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Let’s face it, as Online Business Managers and Virtual Support Professionals, there are certain tasks and clients we prefer to spend our time working on. So how do we manage the tasks or clients that are not at the top of the list of ‘fun things to do’?

I dare say, many of us put off these tasks until the last minute and then do not give them the attention to detail or expertise that we would ultimately desire to give. This is a very real issue in business, but specifically in the ‘support’ business. Business owners are relying on us to give it our all and go the full distance with every project, regardless of the task or the relationship you hold with that client.

Honestly, this may not be a major issue for a web designer or a graphic artist, but for those of us who work hand in hand with the growth and day in and out tasks of running a business, this is an ever increasing reality of preference. In the theater, one might say, “you are only as good as your last performance”. I believe that this is true in this industry as well. Your ability to serve your client is only as good as the last service you performed.

Take a minute to think about the last service offered to your clients’ business. Was it YOUR best effort? Did you go the distance?

I often find myself doing the same things first (or putting certain clients ahead of others) in my day to day tasks, while I put off other tasks until the last minute. Seems my pattern is, if I do not fully understand the ‘how’, I will put it off until I absolutely HAVE to figure it out, doing all the things that I fully understand (or easy things) first. What I have learned though, is that often those tasks I put off never get my full attention nor the level of excellence I want to offer my clients.

I have come up with 3 easy ‘self-checks’ to keep myself from doing the client ‘juggle’ which often leaves the lesser desired projects at the end of the list.

Self-Check 1

Tackle your least desired project first!

I know this seems obvious, but sometimes we just have to state the obvious: don’t wait until the eleventh hour to tackle a project that has the potential to go over your time limit, a learning curve or you just flat out don’t enjoy. Give the projects that take the most out of you the first part of your day, your most creative time and your highest priority of attention.
Truthfully, as support professionals, we do 85% of our ‘work’ on auto-pilot; responding to emails, sending a broadcast or updating a webpage. These tasks that we do constantly and really, though time consuming, are not thought consuming. So do them AFTER you have done the higher engaging tasks. Why? Because if it’s the eleventh hour and you need to bust out something you do a hundred times a day, you are less likely to make a mistake and keep your level of excellence for that task. Remember you are only as good as your last performance!

Self-Check 2

Determine which of those tasks you don’t enjoy, or which client you are not as drawn to, can be served better by someone else on your team. Specifically, as Online Business Managers, we have many tasks that land on our plate that, quite frankly, could be better performed by a team member. I like to look at everything that needs to be accomplished each week and see if either a client’s team, or my personal team, is better suited to do the task in order to open my time up to other tasks. I am not the person to do research on a topic or be the one to do repetitive tasks, such as load up tweets to Hootsuite or set up the Instant Telesminar for various calls. These tasks with a written SOP can easily be done by a VA. So clearing my plate of tasks that really should be accomplished by someone else on the team is my second self-check.

Self-Check 3

Know your strengths and weaknesses. I have to know ‘why’ a task has become an ‘end of the pile’ task for me and I need to recognize if it is simply something I am weak in. Note: just because I am weak in it, does not give me the excuse not to do it with excellence. If anything, it should be a greater motivator to put it at the top of the pile so I can give it my best effort and attention. The simple truth is we can’t all be good at everything all the time. We each have our weaknesses and we sometimes have to do what we are weakest at, and that’s okay. I have learned that this discipline tends to build great character and accomplishment in myself when completed.

So short recap: Self –Check how you are juggling tasks and clients and prioritize the thing you least enjoy. Get it done and move onto those things that really keep your business love tank full! An added plus is you will generally walk away from your office feeling good rather than bad, which will build up even more satisfaction in your business efforts on a personal basis.

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Were you on the OBM Starter Kit Bootcamp Call this week?  If not, find out more here.

If you were.. than I have posed this question to you:  Who Do You Want To Work With?

Consider past clients and/or employers that you’ve worked with. What did you like about working them? What did you NOT like about working with them?
Create a list of your likes and dislikes so that you can start to clearly see the attributes of who you want to work with and “design” your own ideal client.

Feel free to post below and let us know who your ideal client is (not in name specifically

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There is an aspect of being in business for ourselves that can be a hard pill to swallow… especially when you are in a business that is very “personally” focused. My business is very much a part of me and who I am (which I think is true for most of us in this day and age of social media – our businesses come from who we are and are a reflection of ourselves as individuals).

When you step out into the “limelight” of your business there are people who won’t like you.

Now it may not be that they don’t like you as a person per se – it might be that they don’t like what you are offering, they may not like an article you wrote, they may not like that you did A, B or C. Regardless of what it is that they don’t like it can feel like “they don’t like me.”

