We all know the importance of hiring a team, I know I don’t need to go down that old road again with you (we can’t do it all on our own, and who would want to, etc…).
The thing is, even though most of us know we need a team to support the growth of our businesses, many of us get stuck knowing who the heck we need to hire in the first place!
I’m a firm believer that all business owners need at least two people on their team:
- A Strategist – be it a coach or a mentor, you need someone to help you with the big picture decisions in your business around what you are creating, where you are headed and specific strategies to do so.
- An Implementor – someone who can actually do stuff for you, help turn those strategies into revenue streams.
Now what that looks like and who those team members actually are will vary depending on what stage you are at in your business. I won’t dive into hiring a coach/mentor here right now, other than to say we all need one! However, I do want to give you some specifics re: who you need on the implementation side of things – in particular when it comes to hiring an Online Business Manager.
There are three basic stages that business owners go through:
Stage 1 – Exploration
This is the “figuring things out stage” of business – where we define exactly who we are serving and what we are offering them. Who you need to hire at this stage is usually someone to help with specific projects – setting up your website/shopping cart, general administration and such. This could be a Virtual Assistant or other kind of specialist such as a web designer, etc.
If you are in this stage of your business you want to make sure you have a strategist (coach or mentor) – someone to help you work through all these big picture decisions. It is usually too premature to look at hiring an Online Business Manager yet. As I like to say, if you want to hire an OBM you need to have a business for them to manage – which leads us to the next stage…
Stage 2 – Foundation & Growth
You have a clearly defined business model, know who you are serving and what you are offering. You have steady, proven income streams as a foundation for the business and now it’s time to focus on growth.
This is a GREAT time to bring an Online Business Manager onboard – so they can manage all the day-to-day stuff that will otherwise bog you down (and prevent you from truly focusing on growth activities – as Sandra shared in her comment above!).
Stage 3 – Flow
The business is growing by leaps and bounds, systems are in place, revenue is flowing in and everything is “set.” At this stage some business owners may actually want to actually pull themselves out of the business and maybe focus on new projects/businesses (or take some time off!).
An OBM is still a key player at this stage, and some businesses will want to consider hiring full-time dedicated employees for their business. Not all businesses will go this route, but we are starting to see this happen on a more regular basis in this virtual online world.
So let me ask you – what stage of business are you at?
This is just the start of helping to define who you need on your team – there are of course other factors that we’ll be sharing in future articles.
If you are chomping at the bit to get this figured out for you and your business I am now offering personal 1-1 Hiring Assessments. Let me dive into the specifics of your biz and tell you exactly who you need to hire (and more importantly in some cases, who not to hire!). If you are interested in a session, email my OBM Tiffany at tiffany@onlinebusinessmanager.com or give us a call at 1 (877) 576-2229.