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Hiring an Online Business Manager
In this episode of "She's Got This: A Journey to Success," Shelby explores the significance of online business managers for small businesses and entrepreneurs. She outlines eight essential steps to successfully hire the right OBM, starting with understanding their role in managing various business aspects and allowing entrepreneurs to focus on growth.
Step by step, she covers clarifying business needs and goals, defining responsibilities, finding the right candidate, establishing effective communication, onboarding and training, nurturing a productive partnership, and evaluating the OBM's impact. Shelby highlights the benefits of hiring an OBM, including reduced workload, improved work-life balance, and enhanced business success. Following these steps can lead to fruitful collaboration, boosting overall business operations and achievements.
Resources discussed in this episode:
- Notion: notion.so
- Monday: monday.com
- WhatsApp: whatsapp.com
- Slack: slack.com
- ClickUp: clickup.com
- Loom: loom.com
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Contact Shelby Joines | Joines Administration:
- Website: JoinesAdministration.ca
- LinkedIn: Joines Administration
- Instagram: @JoinesAdministration
- Facebook: @JoinesAdministration
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Transcript:
Shelby 0:07
Hey everyone, welcome back to She's Got This: A Journey to Success. On the last episode, we talked about the importance of hiring a real estate-specific virtual assistant to help you with your outsourcing tasks needs, such as the back-end business that eats up the valuable time of real estate agents and agency owners. Now today, we're going to switch it into a little bit of a different gear and talk a little bit about online business managers and how you can use these eight simple steps when it comes to hiring one for your business. So, stay tuned, don't go anywhere. We're about to dive right into this topic.
Shelby 0:55
Today, we're going to be discussing eight steps to successfully hiring an online business manager for your small business or your entrepreneurial journey. Now, an online business manager is a key person who can help support so many important aspects of your business, such as managing and tracking your projects, such as clients and their workloads. Taking care of your team, if you have multiple subcontractors or employees that work alongside you, making sure the communication is smooth, efficient, and everybody is on the right page. As well as helping you with strategies and goal setting, either for yourself personally to deal and work within your business or for your business. Or to help you strategize goals to reach x amount in revenue by the end of the year, specific quarter goals and strategies, ways to build your business and so much more. Truly, an online business manager is an invaluable asset for you to have on your business team. They are life-changing, they will help you in ways that you didn't even know you needed help in. So, we're gonna dive into our first step when it comes to hiring an online business manager. And that is understanding the role that they play within a business or a company or alongside an entrepreneur. So, an online business manager is basically in the corporate world, what you would see as a general business manager. They manage the day-to-day operations of the business, for making sure that either the finances are on track or the team is on track to complete their tasks relating to monthly, weekly, quarterly, yearly goals that you have, financially making sure invoices and things like that are being paid and taken care of. They will help strategize with you on how to get your business to that next level of whichever goal it may be, whether it's revenue, sales numbers, new clients, referrals, hiring, any little aspect that you can get analytics on, they can help you track, project and see where you're going and where you may need to make any sorts of tweaks within your business, to truly get the full value of what you are giving, whether that's a product or service and getting a great return on it. You want to make sure that your clients are happy. And another thing that an online business manager can help you with is tracking those clients, making sure that there are regular follow-ups, checking in with them to make sure that there is nothing outstanding, any revisions that may need to be made, additional tasks that may have popped up since the last meeting, things of that nature. Keeping your clientele happy, and comfortable and feeling like they truly matter to you and your business is insanely important. And an online business manager is able to support you with that. They can also help you with any types of apps or programs to help you stay more organized. So, you're not constantly working in Excel or Google Sheets, or having a hard time getting all of the information from up in your head and as an entrepreneur our heads are full of information, moving bits, they're constantly on the go. We do not stop thinking. But they're able to take that information from you and input it into an amazing customer relations management program. Now whether that is Notion or Monday.com, there are so many countless options that you can choose. And when hiring the right business manager, you can absolutely lean on their skills and expertise and suggestions that they may have because every industry and every business is unique and different. And that is, the best part about being an entrepreneur and a business owner, is no matter how many little shops there may be, that are similar, you are the only one of you. So, they're able to take that clientele, organize it for you, so you can easily track and automate any kind of tasks that may be repetitive, client work, and just overall give you that peace of mind that things are not slipping through the cracks. Now, the benefits of having an online business manager, as I've already discussed before, especially for female entrepreneurs and business owners, is that they are literally there for you to buy back your time. I discussed this in my last episode as well. Buying back your time is such a hot thing to be doing right now. And I am a firm believer in it, that if you are financially in a place where you can afford to start outsourcing tasks, 100% recommend it. You know, if you're a small business owner or entrepreneur, and you are just starting out and starting to build your credibility and your clientele, getting your name out there, getting some invoices paid. Just take these tips into consideration because there's a lot more that we're going to be discussing through this episode that you can take and apply yourself to do within your business in the meantime until you are financially at a point where you can comfortably outsource these tasks to somebody else. And the bonus of that also is, is once you've been working in these tasks for a while, you'll be able to know the step by steps, processes, everything that goes on with what you currently have. So, you'll have a great framework in place to pass that information off to an online business manager. And they can then take that and recreate and build you a better plan for moving forward. So, besides being able to buy back your time, this online business manager can take so many tasks off your plate that again, eat up your valuable time. And we all know that those little tasks and little things that may only take us 10-15 minutes, no big deal, a day, adds up into an hour or two a week, which is time that you could be better spending on building your business and working for your business instead of in your business. I'm sure you've heard that one before as well. So, they are just life-changing. And the benefits that you can get from hiring an online business manager are just countless. For one, you hire them as a subcontractor, thus, not needing any type of an office space, they have their own technology, their own equipment, they may have health benefits in place for themselves, all these little areas that you will be saving on as a business owner. Think of all the money that you may be currently paying for, say an employee you have with your business, the insurance, the benefits, any type of tax implications, all those little things add up. And they may be one-time annual fee, any type of access, you may need to give them as well, things like that. Think of the amount of money that you will be saving on that alone by outsourcing to somebody who specializes in managing and dealing with these tasks that you struggle with and find eat up a good chunk of your time during the week. Having the ability to delegate your tasks out to an online business manager such as managing your projects, and providing you with strategic support is worth its weight in gold, not only to your wallet and your financial situation, but also to your mental health and well-being. Sometimes we don't notice as entrepreneurs and business owners how much of a toll a task is taking on us until we're almost completely engulfed in that one thing. An example of this would be say you don't like dealing with finances or doing your bookkeeping and it has turned into one of those things that you absolutely dread doing. You have a knot in your stomach when you think about it. You just start to sweat, your heartbeats really fast and you just don't do it. You push it off and say you know what, I'm gonna be in a better place tomorrow, next week, the end of the month, and I will push through and just get it all done. Next thing you know, weeks, months have gone by and your books are completely out of sorts. They're out of date. You're having trouble tracking your current expenses that are coming, going out and any kind of revenue that's coming in, and things just aren't adding up.
