*Clears throat, puts on theatrical intro voice:*
Introducing Jen Sands, Online Business Manager! Or OBM for short.
A new title, a redesigned website (here’s the link if you’d like to take a look) and a new office; lots has happened over the last few months. But, “why have you changed your title?” I hear you ask! Well; I took a look at the work I was doing daily, the support I was giving my clients, and the overall jazz of work I deliver, and the new title more accurately describes my skillset and the services delivered.
Keep reading this blog and I’ll explain more:
I have spent six years as a Virtual Assistant (VA) and I’ve loved every minute; the work and my clients have always been varied and interesting.
I started my business ‘from the ground up, as they say’ – managing inboxes and delivering customer service support during my daughter’s naptimes.
THEN, it happened. I wanted to level-up. I wanted to do more, be more for my clients. My coach and mentor at the time had an awesome VA to OBM training course – it was fate! So I jumped in with both feet and started learning.
My mindset developed, I grew in confidence, and when working through, realised I was already working on ‘typical OBM duties’ with my clients already. I would find myself delving deeper into the business systems and processes, making development suggestions and process alterations to improve their businesses.
So, what is an OBM?
Think of the role as a project manager; I oversee the business, manage team members or other freelancers if that’s the case, create systems, and work with the business owner to drive their business forward. As the business owner, you have a lot on your plate. Like, A LOT! An OBM is there as your wing woman (or man) to discuss ideas with, keep you accountable, research plans and support you to drive you towards your business goals.
Here’s a few examples of how I work with clients
Nurturing your client/customer base through Email Marketing
You want to develop your email marketing. You know that email marketing is THE most effective way of reaching your audience of already warm leads, but where to start?
As your OBM, I create email funnels; one for marketing, one for onboarding, one for reconnecting with previous customers (or similar). I would then strategically plan the editorial calendar and set out the topics and focuses of the emails. I’d then work with an Email Marketing VA for them to design and press send (after approval).
An OBM has the knowledge and experience with the software and marketing to create the best system for your business as well as the analytical skills to provide you with reports so we can see what works best for your audience.
Giving you one port of call – not 3, 4, 5 or more!
You feel that your business has got out of control, you are making sales, but you don’t have the background structure to keep it all together. You have a bookkeeper, a social media manager, website developer and a podcast editor – all working in their zone of genius, which is great from a business perspective, but, they all want a piece of you quite regularly!
An OBM can manage your team, set up a workplace system for communications, create processes for everyone to follow and fix problems before they get to your inbox. Saving you time and worry, no more micro-managing for you.
What can an OBM do for your business?
When you work with an OBM, they’ll soon know your business inside and out.
A few areas of support could be:
- Foresight and forecast of the future of the business
- Managing teams
- Sounding board for development ideas and plans
- Writing process and procedure documents
- Creating marketing funnels and strategy
- Designing and implementing business plans
- Acting as a point of contact for your business
- Gathering data and write reports
- Ensuring adherence to legal rules and guidelines
- Maintaining customer relationships
- Researching for upcoming projects
- Assessing the business performance against key objectives
- Being adaptable to changing business needs
- Overall, being that shoulder of support and right-hand (well, actually I’m left-handed) woman to support you and your business
If you’ve ever felt a little bit lonely in your business (haven’t we all?) then an OBM will give you the confidence to push forward towards your goals.
OBM’s are decisive, focused and will keep you accountable.
Client insight:
At the end of a bi-weekly call with a client, we have three to-do lists, one for them, one for me and one for the outsourced team. One client I started working with last year fedback how valuable they find these calls. They were on the verge of closing their business last year, through frustration, uncertainty, and a fog ahead of them they just couldn’t navigate through; fortunately, they reached out at the right time. Together we have got their inbox under control, reorganised the business expenses, set up email sequences, increased social media presence and now working on a full marketing strategy for the next launch. Huge leaps forward.
I don’t manage all of this change on my own, I have a team of VA’s with skills in all business areas, financial, creative and organisational. This means I can set out the work, and they can help with the ‘doing’ of the tasks.
Having worked my way up from being a VA, I know every aspect of the role, what needs to be done and how long I think it should take.
The VA role is vital as all the tasks need to get done. A VA works in the business, cracking on and getting the shizzle done, led and guided by the OBM. VA’s typically work with a lot of clients each month, where as an OBM has a smaller group of clients so they can really focus on driving the businesses forward.
If your business is starting to feel like pushing water uphill, an OBM brings the bucket to get that sorted for you (and avoid soggy toes).
Back to my new office: I love my new desk, (my husband Ryan made it for me (from scratch! So clever)), shelves and most importantly, my gallery wall. Thanks Ry!
Oh, not forgetting.. my plants! If you’ve read my previous posts, you’ll know I’m now a plant-lover. 13 years of parenting has given me the confidence to finally keep plants alive! I won’t bore you with their names, but the one you’ll see on a zoom call with me is Keith [the leaf].
Over and out!
PS/ If you have any questions or general wondering how OBM or VA services can support your business – book a free discovery call, or drop me a DM!