Five Signs It's Time To Hire An OBM
Wondering if you should hire an Online Business Manager? Here are 5 tell-tale signs that it may be time for you to add an OBM to your team.
One or all five of these may hit home for you. And I always like to remind business owners, that getting help in your business is not a sign of weakness. Just because you can do everything involved in running your business doesn't mean it's the best thing for your business. So put your ego aside for a moment and approach this list from the point of view of your business.
1. Your business is growing while your own free-time is shrinking
I’m betting you started your business to create more freedom in your life. Freedom of time, money and choice. Let me ask you – as your business grows are you actually working more or less time? If you are on the "working more time" side of things you certainly aren’t alone… I can’t count how many times I’ve talked to business owners who working more hours in their own business than they ever did in their "old job".
However, it doesn’t have to be this way - as a business owner you have the freedom to be able to make changes in your business, including hiring the right help to get stuff off your plate. This is exactly what an Online Business Manager does – their focus is to free up the business owner (you) so that you can focus your time and energy on the things that only you can do in your business.
2. You are having to turn away opportunities because you are so busy
This is an unfortunate by-product of the first point. Are you so busy that you can’t take advantage of the opportunities that are coming your way? Do you ever find yourself saying “I would love to do X and know it would be a great new offer... but I simply don’t have the time for it right now.”
Not only can an Online Business Manager help free up your own time to be able to explore these opportunities, they can also work on bringing some of these opportunities to life for you!
An Online Business Manager can help manage the process of bringing new strategies, projects and offers to life from concept to launch.
3. You are still doing the same things you were doing when you started your business
Remember when you first started your business and had to wear many hats? You were the cook, hostess, waitress and busboy (so to speak). Now that your business is growing, are you still doing the same things as you were in the beginning?
Are you still updating your own website? Are you still sending out your own broadcasts? Are you still answering all your customer service emails? As your business grows your role will (and should!) change.
An Online Business Manager can lovingly "slap your wrist" when it comes to you doing some of these things… helping you let go of some of the old stuff taking up your time that gets in the way of you growing your business.
4. You have a great team, but find yourself frustrated by them always "bugging" you
This is actually a very common complaint from business owners – they have a great team of virtual assistants, techie people and such. And yet they are constantly frustrated by how much their team needs from them. They feel like someone is always tapping them on the shoulder with a question or request.
The thing is, your team does need someone to manage them.
They need someone who they can turn to with questions, to get what they need to complete their projects quickly and on time. And if there is not a Certified Online Business Manager on the team, who do they turn to? You – the business owner.
Most business owners really don’t enjoy being managers, and I'm guessing this may be the same for you. An Online Business Manager becomes the key point of contact for your team – all questions, requests and such go to the OBM instead of you.
5. You are stuck at $X revenue and can’t seem to get past that point
When you find yourself stuck at a certain point in revenue there is usually one thing getting in the way – you! This is often referred to as the quarter million dollar speedbump (can be more or less than that of course) and a big part of the solution usually requires you removing yourself from the day-to-day activities and management of your business.
Start to ask yourself as you go about your day – do I need to be the person to do X? (with X being the many things you spend your time on each day.)
Chances are many things on your to-do list could be passed along to someone else on your team. And a Certified Online Business Manager can help with that process by delegating and managing those tasks on your behalf.
In short, once you:
have hit 6-figures in revenue
have a clear vision & goals for your next level of growth and
are ready to step into being the Courageous CEO and have someone else run the business for you
…then you're ready to hire an OBM.
Let's set up a Discovery Call and see how I can help you bring your BIG vision to life.
About Dusty Mattison
Dusty Mattison is a Certified Online Business Manager, strategist, systems fanatic and leader. She helps frazzled small business go from being the bottleneck to Courageous CEO with winning systems + teams.