I remember this being a big part of my decision a few years back when I decided to officially “step out from behind the curtain” and write my book Becoming an Online Business Manager. Up until then I had been working as an OBM, I was a behind the scenes gal who wasn’t directly out there in the spotlight. But when considering writing a book, part of what came up was “what if they don’t like the book… what if they don’t like me?!”

And yet I know, if you want to do something big or bigger in your business, this is necessary. My friend and former biz partner Andrea Lee calls this your BOP – taking a Bold, Outrageous and Provocative stand in your marketplace. Being willing to step into, talk about and represent stuff in a way that maybe others won’t like… which on the flip side is part of what makes you *really* attractive to folks as well.

Almost like you can’t have one without the other – if you want to make a really strong impact/connection, you need to also be willing to potentially turn off people in the process.

Being a people pleaser at heart, this is a toughie… if you are going to step out in any big way, you are going to have to accept and find a way to be OK with the fact that not everyone will like what you do, what you offer and who you are. Not fun imo.

How to handle this? A few things that I do when I get negative feedback or comments from people:

• My first reaction is to feel sad - I will admit it. I’m certainly not in the place where I can automatically let these things roll off my back without a second thought. Yes, I initially feel ick/sad/bad about whatever it may be. I allow myself to feel that and then I move on to…
• What is valid in this feedback? Sometimes there is something to be learned from negative feedback – something you can do differently or better in your business. I believe this is an opportunity to consider that. OR in some cases it might just be that someone doesn’t like you and/or your stuff – which you can’t really do much about (nor should you try). My gut usually comes into play here, it tells me if I need to “step up” in some area or if this is more about the other person and not me. Then I give myself permission to…
• Not take it personally. As much as it might feel like a personal criticism, or even in some cases a personal “attack,” it’s really not about you. Especially when things are overly negative or harsh – that is about the other person and whatever painful place they may be in themselves. As one of my mentors says “You can be responsible TO someone but you can’t be responsible FOR someone”… in other words, you can’t make someone like you or not, it is ultimately up to them.

How about you? What do you do when people “don’t like you?” OR how do you let your fear of people not liking you get in the way of what you want to do in your business? Oooo lala, interesting to consider…

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I love this time of year. Spring in the deep South is just beautiful! Everything is beginning to bloom, the brown dead of winter is being replaced with vibrant colors of green, purple, yellow. It’s absolutely breath taking if you just stop and gaze at it. Of course, the spring days bring on the urge to open windows, illuminate our houses with sunrays while the gentle wind cools the air.

Ahhh.. now spring cleaning can begin.

I know I am not the only one who wants to tear off the winter heaviness and celebrate the freedom of Spring!

You may be thinking, “How does this relate to being an Online Business Manager? Well, I will tell you.

There are 3 Steps you need to Spring Clean your OBM Biz

Step 1 – Clean out your physical surroundings

Last weekend, a few of us in the Leverage OBM Accountability Group decided to do some Weekend Warrioring on our home offices. We basically took 2 days to clear out, organize, throw away (which, by the way, apparently OBM’s are book hoarders and a lot of books found new homes this past weekend) clean and prioritize for a purposed work environment.

Whew! FREEDOM! Gget your physical place right and you will feel like you can do anything. You know, in the ‘brick and mortar’ environment they will say ‘dress for success,’ but I wonder how many of us are trying to run businesses, or manage a 6 or 7 figure business for our clients, out of a space that we would not even want our client to walk into. Please note: I know I am stepping on toes, but just remember I had to step on mine first to share with you. You may need to dress your office for success! I know I did.

Step 2 – Clean out your virtual surroundings

Now this is where the real discipline and effort comes in. What does your hard drive look like today? Can you find what you are looking for quickly and in an organized manner? Listen, if it is taking several seconds to get the files you need, or worse, a few minutes to get to the files you need because ‘not sure where it downloaded’, you need to clean this out and reorganize.

Often times this starts with determining a folder/file structure. Mine for an audio recording would look like this:

Clients > name of client> client program, product, event> audio> month> FILE

What does your file/folder structure look like? I know this is not that sexy, but trust me, it will save you time on a continual basis. Clean it out!

Step 3 – Clean out your spiritual surroundings

Spring is a season of sowing seed and reaping a harvest! So on a very deep level, you need to take time to clear out the junk in your soul. We need to process through your successes, your failures, your dreams and shortcomings to truly be able to FEEL clean in our efforts. If you are holding onto bitterness for that last client relationship, release it! If you are feeling failure from that mistake you made last week, learn from it and then release it! If you are feeling insecure at approaching new clients because you don’t ‘KNOW’ everything, understand they don’t either and this is a journey. Now release it.