Shelby 10:00
Take a minute to take a deep breath, if that overwhelmed you with how quickly and anxiously I went through that, but an online business manager will be able to take that and completely erase it from your plate. I cannot stress enough how healthy or healthier you will be mentally, which then leads to physically happier overall by taking these tiny things that you may not love doing or you find unnecessary and you just can't find the time but you know what needs to get done. Outsource amount to an online business manager, truly look into it at the very least on what online business managers in your area or on your continent or anywhere could do for you. Now there are many types of online business managers that specialize in only a handful of things. Some are very general and deal with all aspects of the business and would only like to have one full-time client that they are working with specifically. Other ones like to take little bits and pieces and work with multiple clients at the same time. Honestly, the options are endless. But I can guarantee there will be an online business manager out there that will be the perfect fit for you. And also, you can refer back to my last episode where I talk about some great tips and tricks in regards to hiring a real estate virtual assistant and take and apply some of those things that I mentioned there, and bring it back to when you need to hire an online business manager. Truly, you will thank me and I will be waiting here happily for your things.
Shelby 11:52
So, one of the first steps that you will want to do once you get into the stage where you're like kay, I am officially going to hire an online business manager to support me and my business, you will absolutely want to get clarification on what your business needs are, and what your business goals are as well. Now, this can also be a great combination of your business needs and goals, coupled with your personal needs and goals. You're going to be working very closely with this person in your business, this is your baby that they are going to be supporting you with. They're going to end up being your right-hand person, and almost an exact clone of you when it comes to operating the back end. So, you want to make sure that not only do they align with your business needs and beliefs, goals and values, but also your own. So, take some time, whether it's 10 minutes, an hour, a weekend, and really sit down and jot down, brainstorm, Mind Map, whatever it takes, and whatever works best for your learning ability to really clarify what you need and what your goals are. Are you looking to build your revenue and expand your revenue and exceed what you did in the last year or in the last two quarters, one quarter, whatever it may be, really get clear on how this online business manager can support you and your business. You really want to take the time to assess your current state, where you are currently, where you see yourself going in a year, a quarter, three years, five years, 15 years, up until retirement, whatever it may be. But you need to get clear on these goals in order to really get the true value of who you're interviewing and if they will be a correct fit for you and your business. You want to be sure that you are identifying your pain points in business or any gaps in expertise that you may have in areas that may just overall require additional support. Maybe you are not the best with balancing your bookkeeping or managing your bookkeeping, expense tracking, getting your invoices sent out on time, so you have consistent revenue coming back into your business. This could be a pain point because you just dread doing it. You dread doing it and that dread comes from you having gaps in your expertise. Maybe you, before going into business, had zero idea of anything relating to bookkeeping, you'd never dealt with finance in other jobs. Your own finances were kind of handled by banks or other, you know, institutions or things like that. But you never really had the hands-on experience to competently say, my books are up to date, my books are correct. If I were to get an audit, I'm good to go. So, in those instances, this is a key point on what you could outsource to your OBM. They can take over that. So, it's one less thing that you have stress over and just ends up snowballing into a bigger issue than it absolutely needs to be. But make sure that you're really writing down and clarifying what those pain points are in your business. It doesn't have to be the finance, it could be something as simple as document control. You could just be randomly saving stuff into a main folder, when you do have 15 subfolders, that could be more appropriate places for that document to be filed. It could be you not having the best expertise when it comes to using customer relation management, and you're kind of just throwing stuff all over. And there's no true order to things. And OBM can absolutely bring that all together, organize it to your liking and your needs and what you want to see, most important, least important, however, you want to filter it out. But they can then take that off your hands so you have less to stress about. But making sure that you are clear on those pain points and any gaps in your expertise. Don't feel ashamed to say, I don't know how to do this. And it has led to a struggle when you are in an interview phase with an online business manager. They can take that and explain how they can help you, what tips and tricks they may have, what they'd like to implement and any strategy suggestions that can help you going forward. So, you also after clarifying your business needs and goals, as well as your personal needs and goals, when it comes to hiring an online business manager, you want to be sure that you are defining the scope of work and responsibilities for the role.
Shelby 17:09
So, you will likely want to go into detail again and do some reflection on the step where you will go over and clearly define the scope of work and responsibilities that your online business manager would have within your company. Now, this could be key areas that they would handle such as operation management, team coordination, project management and system implementation. But make sure that you have a good solid understanding of what you want them to do. The clearer the better. Online business managers love lists, they love tasks, they love the organization, and clearly seeing what is being expected of us. When it comes to managing these larger aspects of your business that require a bit more hands-on, a little bit more detail and a bit more strength in core areas, making sure that you're clearly defining those is super important. We do not read minds, I don't know anybody who has the ability to read anybody's mind, especially through a computer of what needs to be done or what they would like to see. So, along with that, make sure that you are also open to having clear, open and transparent communication with your online business manager, once you get to the final hiring stage. That will then tie into the scope of work and responsibilities and make sure that they are on the same page as you and vice versa. You can create a comprehensive job description and establish the real realistic expectations for your OBM by again, reflecting and going back to previous points that we discussed earlier, which would have been clarifying your business needs and your goals. So, what I have found the most success in this area is again taking a day or a couple of hours to really think about what I am expecting this OBM to do and what their responsibilities will be. And tying that into what my job description would be. Now AI and things like ChatGPT, Jasper, any of those programs out there can be really beneficial to you at this point in the hiring stage. To get a general template together on how you would like to see your job description and any job posting or information relating to this role out to the people who would want to apply. I have used ChatGPT multiple times for quick little things that I have needed to post and then gone back in and just specified and tweak certain areas to include the roles and responsibilities, the specific tasks, the duties, any expectations, and of course, an About Me section, about the company, what we believe in what our mission is, what our values are. And just give them a little bit of a warm welcome into the world in which they are applying for. You want to make sure that your applicants are just as comfortable applying to your job as you would be hiring them into the role.
