5 Ways an Online Business Manager is Different to a Virtual Assistant
Are you at that point of small business ownership where your to do list is overflowing and you can’t find the time to prioritise what matters? That point where you need someone to help you in your business, but you don’t know who? While some of your business buddies are saying you need a Virtual Assistant (VA), others swear by their fabulous Online Business Manager (OBM).
So, which one do you need? Well, that depends on what you want to achieve, because there are some pretty big differences between what a VA and OBM can do for you.
In a nutshell, an OBM works as a strategic partner in your business growth; helping you define goals and set achievable action plans to deliver your desired business outcomes. A VA is more of an extra pair of hands to help complete tasks and take some of the ‘busy work’ off your desk.
Still not sure whether you need an Online Business Manager vs a Virtual Assistant? Keep reading because I’m going to break it down for you.
1. Big picture thinking vs completing defined tasks
(Online Business Manager vs Virtual Assistant)
When you’re drowning in busy work, it’s hard to know out what tasks you need to offload. While a VA can take some work off your hands (they’re terrific implementers for many tasks like social media or frontline reception, database maintenance or setting up digital tools), an OBM will help you work out what tasks you should give to a VA (and what ones you shouldn’t). Because when you’re investing in someone to help you with busy work, you want to be sure you’re giving them the right tasks to help your business grow.
As a business owner, it’s hard to step back and look at your business as a whole. When you’re busy with client work, it’s easy to put off essential marketing activities that keep that pipeline flowing. And what if you’re spending all your time busily creating content for social media when it’s really your website that needs to work better for you right now?
One of the biggest benefits of bringing an OBM into your business is you find someone who can take a fresh look at your business to determine what areas need attention first. An OBM will work with you to assess your business foundations, see whether you’re missing opportunities for future work, and help you decide where to spend your efforts for the biggest impact.
A good OBM will start by:
- Drawing out your business and personal goals
- Recommending the focus areas to work on to reach your goals
- Developing an action plan, you’re comfortable with.
While handing set tasks to a VA can alleviate some of the pressure, if you don’t have a goal-oriented strategy to guide the work, it could end up feeling like you’re paying someone to keep spinning the same wheels you’ve been spinning for so long.
When you work with me as your OBM, I’ll help you deliver your business objectives and create the capacity you need by:
- Designing your work week for improved productivity
- Keeping you focused on the right things at the right time
- Determining if and how a VA (or a team of VAs) can best help your business
- Managing your VAs to deliver on agreed projects
- Providing valuable accountability – checking in with you so that you’re on track, adjusting plans as needed, and have someone to celebrate your wins with!
2. Delivering strategic solutions vs seeking your guidance
(Online Business Manager vs Virtual Assistant)
A VA can be great for taking regular busy work tasks off your hands, but you need to give them a clear brief and ongoing help and guidance to ensure tasks are on track. And that can take up a lot of the valuable time you’re trying to get back.
An OBM takes responsibility for identifying problems, resolving issues, improving processes, and taking appropriate action to achieve the best business outcome on your behalf. And they know how to cast a critical eye over every area of a business, optimising systems and processes and reducing the need for ongoing guidance from you.
In my corporate career I took responsibility to deliver reliable business support to executive level managers, so they could stay focused on their leadership roles. Understanding the overall business objectives meant I could find ways to streamline operations and implement efficient ways of doing things, without taking up the company director’s time.
Productivity planning was always top of mind:
- What could be trimmed from processes?
- What business systems needed to be added to speed things up?
- How can we implement processes that fit in with the team’s working styles?
Now, as an OBM, I get to apply my strategic management skills to my clients’ businesses as a supportive partner working to bring out their best business self. And by outsourcing to my business, my clients get the benefit of professional business management support without the risk and expense of hiring an employee. When you have someone in your corner making sure things are running smoothly and supporting you to achieve your business goals, you’ll soon find you can achieve so much more.
3. Business and personal transformation vs freeing up time
(Online Business Manager vs Virtual Assistant)
When a VA takes some of those admin tasks off your hands, it makes sense that you’ll have more time, right? Right – but what will you do with that time? And will you be able to let go of that ‘I’m-too-busy’ mindset and so you can focus (really focus) on business development?
Achieving more in your business requires a change in thinking beyond the treadmill you’re on now. Simply freeing up time won’t always help you with the mindset shift you need. An OBM will help you prioritise the important things and zero in on what you need to do to make sure you don’t waste a minute of that newly found time.
As your OBM, I’ll help you set a realistic action plan to help you achieve both your business and personal growth goals:
- I’ll look at what might be roadblocks to you doing the ‘things you’ve always wanted’ to achieve
- I’ll participate in decision-making to help you set achievable goals that are within your capacity
- I’ll give you the resources that will support you to reach your goals, by planning and delivering projects for you
- I’ll provide accountability and productivity planning to support you establishing new habits and making the long-term changes you need to maintain your progress.
When you’re working for yourself, it’s easy to let things slip by. Having an OBM as a cheerleader and mentor at your side gives you the structure and shared energy you need.
4. Outsourcing team management vs managing teams yourself
(Online Business Manager vs Virtual Assistant)
While outsourcing tasks to a VA can save you time, you can end up spending a lot of time managing a VA or team of subcontractors. But with an OBM, you can hand all that team management over.
In my business, I lead a team of VAs and source other specialists as subcontractors, ramping capacity up and down as needed for my clients’ projects. My clients don’t have to worry about daily VA tasks management because I streamline the process and take care of the hiring, briefing, onboarding, and management of their virtual teams. This makes sure my clients don’t end up spending all their time on team management (which can quickly defeat the purpose of offloading the tasks in the first place).
With an OBM, you won’t need to worry about figuring out who does what, and when (which *is not* what you need when you’re already in business overwhelm). Instead, you can pass the team management onto someone like me, so you truly have the capacity to start ticking off that wish list of things you’ve been wanting to do *for* your business.
5. Looking for opportunities vs staying within scope
(Online Business Manager vs Virtual Assistant)
VAs are task-driven. They know what they need to do to achieve a specific task you’ve set them – but they don’t always need (or want) to be aware of the other areas of your business operations, or where their task fits in. They can deliver high-quality task-based work without really needing to worry about the broader business context.
While a VA will deliver well to a defined scope, an OBM takes a more wholistic view; always thinking about how the pieces fit together and where things can improve. With an experienced OBM (*cough* like me *cough*) you get someone who is anticipating dependencies and resolving issues as they go. It’s more than delivering to a specific scope of work. Us OBMs are always looking for opportunities and efficiency gains, and recommending actions and strategies that keep you moving toward your goals.
Choosing the right support for your business
So, now you know more about what an OBM and a VA can do for you, do you have a clearer idea of what your business needs are?
The answer will come down to what’s causing your sense of overwhelm. What was it that made you think *now* is the time to bring in some help? What did you want to achieve?
If you’re clear on your goals, have a solid action plan, know exactly what you need to do next, and just need someone to take on those busy tasks – a Virtual Assistant might be exactly what you need right now. (Just remember to allow time in your week to manage and guide your VA.)
But maybe you need more than just an extra pair of hands. Maybe you need someone who’ll hold your hand and guide you through the next phase of business growth.
If you need someone who can help you set goals, plan actions, manage you and your team’s capacity and help you make the most of your energy, expertise, and focus – it sounds like you’re ready for an Online Business Manager. (And I’d love to be that person for you).
Still unsure whether you need a VA or OBM? Let’s chat so I can help you work it out. Book in for a discovery call and I’ll help you work out your business support needs.