Can you see what needs to happen here spiritually? You need to find a place of center to create a core to your ability to sow and reap in your soul life. This is hugely affecting your business, your daily productivity, your home and your life.
Now when these 3 steps are complete, you are ready to celebrate the power of Springing your business forward!

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Wow – today sucked. I will admit it. I had a pretty rough day on the working front.

This was a “loads of stuff to get done today” kind of Monday – which isn’t unusual. Top that with the fact I’m heading off to Portland tomorrow for the IVAA Conference (speaking about becoming an OBM, yay!) PLUS I had to finish up the marketing campaign for a new program we are launching.

Nothing was clicking, nothing was flowing. Try as I might I couldn’t get into any sort of flow – my brain wasn’t working, and it certainly had no creative juice at all. Every moment of the day felt like pulling teeth – but stuff had to get done so I kept on trucking. (Even the first draft of this post disappeared so I had to write it again, LOL

I’m at the place where good enough simply has to be enough this time around. As much as my inner perfectionist cringes to say that.

Here it is 9:18pm – I’ve had a few meltdowns in my journey of getting stuff done while trying to spend time with the girls and pack for tomorrow. It hasn’t been pretty and you know what? I’ve decided that I’m OK with it.

It’s time to stop, time to just go with what I’ve accomplished and let the rest go. To accept the fact that the world won’t come to an end just because the sales page for my new program isn’t 100%. That a few of the things that I didn’t get done will simply have to wait for another time. That I’ll have to work on a few things tomorrow “en route” to Portland just so I can go to bed at a decent time and get a good nights sleep.

And so off I go, tired and resigned to the fact that I’m not superwoman and I can’t do it all. Go figure.

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When you are a support professional, one of the hardest things is to be able to say “no” to someone – especially to a client who needs something from you.

We had a really great discussion about this last week in one of our OBM Virtual Retreat days… a few of the gals were sharing how they have such a hard time saying “no” to clients and as a result are finding themselves stressed and overwhelmed by taking on too much at once.

As one person shared “I’m a people pleaser and I just hate to let someone down. How can I stop being a people pleaser?”

Don’t stop! I think being a “people pleaser” is actually a good thing when you are a support professional – be it an OBM, a VA or otherwise. Being driven to “please” our clients by providing good work is a wonderful gift to offer – it is part of what makes you really good at what you do (and client’s can feel that).

However, like anything that is a gift, there is also a dark side to this… and that is when you are SO driven to please others that you do so at the expense of yourself. When the thought of potentially letting someone down is so uncomfortable to you that you would rather just take it all on… leading to overwhelm, frustration and eventual burn-out… this doesn’t serve you or your clients in the long run, and I see it happen a lot.

So how to balance this drive to “please” with your own needs? In my opinion, it’s not simply about saying “no” – that could actually be destructive to your working relationships – it’s about being able to say yes on your terms. Let me explain:

Put yourself in the shoes of your client for a moment – they have hired you to help them out with specific needs. They want to feel like they can depend on you and that you’ll be able to serve those needs.

You are super swamped already, busy with a bunch of projects and your client comes to ask you for help with something. It is easy to think “just tell them no” right? Wrong. If they ask you for something, that is part of your role, and when you simply say “no” it leaves them hanging. It leaves them wondering if you are able to give them the support they need or if you are the person for the job.

Saying no to your clients too much could ultimately end a working relationship.

(Just to be clear – I’m not referring to someone asking you to do something that you aren’t able to do. If something is outside of your scope of expertise or skillset, then you don’t want to go there.)

Same scenario – your plate is full, you are already swamped and your client comes to you asking for help with yet another thing. Instead of saying “no”, how about considering how you can say “yes on your terms”? How can you say “yes” to a client without adding to your already swamped/busy schedule? How can you say “yes” and still keep your sanity?

Some ideas for you:

1. Talk to your client about shifting priorities – Given that you already have a full plate, where does this new project fit in? I think by default we assume that everything has to be done all at once, which isn’t usually the case (nor is it possible) – and yet our clients may ask for everything at once, not understanding what it actually takes to get it done. Our job is to be able to say “given everything going on, I can’t do X, Y and Z all at once – so let’s take a look at everything, shift some priorities and deadlines so that we can get it done.” You’ve then set it up so that you can say yes to everything with new and realistic deadlines.
2. Perhaps someone else on the team can help? – Even if your client is asking you for help that doesn’t mean you have to be the person to do the work. Talk to your client about the fact that your plate is already full, and if this needs to be done now, perhaps Suzy can help? (And be the one to get Suzy on board to do the work – don’t pass that back to your client.) You’ve set up a situation where you are able to say “yes” to getting the work done without adding it to your own plate – dreamy!
3. Does this have to be done at all? – Many of us will have clients who fall prey to bright, shiny object syndrome – they get distracted by new, fun things that pop up on their radar and decide they want to do it “right now!” And then of course they come to you with that urgency to do the work and do it quickly. With a client like this you may want to probe a bit further: “We are really focused on A, B, C right now – I’m not clear on why this is important to add to the mix?” Sometimes with a bit of discussion and a gentle reminder of current priorities, you may get to the place where some things don’t need to be done at all or can be shelved for a later date.