Shelby 20:44
Finding and selecting the right online business manager. So, there are various methods for finding potential online business managers, which include referrals from other clients or businesses that you work closely with or network within, online platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, anything like that. There are many, many groups on Facebook alone that have hiring platforms for virtual assistants and online business managers. Instagram is also a great place, search a hashtag online business manager and key details for a search. And I'm sure you will find multiple profiles where you can kind of look through, get a good idea about who they are, what they do, and possibly invite them to apply to your position or book a meeting to talk to them one on one, whichever floats your boat. But you can also network through your industry. Many business managers in the conventional sense that they work a nine-to-five job in an office downtown or in a actual brick-and-mortar business. Now is a time when a lot of those people are honestly considering taking their skills and expertise and moving them online. So, if you do know people who have been discussing that they've been a manager or business manager, department manager, whatever it may be, at a company for a long time, but they're looking for a change. Those are also great people to get in touch with and talk about the opportunity, and the pain points and the struggles that you're having as a business owner, and how you could possibly team up together in the future or right now to build your businesses together and support one another. And then also at the same time, taking stress and all that extra stuff off your plate as a business owner by having that extra support. So, just like any interview that you do, you are wanting to assess your candidate's qualifications, their experience and their capabilities that match and relate to your business. Now, just because you're going into the interview stage, and you're going to start talking to people, you've probably read portfolios, resumes, any type of application forms that you may have put out in the meantime, and you've scaled it all down to your top three or five, whatever it may be. This is where you get to have an exciting opportunity to be unique and be a bit different from the general stuffy corporate interview stages. This will allow you to have an opportunity to not only ask the general what are your qualifications, tell me about a time when this happened? What work have you done for past clients? How have you supported, what are the results you've gotten for your clients, things like that? But this is also a great opportunity to ask them more character and personality style questions. Now, you may be asking, if you also hadn't heard my last episode, what are you talking about Shelby? What does this mean? This is a great moment for you to actually ask them more questions and build upon who they are as a person, what their likes and interests are, and have them get more comfortable and learn about them on a more organic and personal level. Build that strong relationship now. Because if they do end up being successful, you will hopefully be wanting to work with them for a long period of time going forward. So, you're gonna want to have gonna want to like each other, right? So, getting to know one another, relating stories, having that great communicative conversation where it's not stuffy. It's not stiff, it doesn't feel like an interview. It flows. It's organic. It's fun and exciting. You're laughing. Have an interview, where it is warm and welcome. I can guarantee you that whoever you are interviewing for your positions will thank you for not being so stiff and stuck up and just that general thing. Break the mould a little bit here and have fun in your interviewing, quote-unquote stage. Because truly, that is where the gold is. Hard skills such as how to use programs, how to store this and file that can all be taught. And there are amazing tutorial programs and apps out there that can assist you in making that a quick and easy process for training. But those can be taught, whereas somebody soft skills there, how they work with customers, how they communicate with you, are they friendly? Are they bubbly? Do they make you smile? Or are they always in a mood? Those are key factors that you should be looking into more so than the hard skills when you are hiring, not only for an online business manager but for any position in general. It will make the entire interview feel so much more comfortable and relaxed. And you will both be in a much more warm, comfortable, for lack of a better word, place during the interview process. It doesn't have to be scary and stuck up. Now when you conclude the interview, it is not unusual to ask for references of other people and clients they have worked for in similar roles. Where you can either email, which is the most easiest when it comes to online business management communication like this. Email and check in and see if they can answer a few questions in regards to their previous work or provide you with testimonies. All things like that will help you get the clarity you need in order to properly hire the correct assistant or online business manager for your business.
Shelby 26:53
Another, the fifth tip that we have today is establishing effective communication and systems. So, once you've done the hiring process, you have your unicorn online business manager ready to go, you have to make sure that you establish the effective communications and systems that you are going to use as partners almost going forward. So, establishing clear communication channels and systems with your OBM is crucial to having that open communication and being able to be on the same page. Communication is key and making sure that the standards and policies and procedures in regards to communication are laid out early on in the work journey is crucial. Whether you're communicating through WhatsApp, Slack, Clickup, anything that's out there, those are just a few that I have personally used in my business. But make sure that you're touching base with people. Email is always my personally preferred method of important communication. So, if there is a big update, it's easier for me to track it in my email than it is through a text or message through Slack. But if it's any kind of quick questions or quick communication that needs to get passed back and forth, those are great resources to keep everybody on the same page and in the loop with one another. Now the best practices for setting up regular check-ins utilizing your project management tools and fostering effective collaboration truly depends on your business, and a little bit of personal preferences. For example, I check in with my virtual assistants, weekly. And then one big monthly check-in with everybody all together. This has proven to be super effective. I've got them right at the end of the week. So, we can kind of touch base on what happened the week before, what we have going for the week going forward. And then at the end of the month, just a big monthly review. Honestly, two meetings a month is all I have or not two meetings a month, two main meetings a month, four meetings a month one on ones and one meeting with the entire team and it has been a lifesaver for communications and making sure that we're all on the same page. Things are getting done accordingly to timelines and timeframes or any deadlines that need to be considered. You also want to be sure that you are all utilizing the same tools when it comes to either your work, your client workload, anything like that. So, once you have hired and are working alongside your online business manager, if you don't already have a project management tool in place, work on getting one of those set up as soon as possible. Send out any invites or joins or passwords or whatever it may be, so that you can have access to the same area, you can see what one or the other is doing, keep track, mark, check, cross off whatever is completed what needs more attention. It will save you so much time and having everything in one place where everyone is able to read, write, edit, whatever it may be, makes life so much easier. So, you don't have to be jumping between 20 different apps to find one little tidbit of information. So, that is super important. And that also ties into fostering effective collaboration. If you don't have the proper check-ins, and project management tools and communication channels set up, how can you expect to effectively collaborate with one another and make sure that things are really running on track for you and your business and your clients and nothing is falling through the cracks. Because there is nothing worse than something sliding and finding out about it weeks or months later. No, thank you. The importance of this is also, you want to make sure that you are maintaining an open and transparent communication line through everybody in your team, whether that's just your online business manager and yourself. Or if you have a larger sub-team below that. Make sure that there is the trust is laid out. Boundaries are set. Things are shared with your team members in regards to communication policies and best practices, anything like that. But be open and receptive to your team at all times. Yes, there are limits, I do not expect you to be answering weird type of messages in the middle of the night. Because that may not align with your boundaries. But then again, it might, so make sure that you are just open and receptive to your team that is truly one of the most important things to having a successful working relationship. And making sure that that process is solid will then lead to future endeavours and tasks being solid as well.
Shelby 32:19
Step number six is onboarding and training your online business manager. So, you want to make sure that you're discussing and processing the importance of providing the necessary training and resources to your online business manager. Now if they have been in this role for years or a very long time, they probably know the ropes and have dealt with a good majority of the programs that you are also dealing with. You may come across that there's one or two that they don't specialize in or haven't dabbled too much in and may need a little bit of extra training, whether that's a Loom video just showing them where everything is stored in Notion where they can find certain things in Slack, if they need notes pointed out in Clickup, whatever it may be. But if you tie in that open communication that we discussed in step five, you can bring that over here to step number six. And it will give you a lot of clarity and guidance on any type of training or resources that you may need to provide to your online business manager. Again, this would be something that they would openly express you saying that I don't have this much experience here but I'm willing to learn and are you able to help me with some things, then by all means, please provide training to anyone you are hiring, not even just an online business manager but that little bit of training and that effort that may take a little bit of time to put into creating and prepping things will be worth it in the long run. Not only will they appreciate you for actually taking the time to care about their businesses, so that they can perform at their optimum efficiency. But it will also give you a peace of mind and something that you can possibly template or have them template for you later on down the road, tweak here and there that you can just keep recycling and automating for any future hiring that you may need to do. Providing regular feedback and performance evaluations is crucial as well in any type of position that you are doing in regards to onboarding and training with your online business manager. You want to make sure that they are comfortable with the information that you are providing that they are truly absorbing it, taking it in, understanding everything fully and really getting the full value out of your training. Now not expecting you to do hours and hours and hours of training. But even just some brief documents with notes, step by steps, loom videos, anything like that there's some great new apps and programs out there, that'll help you do step-by-step guides. Anything along those lines will be greatly appreciated, and also offer any suggestions. Or allow your online business manager to offer any suggestions back to you to help you in creating more effective training plans going forward. That’ll allow future employees or the online business manager themselves to quickly adapt and integrate into your business. Now, you may think everything is great, straightforward, it makes sense to you. So, by golly, it must make sense to the entire world. But sometimes when we're in business, we forget that things such as acronyms, and abbreviations can mean multiple things in multiple different industries. So, when you're doing any type of training documentations, or making a training plan that anyone you hire, such as your online business manager, can quickly integrate and use to get to know your business, make sure that everything is well laid out and really go into detail and explain things and avoid if you can, abbreviations and short terminology. This will make everybody's life just a little bit easier and allow the smooth transition of onboarding and starting to get more in-depth with your company.
