Free Articles for Online Business Managers

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.

What makes someone a great Online Business Manager? That’s a bit of a loaded question, and of course a big discussion all on it’s own as there are a myriad of things to consider. However one thing I know to be true is this.

A good Online Business Manager will present you with solutions and not just options.

Let me give you an example. Let’s say you are Bob, a business owner who is looking for some help with picking a new broadcasting system for your newsletter. You aren’t happy with the one you have now and want to change it.

You ask a member of your team Suzy to look into this for you. Here are two potential responses that i’ve seen in this type of situation.

Response #1:

Hi Bob

I did some research and found some broadcasting systems that look pretty good. Here is a list of what I found:

[insert big list of URLs here]

Which did you want to use?

Suzy

Response #2:

Hi Bob

I did some research and found some broadcasting systems that look pretty good. I found a number of systems and these are the ones I took a good look at:

Option 1 is great because of ABC, however they don’t have D which I wish they did. Otherwise I quite liked it, would be easy to import and start using.

Option 2 could totally work, they do have D but don’t seem to be quite as robust as Option 1. Plus they have a pretty stringent re-opt in requirement when importing a list which could mean losing subscribers.

Option 3 could work as well, they seem to have great features however i’ve heard of some deliverability issues with them so I hesitate to use them.

My suggestion would be to go with Option 1 - I know of a number of people using this system and they are quite happy with it.

Let me know your thoughts? If you agree I can get started on a plan to move the list of Option 1… or if you have further questions I can look into those as well.

Suzy

Now putting yourself in the shoes of Bob - which response would you prefer to receive? I’m guessing you picked #2, but of course.

The difference in these two responses is obvious - and the reason why this is so important is that you are making it EASY for a decision to be made. Theoretically yes, the second response could (and in a real response probably would) go much deeper… however you can see in the example the focus on providing the best solution.

Business owners already have enough on their plates - and when you send a response of options (such as in #1) that just gives them more work to do. That kind of response is asking me to go to each site and check things out on my own… which most business owners don’t have the time or inclination to do!

In response #2 everything has been laid out, so that I can take a quick peek and immediately be able to respond with “yes, lets do it” or “hmmm, what about X… can you look into that for me?” No more work on my plate, and progress is made.

I’ve said it before and i’ll say it again (like a broken record, hehe). The role of the Online Business Manager is to take things off the business owners plate, so they are free to do the things only they can do in their business (marketing, strategy, development and such.)

And this includes lightening the ‘burden’ of making decisions as well as regular ole to-dos. Present your clients with solutions so that the decision making process is quick and easy. Don’t let them get ‘buried’ in having to figure things out on their own (and run the risk of not making a decision at all.)

Comments, thoughts?

With all the bumps in the economy these days, i’m hearing some buzz among online support folks (virtual assistants, online business managers and the like) along the lines of:

“If my client’s business is struggling – doesn’t that mean they’ll have to let me go?”

Au contraire! Your services are needed more than ever because of these challenges.

Now I am no economist – heck, I barely pay attention to the news at all, never read newspapers – but my take on how these challenges affect us small/home-based business owners is this:

We need to step it up a bit, take a good look at things, let go of what isn’t working and get creative with how we serve our markets.

I’m certainly not the only person saying this of course, this is the basis of alot of the business advice out there right now - and for good reason. Those who are adapting are growing, those who are resisting are stagnant and struggling.

But I do want to make this clear – this applies to us as virtual assistants, online business managers and virtual support folks as well.

I believe quite strongly that regardless of what we are hired for – be it customer service, to build a website or to full out manage the business – our intention is the same. We need to always be focused on how we are helping to grow our client’s business.

This is always important, but it even more so important these days.

If you find yourself in fear of ‘losing your clients’ or are seeing some of your clients struggling I want to ask you:

What are you doing to help grow your client’s business?

Let’s put on our thinking caps shall we? It may not be as hard to do as you think. A few ideas:

• If you take care of customer service you actually have a pretty unique perspective on the business. You are in direct contact with potential and existing clients. What are they asking about? What are they upset/annoyed with? Share this with your client – these can be clues to potential new revenue streams. Also, what about people who have inquired but not purchased – can you put together a follow-up plan to reach out to these people with some kind of special offer? Being on the “front line” of the business is a very powerful place to be, you can truly make an impact here.
• Look to streamline, simplify and cut the fat. Where is the business leaking money? Most businesses are, and being in the role of ‘doing’ you are most likely the one to see where alot of this is happening. What tools are being used in the business – are they all necessary? Is your client paying for stuff they aren’t even using? Is there perhaps a new tool/software on the market that might be better? What about processes – what are you (and other team members) doing that could perhaps be done better? Saving time that can be put towards other business-building activities. Come up with a plan to ‘plug the leaks’ and share with your client.
• What can you take off your client’s plate? Freeing them up to focus on new business building opportunities… We talk about this alot in the Online Business Manager Training – one of the best things we can do for our clients is take stuff off of their already full plates. Give your client a tap on the shoulder and say “hey, I noticed you are really busy… why don’t you let me take x, y, z off your hands? I’d love to help”. This is music to your client’s ears, let me assure you! Chances are they didn’t realize you could help with x, y, z or in many cases they are so on autopilot it never occurred to them to let it go. I can hear the sigh of relief from your clients already….

 What else can you do to help grow your client’s businesses? Post your comments below…

And for the business owners reading this – don’t be shy in sending this to your team and/or having a discussion about it. Chances are they would love to step it up and see how they can help… they just might need a little nudge from you.

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!

ShareThis

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.

ShareThis

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).

ShareThis

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.

ShareThis

I’ve literally had this conversation with 3 different people this past week… it went something like this:

(Friday afternoon) My client just sent me a whole bunch of work that needs to be done for Monday, i’m going to be working all weekend!

My response:

Why didn’t you say no?

Now here is what I really love about this scenario, and it rings true for *most* of the online based professionals that I work with (VAs, OBMs, and otherwise).

We WANT to support our clients in the best way possible. We want to see them succeed, and when there is work to be done we are willing to bend over backwards to make sure it happens. In fact, with all three of these conversations after I asked why they didn’t say no the response was:

But the work needs to be done, I don’t want to leave my client high and dry here… that wouldn’t be fair.

A very heartfelt and responsible sentiment yes? You can see that they truly have the client’s best interest at heart.

But what this scenario also says to me is that this person has not set any boundaries with their clients. Or if they have set boundaries they aren’t willing to enforce them. And over time this can become a serious issue - to the point where it can actually ruin what is otherwise a good working relationship.

Taking a look at boundaries for a moment - boundaries are setting the guideline for how we want to be treated. What is acceptable, what is not acceptable, etc.

As it applies to our businesses and the work we do with our clients, boundaries become very important when it comes to turnaround times, getting notice on tasks/projects and your working hours. You want to be very clear with your clients up front as to how much advance notice you need for a task/project, how long it will take (which can of course vary depending on the task/project) and when you actually are available for work.

If you don’t set these boundaries with your clients AND enforce them as needed… you run this risk of basically working yourself to the bone and not having any dedicated time for yourself. And this is when people become burnt-out, resentful and in some cases so tired of their business that they are thinking of shutting it down. I’ve seen it happen many a time, and quite honestly it makes me sad.

I like to use a Dr. Phil-ism when I think of setting boundaries with our clients (I’m not a big Dr. Phil fan these days, but this certainly fits.)

Continue reading…

The questions keep rolling in since announcing the Online Business Manager Certification, here is another one that i’m asked quite often:

“I’d like to become an Online Business Manager, how do I know if i’m ready?”

I really love this question for the simple fact that it is a reflection of those who are asking it - someone who wants to make sure that the role of OBM is a good fit for them vs. just jumping into it willy-nilly (which is NOT a good idea!)

So how do you know if you are ready?

Or, perhaps you are a business owner who has a virtual assistant or someone else on your team who you suspect may be a great OBM for you… how do you know if they are ready?

If this is a question you are considering, I invite you to take the Online Business Manager Readiness quiz - download a copy of the quiz here.

Those of you who have read the book Becoming an Online Business Manager will remember this quiz from page 31 - if you haven’t taken it already set aside a few moments to do so now.

I invite you to consider this - the most important aspect of being ready is so much more about the ‘inner game’ than it is about skills and experience.

Does this sound like you?

“I stay calm in the middle of confusion and chaos, and will naturally take charge to fix a situation when conflict arises.”

Or

“I thrive on the challenge of being thrown into new (and sometimes uncertain) situations.”

If you can say a resounding yes to these (and the many other) statements in the quiz, then you have a pretty strong foundation to build on.

Here is that link again to the quiz

Remember that the skills of the OBM can be taught (which we will be doing via the Certification Training that starts in 2 weeks) and experience will come over time.

But your inner conviction, excitement and dedication to the role is what *really* counts.

With that, all things are possible in the wide-world of becoming an Online Business Manager.