The bottom line is this – it’s not only about us. I believe we actually do a disservice to our clients when we say blindly “yes” to everything. Not only do we put ourselves in a situation of taking on too much and potentially starting to drop the ball… we set up unrealistic expectations with our clients who will come to expect you to always be able to “do it all right now.” This isn’t healthy for you or the business.

Ideally, you want to get your clients to a place where they can see and understand the reality of what it takes to get things done, and that they can start to plan their own strategies and needs accordingly. When you both live in reactive “we need to do this now!” mode, that is simply not sustainable and all parties suffer for it.

So let’s say “yes” loud and proud… and on our own terms.

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by Tiffany Johnson, Certified OBM

As Online Business Managers we are juggling a lot of balls! Families, clients, projects, teams and least but (hopefully not) last our own businesses.  So what happens when we are not there to catch the balls and toss them back in the air?

Earlier this month my local area was plagued with very destructive  high winds that left trees and power lines down all over the place.. about 200,000 folks without power. Granted it was a short lived outage, but in our business even a few hours can make a big difference. Especially if it happens to be the hours you need to record a webinar, set up an ezine or make a sales call… as you can imagine I went into a bit of a scramble.

I heard at first that we would be without power from Tuesday morning until Thursday evening.. Notice how I mentioned above the first ball we are often juggling are our families, figuring out where to get showers, whether or not the kids had school, what to do with them if they didn’t… ect.  So it’s Tuesday morning kids headed to school and I have a full day of deadlines and calls.  No power, no phone, no internet.. just my cell and data plan…

I am grateful the power was back on Wednesday midday and a few local coffee shops substituted for my office when possible.  Granted I could have just gone to a hotel, and had the power outage been much longer I would have, however, it is highly difficult to work and concentrate with kids locked up in a small contained room.. even with a TV would have been less than ideal…

So what did I learn through this experience… and better yet, what can I share with you:

1.  Have a backup YOU.. otherwise known as an up-to-date SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for both yours and your clients businesses.  It is very disheartening when I hear from business owners who have no access or understanding to how their products or services are being delivered to their clients outside of their virtual team.

The SOP is a life saver but only if it is updated and accessible. If the SOP is on your computer or hasn’t been updated with the current projects or programs it will be useless.  A Word document housed on your computer or clients computer is not the safety net I am talking about.

Set up a virtual office for each of your clients, have a procedure created for every step of what you or your team is doing and make sure everyone has access to it.  Even take the time to walk your client through the the SOP on a quarterly basis for the just in case scenario… and if need be express a just in case scenario to show the importance of this instruction.

2.  Have a plan with client and team.. This is extremely proactive but had I had it in place it would have saved me a lot of anxiety when the power went out.  Discuss with your client what they would need to be able to manage or take care of in the possibility of you not being able to fulfill your duties… Do the same with your VA or teammates.

Here’s a few examples:

Client – Oversee projects, schedule tasks to team, know who has what skill set on the team to fulfill to do tasks, has access to marketing calendar, affiliate promotion calendar, is aware weekly of ongoing projects (this is a big deal because often when they hand a project over to you it is ‘finished’ in their book, though you still may have a few finishing touches in the works… they need to know that).

VA – has access to all technical SOP’s (even if they have never performed the task, if the process is created they can follow it to get the job done), knows what is coming up for the week and what the ‘norm’ is for you to do for each event, has agreed to make self available in the course of an emergency (this is important because if your VA is maxed all the time, they may not be the most ideal person to cover you in the course of an emergency).

3. Communicate, communicate, communicate! Really can not be expressed enough, everyone needs to know the role they have if or when an emergency takes place… not just for your duties, but also for your clients and your team members.

When a client had to be out unexpectedly recently we had to reschedule a weeks worth of calls,  promotions, revenue generating efforts were delayed, and ultimately it was a bit of a mess to both handle in the midst of the delay but then the aftermath of catching up.

Partially this chaos was due to not having clear communication of what the expectation was.. so in the midst of an emergency she was having to delegate to the team trying to make sure nothing to important was being missed.

I know the thought of something more severe than a power outage is not pleasant but the truth is your clients business cannot be bottle necked through you to the point of becoming ineffective or unproductive if you (or a team member) is not available.

So what is YOUR BACK UP PLAN?

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