Shelby 36:27
Now step number seven is nurturing a productive and supportive partnership. Now this kind of ties back into several topics that we've kind of already discussed in this episode, but you want to be open and transparent. You want to be the person that is super supportive of your online business manager, virtual assistant, anybody you may have hired for your business, so that they feel welcomed, and they don't have a fear of coming to talk to you, if anything were to go wrong. Any questions that they may have, issues that may come up about current clients, prospective clients, anything along those lines. Allowing the productive and supportive workspace will allow them to come to you when there is an issue and actually have a conversation with you and not feel ashamed or frustrated and be that person that they can also lean on as much as you are leaning on them. There are so many benefits to providing your OBM with regular feedback, and performance evaluations and just overall recognizing their achievements. Sometimes the job can be something that may be easy to you as the business owner or entrepreneur. But really, it ends up being a daunting task. So, if things are going well, praise your subcontractors, praise your employees, so much positivity. That all goes such a long way in making somebody's day. I am a firm believer in positive feedback while being constructive at times. But you don't have to be a complete jerk about it. You can go in there and be nice. Something I use on a regular basis, if I ever have to give any criticism is a compliment sandwich, where you kind of go in I'm sure you've heard, go in with a compliment, add in the area of improvement or the issue that you may have. And then put another compliment on the bottom. So, you go in giving them positive, you give them something to think about and then you close with another positive remark. Works every time, and I have not had any issues with providing any type of feedback using that structure. But whether you're doing these monthly, quarterly, every 3, 6, or 9 months, make sure that you are truly giving feedback. Whether it's positive, negative, areas of improvement, what they've done well, where they could maybe improve on and just really give the opportunity and start building and continue building the relationship of positivity in the workplace. Which brings us into the next tip that I have for this step seven, which is you want to maintain a healthy work-life balance, and you want to avoid micromanaging your OBM. Now it can be extremely easy. And in the first couple of weeks, maybe a month or two of the onboarding process where you're still getting to know each other's working relationship, how they're producing the work, how you're receiving it, if there's been any revisions, you know, just ironing out the kinks and getting to know one another. It's almost like dating, if I'm being honest with you, but really take the time to foster that relationship. And make sure that you are maintaining a healthy work-life balance, not only for yourself, but for your OBM and making sure you're not micromanaging. Now, like I was saying, in the first weeks or a couple months, it can be super easy to micromanage or feel like you're micromanaging, when in fact, you're only giving tasks, clarifying on certain things. You're more so just providing a lot of information in a very short span of time. There is a difference between micromanagement and onboarding, I guess you could say. So, just make sure that you're really taking that time, giving them all the resources and help they need. But making sure you're checking yourself and even asking your OBM, Hey, I hope you don't feel like I am micromanaging you, if you feel this way, please let me know. I would love to adjust how I'm working with you to better our relationship and get things accomplished at the same time. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Shelby 41:12
Now, our final step, final step people, it's been an amazing episode. And I really hope these last seven steps have helped you in gaining some clarity around hiring a online business manager successfully. But step number eight, here we come, evaluating the success and making adjustments as needed. So, when we talk about evaluating the success of your online business manager, we're talking about how they have produced any content for you or manage any of your projects specifically. Has your revenue increased because of their them joining your team now, what positive success stories have come out of this hire? You want to share your metrics and indicators that will help you to assess the effectiveness of your online business managers' contributions. Now these may be, like I was saying before, your online business manager has managed your team a little bit better, you've taken that off your plate, allowed them to do that. The team as a whole has become 25% more productive. You are sitting at a 98.9% client satisfaction rate, three months after hiring this online business manager. These are the things that you will want to track and be aware of. And if you are lacking in any of these areas where you were expecting or predicting to be at a certain level by a certain amount of time, but you didn't hit that target. Make sure that you are making any necessary adjustments to that and discuss the importance of going over these items with your online business manager. Don't keep them in the dark if things are starting to go south a little bit and then all of a sudden, one day flip out and let them go. We are not here for you to fail. We are here to support and help you succeed and level up. If we're doing something wrong and we don't know about it, how are we supposed to fix it? So, making sure that you are openly discussing these metric evaluations and any type of successes and adjustments that may need to be made. Openly discuss those with your OBM and when it comes to any adjustments that may need to be made such as realigning responsibilities or exploring additional support options, take the time to really sit down, outline yourself, what's going well, what's not going well, where you could improve, and book a 30-minute meeting or have a 45-minute meeting phone call, whatever it may be, but have a conversation one on one with your OBM about these areas, what your concerns are, what your suggestions are on fixing it, how they can implement and any suggestions that they may have back for you. Take this as an opportunity to truly brainstorm and bounce your ideas back and forth so that you can successfully move forward.
Shelby 44:26
And that is it. We have talked about eight steps to successfully hiring an online business manager for your business. That first step was understanding the role of an online business manager, clarifying your business needs and your goals, defining the scope of work and responsibilities, finding and selecting the right candidate, establishing effective communication and systems, onboarding and training as well as nurturing a productive and supportive partnership, and evaluating the success and making any necessary adjustments. I really hope that you found the value and the positive impact that hiring an online business manager can have for you as an entrepreneur, or business owner, no matter what industry or area you work in. Whether it is product-based business, sales-based business, service business, you name it, an online business manager can be an invaluable and irreplaceable asset to your team, and someone who can really help you take your business and scale it up higher than you are. Most of the time entrepreneurs and business owners find that they cap out at a certain level, because they are unable to take on any more work that will then get theM more revenue going. An online business manager can take all that, reorganize it and allow you to build up your foundation further for more success. So, I want you to take a moment and really soak in all the information that was given to you today in this episode. I know it was a lot, feel free to listen to this multiple times. But this is an important key part to any successful business, is having the right support team behind you. And an online missus manager can be just that.
Shelby 46:35
I hope you guys got so much value out of that episode. It was absolutely thrilling for me to share what I've experienced over the last little while, my reflections as a business owner and entrepreneur, and really how the power of storytelling in your business can make a huge impact on client engagement and going above and beyond when it comes to your customer services. Whether you sell products or you’re service-based industry, having a strong backstory on why you are where you are, is the way of the future when it comes to engaging with your customers or clients. Thank you so much for listening. I had a blast, sharing all of this with you on today's episode. If you haven't already, I would appreciate so much if you could subscribe to She's Got This: A Journey to Success, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and Google Podcasts. Subscribe and Like on your favourite or if you're super Keener, Subscribe and Like on all of them. Thank you so much, everyone. Looking forward to our next episode with you. Take care.
