The one question I receive more than any other question from a potential client is, ‘how do I know if I’m ready to hire an online business manager?’ There are some key items that should be in place before hiring an online business manager (OBM) and bringing them onto your team. In this post, we will be covering all the different ways you can know you are ready to make this important business decision and hire the right online business manager (OBM) for you.

What is an Online Business Manager?

Let’s first cover what an online business manager (also known as an OBM, digital business manager or DBM) actually is, just in case this is a new term for you. An online business manager helps with the day-to-day back end of your business. Depending on the business manager and their zone of genius, this could include a couple of extra roles and tasks. Such as system setup, project management, hiring, creating processes, and managing your team. Personally, I consider and OBM to be a Generalized Specialist. They need to be a generalist where they handle many recurring tasks in your business, develop and set up systems & automations, and write up SOPs, but also specialized with tech platforms, marketing, and launching.

How to Know You Are Ready to Hire an Online Business Manager?

There are a few different reasons you might be ready and want to hire an online business manager. I will list the top three in this post so that when you find yourself wondering, “Am I really ready for an OBM?” you can stop and think about these key steps.

1) You know that you are the bottleneck of your business and team.

If you already have a small team of contractors, you might start to find that you are the bottleneck holding them back from doing their job. Are you finding that you are constantly getting needing to approve things for your contractors to move on to the next step? Are you struggling to get your team members the information they need to complete their tasks for your business? That’s a key area where an online business manager can step in and actually manage the team for you.

It can be tough to let go of the reins, and you will most likely struggle with this transition (so many do). However, online business managers are trained specifically in how to manage your team members so that they stay engaged and deliver results for your online business.

2) Your systems are a mess.

Your zone of genius might not be systems, and that’s okay! But, as you continue to grow and scale, implementing the right systems is vital for your business to continue to grow. Most online business managers love systems and can make sure your business is running like a well-oiled machine. Systems can be easy or complex, but systems are used for onboarding and offboarding clients, setting up regular recurring tasks and laying out what needs to be done for a specific recurring task.

3) You have no SOP’s or processes in place.

SOPs (standard operating procedures) are essential for all businesses, especially as you grow and your team expands. Making sure these key documents and processes are mapped out will be one of your online business manager’s first steps to organizing your business and making things run better. SOPs are needed so you can train and hand over the reigns to contractors or employees so you can get more time to be the visionary.

Are you ready to hire an online business manager?

If this resonates and sounds like you, you likely need an online business manager!

You can visit my services page for more information on the types of services I include in my OBM services and what you can expect from working together. You can also go ahead and apply here so we can chat about your business needs.