As your business grows and you start to feel overwhelmed, you may wonder when to hire an Online Business Manager. Some business owners try to hire an OBM too soon. Then there are others who wait too long.
Neither of these scenarios are ideal. If you try to hire an OBM too soon, your OBM will most likely end up doing a lot of implementing. This is not the best use of their skills. If you wait too long to hire an OBM, your business may be very disorganized and team members frustrated. There definitely is a sweet moment in which to hire an OBM.
For this reason, it’s always good to be thinking ahead to the time when you will need an OBM to help you manage your operations and team. Here are five signs that it is time to hire an OBM to help you manage your business. If you aren’t already to this point in your business, watch for these signs in the future.
Managing Your Team Is Consuming Your Time
Your team is great! They do what you ask. They get things to you on time. Everyone gets along. What more could a business owner ask for?
How about time? Time to create that next product or content.
Having a team is vital to scaling your business. After all, you can’t do everything on your own and still have your business grow. This is something you realized a long time ago. Now you’ve found that you are spend the majority of your time managing everyone on your team and making sure they have the information and assets to do their job well.
Which leaves you very little to no time at all to create new content for your customers and clients.
You’re Spending Too Much Time Managing The Operations
In addition to managing your team, you also find that you are the one who makes everything behind the scenes happen.
The You Tube video you just filmed needs to be edited and you are the one who sends it off.
You have team members that help with the creation and scheduling of the social media, but you have to make sure it gets done.
Most of the client onboarding tasks fall to you.
You are collecting the metrics each month and then analyzing what those numbers say.
All of these things take time. And sure, you have a team that helps you with each of the processes. But overseeing everything to make sure it’s getting done takes time away from you being able to do what you love in your business.
You Need Automation
Automation in your business is great! As long as you are using it.
It’s hard to keep up with technology. What once used to be a manual task can now be automated so it gets done without you thinking about it.
But figuring out those new automations and setting them up takes time. Time that you don’t have. But if things were more automated in your business, you would have more time to stay in your zone of genius and your team members would have more time to complete their tasks.
Tracking Metrics? What’s That?
It’s important to track metrics in your business so you can determine what’s working and what’s not working.
If you aren’t tracking metrics, everything you do is just a stab in the dark. Metrics can open up your eyes to the things that need improved in your business. Once you can see that the business isn’t doing well in an area, you can change what you are currently doing to see if it produces better results.
The idea of tracking metrics sounds great, and you know the importance of doing it. Again, though, it comes down to a matter of time. You don’t have time to figure out what you need to track and then to actually gather the information.
Processes Are Not Documented
Things are running smoothly in your business. However, if someone gets sick or has to leave for an extended period of time, no one knows how to complete their tasks. This brings the business to a standstill.
It’s important to document processes in a standard operating procedure, which is more commonly known as an SOP. You know this, but you are already working a lot of hours. This task seems like it can wait because there are more pressing tasks to complete. You just don’t have the time to do one more thing, so you keep your fingers crossed and hope no one gets sick.
When To Hire An OBM
If you can relate to any of the above scenarios, it may be time to start talking to an OBM. OBMs partner with you in business to help you manage your team and operations, set up automations, track your metrics, and write SOPs. There’s also a lot of other tasks an OBM can do to help you gain more time your day so you can focus on business growing activities.
So how do you know when to hire an Online Business Manager? When you realize the benefits of partnering with another leader in your business would help propel you to that next level of business.
P.S. There’s also a time when it’s too early to hire an OBM. If you don’t have processes in place or a team, you aren’t ready to hire an OBM. You need an established business to benefit from having an OBM on your team. If you are not sure you are ready for an OBM, set up a time to chat with me by filling out my website contact form.