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By Shelby JoinesIn this episode of "She's Got This: A Journey to Success," Shelby explores the significance of online business managers for small businesses and entrepreneurs. She outlines eight essential steps to successfully hire the right OBM, starting with understanding their role in managing various business aspects and allowing entrepreneurs to focus on growth.
Step by step, she covers clarifying business needs and goals, defining responsibilities, finding the right candidate, establishing effective communication, onboarding and training, nurturing a productive partnership, and evaluating the OBM's impact. Shelby highlights the benefits of hiring an OBM, including reduced workload, improved work-life balance, and enhanced business success. Following these steps can lead to fruitful collaboration, boosting overall business operations and achievements.
Resources discussed in this episode:
- Notion: notion.so
- Monday: monday.com
- WhatsApp: whatsapp.com
- Slack: slack.com
- ClickUp: clickup.com
- Loom: loom.com
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Contact Shelby Joines | Joines Administration:
- Website: JoinesAdministration.ca
- LinkedIn: Joines Administration
- Instagram: @JoinesAdministration
- Facebook: @JoinesAdministration
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Transcript:
Shelby 0:07
Hey everyone, welcome back to She's Got This: A Journey to Success. On the last episode, we talked about the importance of hiring a real estate-specific virtual assistant to help you with your outsourcing tasks needs, such as the back-end business that eats up the valuable time of real estate agents and agency owners. Now today, we're going to switch it into a little bit of a different gear and talk a little bit about online business managers and how you can use these eight simple steps when it comes to hiring one for your business. So, stay tuned, don't go anywhere. We're about to dive right into this topic.
Shelby 0:55
Today, we're going to be discussing eight steps to successfully hiring an online business manager for your small business or your entrepreneurial journey. Now, an online business manager is a key person who can help support so many important aspects of your business, such as managing and tracking your projects, such as clients and their workloads. Taking care of your team, if you have multiple subcontractors or employees that work alongside you, making sure the communication is smooth, efficient, and everybody is on the right page. As well as helping you with strategies and goal setting, either for yourself personally to deal and work within your business or for your business. Or to help you strategize goals to reach x amount in revenue by the end of the year, specific quarter goals and strategies, ways to build your business and so much more. Truly, an online business manager is an invaluable asset for you to have on your business team. They are life-changing, they will help you in ways that you didn't even know you needed help in. So, we're gonna dive into our first step when it comes to hiring an online business manager. And that is understanding the role that they play within a business or a company or alongside an entrepreneur. So, an online business manager is basically in the corporate world, what you would see as a general business manager. They manage the day-to-day operations of the business, for making sure that either the finances are on track or the team is on track to complete their tasks relating to monthly, weekly, quarterly, yearly goals that you have, financially making sure invoices and things like that are being paid and taken care of. They will help strategize with you on how to get your business to that next level of whichever goal it may be, whether it's revenue, sales numbers, new clients, referrals, hiring, any little aspect that you can get analytics on, they can help you track, project and see where you're going and where you may need to make any sorts of tweaks within your business, to truly get the full value of what you are giving, whether that's a product or service and getting a great return on it. You want to make sure that your clients are happy. And another thing that an online business manager can help you with is tracking those clients, making sure that there are regular follow-ups, checking in with them to make sure that there is nothing outstanding, any revisions that may need to be made, additional tasks that may have popped up since the last meeting, things of that nature. Keeping your clientele happy, and comfortable and feeling like they truly matter to you and your business is insanely important. And an online business manager is able to support you with that. They can also help you with any types of apps or programs to help you stay more organized. So, you're not constantly working in Excel or Google Sheets, or having a hard time getting all of the information from up in your head and as an entrepreneur our heads are full of information, moving bits, they're constantly on the go. We do not stop thinking. But they're able to take that information from you and input it into an amazing customer relations management program. Now whether that is Notion or Monday.com, there are so many countless options that you can choose. And when hiring the right business manager, you can absolutely lean on their skills and expertise and suggestions that they may have because every industry and every business is unique and different. And that is, the best part about being an entrepreneur and a business owner, is no matter how many little shops there may be, that are similar, you are the only one of you. So, they're able to take that clientele, organize it for you, so you can easily track and automate any kind of tasks that may be repetitive, client work, and just overall give you that peace of mind that things are not slipping through the cracks. Now, the benefits of having an online business manager, as I've already discussed before, especially for female entrepreneurs and business owners, is that they are literally there for you to buy back your time. I discussed this in my last episode as well. Buying back your time is such a hot thing to be doing right now. And I am a firm believer in it, that if you are financially in a place where you can afford to start outsourcing tasks, 100% recommend it. You know, if you're a small business owner or entrepreneur, and you are just starting out and starting to build your credibility and your clientele, getting your name out there, getting some invoices paid. Just take these tips into consideration because there's a lot more that we're going to be discussing through this episode that you can take and apply yourself to do within your business in the meantime until you are financially at a point where you can comfortably outsource these tasks to somebody else. And the bonus of that also is, is once you've been working in these tasks for a while, you'll be able to know the step by steps, processes, everything that goes on with what you currently have. So, you'll have a great framework in place to pass that information off to an online business manager. And they can then take that and recreate and build you a better plan for moving forward. So, besides being able to buy back your time, this online business manager can take so many tasks off your plate that again, eat up your valuable time. And we all know that those little tasks and little things that may only take us 10-15 minutes, no big deal, a day, adds up into an hour or two a week, which is time that you could be better spending on building your business and working for your business instead of in your business. I'm sure you've heard that one before as well. So, they are just life-changing. And the benefits that you can get from hiring an online business manager are just countless. For one, you hire them as a subcontractor, thus, not needing any type of an office space, they have their own technology, their own equipment, they may have health benefits in place for themselves, all these little areas that you will be saving on as a business owner. Think of all the money that you may be currently paying for, say an employee you have with your business, the insurance, the benefits, any type of tax implications, all those little things add up. And they may be one-time annual fee, any type of access, you may need to give them as well, things like that. Think of the amount of money that you will be saving on that alone by outsourcing to somebody who specializes in managing and dealing with these tasks that you struggle with and find eat up a good chunk of your time during the week. Having the ability to delegate your tasks out to an online business manager such as managing your projects, and providing you with strategic support is worth its weight in gold, not only to your wallet and your financial situation, but also to your mental health and well-being. Sometimes we don't notice as entrepreneurs and business owners how much of a toll a task is taking on us until we're almost completely engulfed in that one thing. An example of this would be say you don't like dealing with finances or doing your bookkeeping and it has turned into one of those things that you absolutely dread doing. You have a knot in your stomach when you think about it. You just start to sweat, your heartbeats really fast and you just don't do it. You push it off and say you know what, I'm gonna be in a better place tomorrow, next week, the end of the month, and I will push through and just get it all done. Next thing you know, weeks, months have gone by and your books are completely out of sorts. They're out of date. You're having trouble tracking your current expenses that are coming, going out and any kind of revenue that's coming in, and things just aren't adding up.
