Now this may make you chuckle, but it really is a very common complaint that I hear from business owners… they really want someone who is going to keep them on task. Someone who will follow up with them to ensure that they are doing the things that need to be done - and perhaps nudge them along or hold them accountable when they don’t stay on task. I like to call this being a ‘professional nag’ for your clients.

And yet many VAs out there aren’t doing a very good job of this. Even when their clients specifically ask them to ‘be a nag’ they still aren’t doing it.

Where is the disconnect? I am a natural nag (just ask my husband, haha) so I think that I take for granted that this is an easy thing to do. But when I step back and look at it from an objective perspective I have to wonder if part of the problem is that

a) people just don’t know how to nag and

b) they aren’t comfortable doing it.

So let’s break it down a bit and take a look at how we can lovingly nag our clients.

1. Understand why nagging is important! At face value it is easy to think that our clients shouldn’t need to be nagged - after all, we are all adults and it is their business right? Shouldn’t they already be motivated to get things done? Even with the best of intentions, most business owners are simply too busy or distracted and they forget about or lose track of priorities in their own business. They want someone who is going to remind them of what is important and help them keep it front of mind. Once you *get* this you can see where nagging is actually a very important benefit to your clients.

2. Ask them for regular updates on project X. Sometimes the simple act of knowing that you are going to be asking them on a regular basis about X is enough to get people moving. Make sure to give them a deadline for completing X or remind them of a previously set deadline… people are more likely to complete a task when they know they have a deadline (it’s human nature).

3. Ask them where they are stuck. If something isn’t getting done it is usually symptomatic of an underlying issue. For example, let’s say you are waiting on your client to write an article for the newsletter. It could be that they can’t think of a topic to write about (brainstorm with them) or they know what they want to write about but haven’t had the time to sit down and do it (start the article for them and have them edit/finish it). In some cases it could be that priorities have shifted and project X is no longer as important as it was. Regardless of the cause, if you ask where things are stuck then you can look at ways to help move things forward or let things go.

4. Look for ways to clear their plate. Alot of times our clients get busy or distracted with things that they actually shouldn’t be doing. If your client seems overwhelmed to the point where things aren’t getting done take a look at where they are spending their time. Chances are that there is some stuff that you or another team member could take off of their plate to free them up to focus on other things.

5. Ask them how the want to be nagged. You might have it in your head that it needs to be some big elaborate nagging solution, when all they actually want is for you to ask them once a week about X. Or maybe send them a weekly list of ‘projects on the go’.

Nagging is actually more of an art than a science - there is no one way that is going to work for all clients. And a certain approach that works really well with one client may not work for another. So look to be a bit creative when you can, consider different ways that you could help your clients get things done and aim to have some fun along the way! For example, I have a running joke with my business partners where i’m ‘The Boot’. In our relationship i’m the one responsible to do the nagging, and so we have some fun and joke about it - ‘Oh no! Tina is putting The Boot on - watch out!’ LOL

The heart of nagging is about providing a constant reminder to your client about what is important - so that they can refocus themselves to do the things that are important. Regardless of what that constant reminder looks like, be sure to do it.

As a sidenote for you aspiring Online Business Managers - if you are going to play this role for your clients it is *essential* that you get comfortable with nagging. It is a key skill of the Online Business Manager - so much so that it is in the name - Online Business MaNAGer, hehe. We’ll be talking about this alot in the new Online Business Manager Certification and Training program.

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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 they can focus their time and energy on the things that only THEY can do in their business.

Most business owners look to hire an Online Business Manager (OBM) when they simply cannot grow their business anymore being the only one in charge. In order for them to take their business to the next level they need to pull themselves out of the day-to-day management activities and focus on growth.

This includes areas such as product development, strategic alliances and big picture business planning, all of which are essential to the growth of a business. Everything else becomes the responsibility of the OBM.

Received this update from a fellow coach/business owner the other day… we had recently done a few coaching sessions on creating products for their business.

You asked about products. Well, to be honest, we aren’t working on any, mainly because we felt like we were forcing ourselves into a box that we didn’t want to pursue. We took a long, hard look at our progress (and lack of it in several areas) and our challenges over the past year and we realized that we really are a consulting organization, rather than a product / training organization. …You were extremely helpful in getting us to see we were simply on the wrong path.

Once we let go of the mold we were trying to force ourselves into, more opportunities showed up for us. We’re excited and really engaged with the new opportunities and they are a helluva lot more profitable than the original plan we had in place. So far, we’ve got two organizations who are keeping us busy for the entire first half of 2008 ‚Äì we never had that type of commitment from clients… And we have other opportunities coming in that we didn’t expect.

I just loved this email… as it really reminded me of the importance of Just Saying No…

Especially at this time of year, when it seems we are all feeling the pressure to set our goals and ‘new years resolutions’. This reminds me of one of my favorite chapters from our book Money, Meaning and Beyond (co-written by moi and my biz partner Andrea Lee).

What is your fastest path to money?

I invite you to stop and really consider this question… put another way:

If you had to make money TODAY, what could you do *right now* that would bring money to your door asap?

In the example above, these guys felt like they should be creating products… and started down the road of doing so. But in reality, the opportunities knocking on their door were consulting based and not product based. So they ditched the product idea and responded to the opportunities coming naturally… and now these opportunties are turning into profit for them.

So I ask you - What is your fastest path to money?

What are you striving (struggling?) towards that you may need to let go of?

Business is meant to be a challenge, not a struggle… and sometimes the struggle can be an indication of trying to force yourself in a direction that you or your business isn’t ready for. It may be time to just say no.

And as an Online Business Manager, where is your client’s business struggling? Where is their business thriving? What can you do to perhaps shift a bit of focus/energy to the areas that are flowing right now (and let go of some projects/etc that are really stuck).

As an OBM we do our client’s a disservice if we don’t consider their business from this angle as well. Our client’s look to us to be able to ‘think on behalf of their business’, and this is a prime example of that. It could be that they aren’t seeing the struggle in the same way that you are (and likewise may not be seeing the opportunities that naturally arise). Being involved in the day-to-day activities of the business gives us (as OBMs) a different perspective that the business owner may be seeing, so don’t be shy in sharing your insights!