Are you wondering if you should hire an Online Business Manager/Fractional COO? Or curious when you should expect to need one?
Here are five tell-tale signs that it may be time for you to add an OBM/FOO to your team.
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 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 work 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 make changes in your business, including hiring the right help to get stuff off your plate. This is precisely 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 have 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 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 OBM/FOO help free up your own time to explore these opportunities, but they can also work on bringing some of these opportunities to life for you! An OBM/FOO can help manage bringing new strategies, projects, and offers from concept to launch.
3. You are still doing the same things you did 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 initially were? 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 OBM/FOO 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 a very common complaint from business owners – they have a great team of virtual assistants, techie folks, and such. And yet they are constantly frustrated by how much their team needs from them. They feel like someone is continuously tapping them on the shoulder with a question or request. The thing is, your team does need someone to manage them. They need someone they can turn to with questions, to get what they need to complete their projects quickly and on time. And if there is not an OBM/FOO on the team, who do they turn to? You – the business owner.
As a fellow business owner once said: “My VAs were doing a fine job – it was ME who was unhappy managing them.” Most business owners don’t enjoy being managers, and I’m guessing this may be the same for you. An OBM/FOO becomes the key point of contact for your team – all questions, requests, and such go to the OBM/FOO 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 to remove 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 an OBM/FOO 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 CEO and have someone else run the business for you
…then you are ready to hire an OBM/FOO.