Shelby 10:00
Take a minute to take a deep breath, if that overwhelmed you with how quickly and anxiously I went through that, but an online business manager will be able to take that and completely erase it from your plate. I cannot stress enough how healthy or healthier you will be mentally, which then leads to physically happier overall by taking these tiny things that you may not love doing or you find unnecessary and you just can't find the time but you know what needs to get done. Outsource amount to an online business manager, truly look into it at the very least on what online business managers in your area or on your continent or anywhere could do for you. Now there are many types of online business managers that specialize in only a handful of things. Some are very general and deal with all aspects of the business and would only like to have one full-time client that they are working with specifically. Other ones like to take little bits and pieces and work with multiple clients at the same time. Honestly, the options are endless. But I can guarantee there will be an online business manager out there that will be the perfect fit for you. And also, you can refer back to my last episode where I talk about some great tips and tricks in regards to hiring a real estate virtual assistant and take and apply some of those things that I mentioned there, and bring it back to when you need to hire an online business manager. Truly, you will thank me and I will be waiting here happily for your things.
Shelby 11:52
So, one of the first steps that you will want to do once you get into the stage where you're like kay, I am officially going to hire an online business manager to support me and my business, you will absolutely want to get clarification on what your business needs are, and what your business goals are as well. Now, this can also be a great combination of your business needs and goals, coupled with your personal needs and goals. You're going to be working very closely with this person in your business, this is your baby that they are going to be supporting you with. They're going to end up being your right-hand person, and almost an exact clone of you when it comes to operating the back end. So, you want to make sure that not only do they align with your business needs and beliefs, goals and values, but also your own. So, take some time, whether it's 10 minutes, an hour, a weekend, and really sit down and jot down, brainstorm, Mind Map, whatever it takes, and whatever works best for your learning ability to really clarify what you need and what your goals are. Are you looking to build your revenue and expand your revenue and exceed what you did in the last year or in the last two quarters, one quarter, whatever it may be, really get clear on how this online business manager can support you and your business. You really want to take the time to assess your current state, where you are currently, where you see yourself going in a year, a quarter, three years, five years, 15 years, up until retirement, whatever it may be. But you need to get clear on these goals in order to really get the true value of who you're interviewing and if they will be a correct fit for you and your business. You want to be sure that you are identifying your pain points in business or any gaps in expertise that you may have in areas that may just overall require additional support. Maybe you are not the best with balancing your bookkeeping or managing your bookkeeping, expense tracking, getting your invoices sent out on time, so you have consistent revenue coming back into your business. This could be a pain point because you just dread doing it. You dread doing it and that dread comes from you having gaps in your expertise. Maybe you, before going into business, had zero idea of anything relating to bookkeeping, you'd never dealt with finance in other jobs. Your own finances were kind of handled by banks or other, you know, institutions or things like that. But you never really had the hands-on experience to competently say, my books are up to date, my books are correct. If I were to get an audit, I'm good to go. So, in those instances, this is a key point on what you could outsource to your OBM. They can take over that. So, it's one less thing that you have stress over and just ends up snowballing into a bigger issue than it absolutely needs to be. But make sure that you're really writing down and clarifying what those pain points are in your business. It doesn't have to be the finance, it could be something as simple as document control. You could just be randomly saving stuff into a main folder, when you do have 15 subfolders, that could be more appropriate places for that document to be filed. It could be you not having the best expertise when it comes to using customer relation management, and you're kind of just throwing stuff all over. And there's no true order to things. And OBM can absolutely bring that all together, organize it to your liking and your needs and what you want to see, most important, least important, however, you want to filter it out. But they can then take that off your hands so you have less to stress about. But making sure that you are clear on those pain points and any gaps in your expertise. Don't feel ashamed to say, I don't know how to do this. And it has led to a struggle when you are in an interview phase with an online business manager. They can take that and explain how they can help you, what tips and tricks they may have, what they'd like to implement and any strategy suggestions that can help you going forward. So, you also after clarifying your business needs and goals, as well as your personal needs and goals, when it comes to hiring an online business manager, you want to be sure that you are defining the scope of work and responsibilities for the role.
Shelby 17:09
So, you will likely want to go into detail again and do some reflection on the step where you will go over and clearly define the scope of work and responsibilities that your online business manager would have within your company. Now, this could be key areas that they would handle such as operation management, team coordination, project management and system implementation. But make sure that you have a good solid understanding of what you want them to do. The clearer the better. Online business managers love lists, they love tasks, they love the organization, and clearly seeing what is being expected of us. When it comes to managing these larger aspects of your business that require a bit more hands-on, a little bit more detail and a bit more strength in core areas, making sure that you're clearly defining those is super important. We do not read minds, I don't know anybody who has the ability to read anybody's mind, especially through a computer of what needs to be done or what they would like to see. So, along with that, make sure that you are also open to having clear, open and transparent communication with your online business manager, once you get to the final hiring stage. That will then tie into the scope of work and responsibilities and make sure that they are on the same page as you and vice versa. You can create a comprehensive job description and establish the real realistic expectations for your OBM by again, reflecting and going back to previous points that we discussed earlier, which would have been clarifying your business needs and your goals. So, what I have found the most success in this area is again taking a day or a couple of hours to really think about what I am expecting this OBM to do and what their responsibilities will be. And tying that into what my job description would be. Now AI and things like ChatGPT, Jasper, any of those programs out there can be really beneficial to you at this point in the hiring stage. To get a general template together on how you would like to see your job description and any job posting or information relating to this role out to the people who would want to apply. I have used ChatGPT multiple times for quick little things that I have needed to post and then gone back in and just specified and tweak certain areas to include the roles and responsibilities, the specific tasks, the duties, any expectations, and of course, an About Me section, about the company, what we believe in what our mission is, what our values are. And just give them a little bit of a warm welcome into the world in which they are applying for. You want to make sure that your applicants are just as comfortable applying to your job as you would be hiring them into the role.
