Online Business Management is a Natural Step Forward

by Linda Horowitz

“I am flexing my strategic and project management muscles for the first time in years.” – Linda Horowitz

When I began my self-employment journey after 20 years in management for a retail chain I really didn’t know where to begin. I knew that I wanted to take my skills and transfer them to potential clients but I did not know how. That’s when I learned about Virtual Assistance, and so I began my career flying solo.

For the next five years, after going through VA Training, a learning curve that has taken me from the brick and mortar world to the virtual business world, as well as developing a base of clients with whom I enjoy working, I still felt something was missing in my personal goal to fully utilize my project management and strategic planning skills.

That is when I came to read the book “Becoming an Online Business Manager” by Tina Forsyth. Still, I was unable to fully understand the term “OBM,” and so I took the Online Business Manager training and ultimately joined the OBM Mentor program.

I now have my first client as an Online Business Manager (OBM). I am looking at my client’s business from a different view than I was before – working the bigger picture, finding the business opportunities, implementing operational plans and working with teams. I feel that now I am truly doing what I had set out to do when I began my business. I am flexing my strategic and project management muscles for the first time in years.

Make no mistake – I may be using skills that are familiar, but the business I am working with is completely new to me. The learning curve is great and it can seem daunting at times as there is much to learn. But it is, at the same time, challenging and exhilarating. Moving back to planning and implementation work from task orientated and administrative work is also taking me way out of the comfort zone that I had built for myself. It has been a while.

Please do not mistake this in any way as a negative commentary on the role of the Virtual Assistant. Absolutely not! Had I not gone through the process of being a Virtual Assistant, I would not have learned about the world of business online, about the expertise that is available, or about the software that can be used. I treasure the support I have received and still receive from the various associations I belong to, and from the colleagues with whom I have worked over the years and I look forward to more. For me, the roles of the Virtual Assistant and the Online Business Manager are explicitly intertwined.

Online Business Management is not an industry preference; it is a natural step forward for the business owner who has developed the need for a business manager. For me it has been a matter choice – of choosing a role that feels right for me within that business.