As I worked on building my virtual assistant practice, I realized early on that I didn”t particularly enjoy many of the typical “administrative” tasks that other VA”s were offering — travel arrangements, making phone calls and appointments, keeping their client”s calendar, doing mailings, and bookkeeping.
What I always seemed to gravitate towards was anything to do with Ezine publishing, website maintenance, helping to create and format digital products, setting up eCourses and tele-classes, submitting articles for online publication, and brainstorming with my clients on how to drive more traffic to their websites in order to build their online businesses.
It took a while to realize that I was becoming much more than just a virtual assistant. I was becoming an online business manager. So if you”re someone who works with a virtual assistant, or if you”re a virtual assistant who would like to learn more about how to help your clients build their online businesses, here are some tips to help you get started.
1. View your OBM (online business manager) as a business partner. If you treat your OBM as an employee, just delegating tasks and not sharing information about your business, you won”t receive the full value from the relationship…you might as well hire a part-time employee.
Your OBM is a powerful resource for your business and will bring a wealth of ideas to the table that you might not have thought about or have no experience with. Take the time to brainstorm so you can create new ideas together and then lay out a plan to make things happen.
2. Share your short-term and long-term goals with your OBM. If s/he knows your goals it”s much easier to come up with strategies and ideas that will help your online business move forward.
I had a potential client who called to ask if I could do website maintenance for her. I started asking questions about her business and discovered that there was a lot more that I could help her with besides website maintenance! By the time we were done talking she was so amazed at the ideas I had generated for her business, she couldn”t wait to get started! She”s often commented that it would have taken her 2 years to get to the point we”re at now if she”d kept doing it all herself — and that was after only 2 months of working together!
3. Be open to new ideas. Your online business manager might present you with a whole new set of ideas or a new strategy that you might be hesitant to consider. But remember, her job is to be an expert idea generator and brainstormer. Don”t be afraid to say no if the idea doesn”t resonate with you, but don”t be too quick to say no either. Give her a chance to share her ideas and then think about the possibilities and discuss the options.
4. Let your OBM set up systems to automate your online business. S/he should have the experience to help you set up your shopping cart, merchant account, autoresponders, electronic newsletters, and affiliate programs. S/he probably isn”t a website designer, but should be able to help with basic website maintenance. That being said, no one can possibly know how to do it all, but your OBM should have the resources that she needs to get it all done.
5. Have your OBM help you get more exposure for your online business. Some of the things s/he should be able to help you with are: submit articles and press releases; publish your newsletter; optimize your website and refresh it with new content and articles; research potential partners for cross-promotional purposes; research organizations and make inquiries about speaking opportunities; create collateral materials; create a press kit; help with creating and formatting special reports, eCourses and other materials to sell or give away on your website; help with creating a new tele-class or training program and then promote it on your website.
Be prepared to pay a little more for your OBM than a typical administrative or virtual assistant. S/he”s highly specialized and has skills, expertise, and resources that the typical VA probably doesn”t have. And remember that your online business manager has a vested interest in your success, so see what you can create together!
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