Shelby 20:44
Finding and selecting the right online business manager. So, there are various methods for finding potential online business managers, which include referrals from other clients or businesses that you work closely with or network within, online platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, anything like that. There are many, many groups on Facebook alone that have hiring platforms for virtual assistants and online business managers. Instagram is also a great place, search a hashtag online business manager and key details for a search. And I'm sure you will find multiple profiles where you can kind of look through, get a good idea about who they are, what they do, and possibly invite them to apply to your position or book a meeting to talk to them one on one, whichever floats your boat. But you can also network through your industry. Many business managers in the conventional sense that they work a nine-to-five job in an office downtown or in a actual brick-and-mortar business. Now is a time when a lot of those people are honestly considering taking their skills and expertise and moving them online. So, if you do know people who have been discussing that they've been a manager or business manager, department manager, whatever it may be, at a company for a long time, but they're looking for a change. Those are also great people to get in touch with and talk about the opportunity, and the pain points and the struggles that you're having as a business owner, and how you could possibly team up together in the future or right now to build your businesses together and support one another. And then also at the same time, taking stress and all that extra stuff off your plate as a business owner by having that extra support. So, just like any interview that you do, you are wanting to assess your candidate's qualifications, their experience and their capabilities that match and relate to your business. Now, just because you're going into the interview stage, and you're going to start talking to people, you've probably read portfolios, resumes, any type of application forms that you may have put out in the meantime, and you've scaled it all down to your top three or five, whatever it may be. This is where you get to have an exciting opportunity to be unique and be a bit different from the general stuffy corporate interview stages. This will allow you to have an opportunity to not only ask the general what are your qualifications, tell me about a time when this happened? What work have you done for past clients? How have you supported, what are the results you've gotten for your clients, things like that? But this is also a great opportunity to ask them more character and personality style questions. Now, you may be asking, if you also hadn't heard my last episode, what are you talking about Shelby? What does this mean? This is a great moment for you to actually ask them more questions and build upon who they are as a person, what their likes and interests are, and have them get more comfortable and learn about them on a more organic and personal level. Build that strong relationship now. Because if they do end up being successful, you will hopefully be wanting to work with them for a long period of time going forward. So, you're gonna want to have gonna want to like each other, right? So, getting to know one another, relating stories, having that great communicative conversation where it's not stuffy. It's not stiff, it doesn't feel like an interview. It flows. It's organic. It's fun and exciting. You're laughing. Have an interview, where it is warm and welcome. I can guarantee you that whoever you are interviewing for your positions will thank you for not being so stiff and stuck up and just that general thing. Break the mould a little bit here and have fun in your interviewing, quote-unquote stage. Because truly, that is where the gold is. Hard skills such as how to use programs, how to store this and file that can all be taught. And there are amazing tutorial programs and apps out there that can assist you in making that a quick and easy process for training. But those can be taught, whereas somebody soft skills there, how they work with customers, how they communicate with you, are they friendly? Are they bubbly? Do they make you smile? Or are they always in a mood? Those are key factors that you should be looking into more so than the hard skills when you are hiring, not only for an online business manager but for any position in general. It will make the entire interview feel so much more comfortable and relaxed. And you will both be in a much more warm, comfortable, for lack of a better word, place during the interview process. It doesn't have to be scary and stuck up. Now when you conclude the interview, it is not unusual to ask for references of other people and clients they have worked for in similar roles. Where you can either email, which is the most easiest when it comes to online business management communication like this. Email and check in and see if they can answer a few questions in regards to their previous work or provide you with testimonies. All things like that will help you get the clarity you need in order to properly hire the correct assistant or online business manager for your business.
Shelby 26:53
Another, the fifth tip that we have today is establishing effective communication and systems. So, once you've done the hiring process, you have your unicorn online business manager ready to go, you have to make sure that you establish the effective communications and systems that you are going to use as partners almost going forward. So, establishing clear communication channels and systems with your OBM is crucial to having that open communication and being able to be on the same page. Communication is key and making sure that the standards and policies and procedures in regards to communication are laid out early on in the work journey is crucial. Whether you're communicating through WhatsApp, Slack, Clickup, anything that's out there, those are just a few that I have personally used in my business. But make sure that you're touching base with people. Email is always my personally preferred method of important communication. So, if there is a big update, it's easier for me to track it in my email than it is through a text or message through Slack. But if it's any kind of quick questions or quick communication that needs to get passed back and forth, those are great resources to keep everybody on the same page and in the loop with one another. Now the best practices for setting up regular check-ins utilizing your project management tools and fostering effective collaboration truly depends on your business, and a little bit of personal preferences. For example, I check in with my virtual assistants, weekly. And then one big monthly check-in with everybody all together. This has proven to be super effective. I've got them right at the end of the week. So, we can kind of touch base on what happened the week before, what we have going for the week going forward. And then at the end of the month, just a big monthly review. Honestly, two meetings a month is all I have or not two meetings a month, two main meetings a month, four meetings a month one on ones and one meeting with the entire team and it has been a lifesaver for communications and making sure that we're all on the same page. Things are getting done accordingly to timelines and timeframes or any deadlines that need to be considered. You also want to be sure that you are all utilizing the same tools when it comes to either your work, your client workload, anything like that. So, once you have hired and are working alongside your online business manager, if you don't already have a project management tool in place, work on getting one of those set up as soon as possible. Send out any invites or joins or passwords or whatever it may be, so that you can have access to the same area, you can see what one or the other is doing, keep track, mark, check, cross off whatever is completed what needs more attention. It will save you so much time and having everything in one place where everyone is able to read, write, edit, whatever it may be, makes life so much easier. So, you don't have to be jumping between 20 different apps to find one little tidbit of information. So, that is super important. And that also ties into fostering effective collaboration. If you don't have the proper check-ins, and project management tools and communication channels set up, how can you expect to effectively collaborate with one another and make sure that things are really running on track for you and your business and your clients and nothing is falling through the cracks. Because there is nothing worse than something sliding and finding out about it weeks or months later. No, thank you. The importance of this is also, you want to make sure that you are maintaining an open and transparent communication line through everybody in your team, whether that's just your online business manager and yourself. Or if you have a larger sub-team below that. Make sure that there is the trust is laid out. Boundaries are set. Things are shared with your team members in regards to communication policies and best practices, anything like that. But be open and receptive to your team at all times. Yes, there are limits, I do not expect you to be answering weird type of messages in the middle of the night. Because that may not align with your boundaries. But then again, it might, so make sure that you are just open and receptive to your team that is truly one of the most important things to having a successful working relationship. And making sure that that process is solid will then lead to future endeavours and tasks being solid as well.
Shelby 32:19
Step number six is onboarding and training your online business manager. So, you want to make sure that you're discussing and processing the importance of providing the necessary training and resources to your online business manager. Now if they have been in this role for years or a very long time, they probably know the ropes and have dealt with a good majority of the programs that you are also dealing with. You may come across that there's one or two that they don't specialize in or haven't dabbled too much in and may need a little bit of extra training, whether that's a Loom video just showing them where everything is stored in Notion where they can find certain things in Slack, if they need notes pointed out in Clickup, whatever it may be. But if you tie in that open communication that we discussed in step five, you can bring that over here to step number six. And it will give you a lot of clarity and guidance on any type of training or resources that you may need to provide to your online business manager. Again, this would be something that they would openly express you saying that I don't have this much experience here but I'm willing to learn and are you able to help me with some things, then by all means, please provide training to anyone you are hiring, not even just an online business manager but that little bit of training and that effort that may take a little bit of time to put into creating and prepping things will be worth it in the long run. Not only will they appreciate you for actually taking the time to care about their businesses, so that they can perform at their optimum efficiency. But it will also give you a peace of mind and something that you can possibly template or have them template for you later on down the road, tweak here and there that you can just keep recycling and automating for any future hiring that you may need to do. Providing regular feedback and performance evaluations is crucial as well in any type of position that you are doing in regards to onboarding and training with your online business manager. You want to make sure that they are comfortable with the information that you are providing that they are truly absorbing it, taking it in, understanding everything fully and really getting the full value out of your training. Now not expecting you to do hours and hours and hours of training. But even just some brief documents with notes, step by steps, loom videos, anything like that there's some great new apps and programs out there, that'll help you do step-by-step guides. Anything along those lines will be greatly appreciated, and also offer any suggestions. Or allow your online business manager to offer any suggestions back to you to help you in creating more effective training plans going forward. That’ll allow future employees or the online business manager themselves to quickly adapt and integrate into your business. Now, you may think everything is great, straightforward, it makes sense to you. So, by golly, it must make sense to the entire world. But sometimes when we're in business, we forget that things such as acronyms, and abbreviations can mean multiple things in multiple different industries. So, when you're doing any type of training documentations, or making a training plan that anyone you hire, such as your online business manager, can quickly integrate and use to get to know your business, make sure that everything is well laid out and really go into detail and explain things and avoid if you can, abbreviations and short terminology. This will make everybody's life just a little bit easier and allow the smooth transition of onboarding and starting to get more in-depth with your company.
Shelby 36:27
Now step number seven is nurturing a productive and supportive partnership. Now this kind of ties back into several topics that we've kind of already discussed in this episode, but you want to be open and transparent. You want to be the person that is super supportive of your online business manager, virtual assistant, anybody you may have hired for your business, so that they feel welcomed, and they don't have a fear of coming to talk to you, if anything were to go wrong. Any questions that they may have, issues that may come up about current clients, prospective clients, anything along those lines. Allowing the productive and supportive workspace will allow them to come to you when there is an issue and actually have a conversation with you and not feel ashamed or frustrated and be that person that they can also lean on as much as you are leaning on them. There are so many benefits to providing your OBM with regular feedback, and performance evaluations and just overall recognizing their achievements. Sometimes the job can be something that may be easy to you as the business owner or entrepreneur. But really, it ends up being a daunting task. So, if things are going well, praise your subcontractors, praise your employees, so much positivity. That all goes such a long way in making somebody's day. I am a firm believer in positive feedback while being constructive at times. But you don't have to be a complete jerk about it. You can go in there and be nice. Something I use on a regular basis, if I ever have to give any criticism is a compliment sandwich, where you kind of go in I'm sure you've heard, go in with a compliment, add in the area of improvement or the issue that you may have. And then put another compliment on the bottom. So, you go in giving them positive, you give them something to think about and then you close with another positive remark. Works every time, and I have not had any issues with providing any type of feedback using that structure. But whether you're doing these monthly, quarterly, every 3, 6, or 9 months, make sure that you are truly giving feedback. Whether it's positive, negative, areas of improvement, what they've done well, where they could maybe improve on and just really give the opportunity and start building and continue building the relationship of positivity in the workplace. Which brings us into the next tip that I have for this step seven, which is you want to maintain a healthy work-life balance, and you want to avoid micromanaging your OBM. Now it can be extremely easy. And in the first couple of weeks, maybe a month or two of the onboarding process where you're still getting to know each other's working relationship, how they're producing the work, how you're receiving it, if there's been any revisions, you know, just ironing out the kinks and getting to know one another. It's almost like dating, if I'm being honest with you, but really take the time to foster that relationship. And make sure that you are maintaining a healthy work-life balance, not only for yourself, but for your OBM and making sure you're not micromanaging. Now, like I was saying, in the first weeks or a couple months, it can be super easy to micromanage or feel like you're micromanaging, when in fact, you're only giving tasks, clarifying on certain things. You're more so just providing a lot of information in a very short span of time. There is a difference between micromanagement and onboarding, I guess you could say. So, just make sure that you're really taking that time, giving them all the resources and help they need. But making sure you're checking yourself and even asking your OBM, Hey, I hope you don't feel like I am micromanaging you, if you feel this way, please let me know. I would love to adjust how I'm working with you to better our relationship and get things accomplished at the same time. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Shelby 41:12
Now, our final step, final step people, it's been an amazing episode. And I really hope these last seven steps have helped you in gaining some clarity around hiring a online business manager successfully. But step number eight, here we come, evaluating the success and making adjustments as needed. So, when we talk about evaluating the success of your online business manager, we're talking about how they have produced any content for you or manage any of your projects specifically. Has your revenue increased because of their them joining your team now, what positive success stories have come out of this hire? You want to share your metrics and indicators that will help you to assess the effectiveness of your online business managers' contributions. Now these may be, like I was saying before, your online business manager has managed your team a little bit better, you've taken that off your plate, allowed them to do that. The team as a whole has become 25% more productive. You are sitting at a 98.9% client satisfaction rate, three months after hiring this online business manager. These are the things that you will want to track and be aware of. And if you are lacking in any of these areas where you were expecting or predicting to be at a certain level by a certain amount of time, but you didn't hit that target. Make sure that you are making any necessary adjustments to that and discuss the importance of going over these items with your online business manager. Don't keep them in the dark if things are starting to go south a little bit and then all of a sudden, one day flip out and let them go. We are not here for you to fail. We are here to support and help you succeed and level up. If we're doing something wrong and we don't know about it, how are we supposed to fix it? So, making sure that you are openly discussing these metric evaluations and any type of successes and adjustments that may need to be made. Openly discuss those with your OBM and when it comes to any adjustments that may need to be made such as realigning responsibilities or exploring additional support options, take the time to really sit down, outline yourself, what's going well, what's not going well, where you could improve, and book a 30-minute meeting or have a 45-minute meeting phone call, whatever it may be, but have a conversation one on one with your OBM about these areas, what your concerns are, what your suggestions are on fixing it, how they can implement and any suggestions that they may have back for you. Take this as an opportunity to truly brainstorm and bounce your ideas back and forth so that you can successfully move forward.
Shelby 44:26
And that is it. We have talked about eight steps to successfully hiring an online business manager for your business. That first step was understanding the role of an online business manager, clarifying your business needs and your goals, defining the scope of work and responsibilities, finding and selecting the right candidate, establishing effective communication and systems, onboarding and training as well as nurturing a productive and supportive partnership, and evaluating the success and making any necessary adjustments. I really hope that you found the value and the positive impact that hiring an online business manager can have for you as an entrepreneur, or business owner, no matter what industry or area you work in. Whether it is product-based business, sales-based business, service business, you name it, an online business manager can be an invaluable and irreplaceable asset to your team, and someone who can really help you take your business and scale it up higher than you are. Most of the time entrepreneurs and business owners find that they cap out at a certain level, because they are unable to take on any more work that will then get theM more revenue going. An online business manager can take all that, reorganize it and allow you to build up your foundation further for more success. So, I want you to take a moment and really soak in all the information that was given to you today in this episode. I know it was a lot, feel free to listen to this multiple times. But this is an important key part to any successful business, is having the right support team behind you. And an online missus manager can be just that.
Shelby 46:35
I hope you guys got so much value out of that episode. It was absolutely thrilling for me to share what I've experienced over the last little while, my reflections as a business owner and entrepreneur, and really how the power of storytelling in your business can make a huge impact on client engagement and going above and beyond when it comes to your customer services. Whether you sell products or you’re service-based industry, having a strong backstory on why you are where you are, is the way of the future when it comes to engaging with your customers or clients. Thank you so much for listening. I had a blast, sharing all of this with you on today's episode. If you haven't already, I would appreciate so much if you could subscribe to She's Got This: A Journey to Success, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and Google Podcasts. Subscribe and Like on your favourite or if you're super Keener, Subscribe and Like on all of them. Thank you so much, everyone. Looking forward to our next episode with you. Take care.