In the virtual world, most clients rely on a team of contractors to support their business, and rarely look to hire people as employees. Even though hiring is a fact of life when it comes to owning a business, I have yet to meet a small business owner who actually enjoys the process of finding, hiring and managing their team. Many business owners have gone through the process of finding and hiring (usually a VA or a web designer) and in many cases have struggled to make it work. They know they need a team to help in various areas, but they do not enjoy the process of hiring and delegating.
This is a huge area of need for most business owners, and the role of the OBM is highly important here.
Keeping it lean
I’m a big fan of automating before you hire. As such, I tend towards hiring a smaller, leaner team for my clients. The core team of key people will generally consist of the business owner (your client), the OBM (you) and usually one VA or support person. Depending on the business there may also be a delivery team, such as a group of associate coaches who help the client run their programs.
Outside of this key team there will be a number of contractors that you will call on from time to time for various projects. This may include copywriters, web/blog designers, graphic designers, A/V specialists, SEO professionals, Internet marketing strategists, business coaches, etc. Part of the beauty of working online is that there are so many wonderful contractors out there who can step in on an “as needed” basis. Gone are the days when anyone has to do it all. Now a business owner can have a core team, and then turn to specialists in these various areas when the business requires it.
In my experience, if there are too many people on the core team it can make for a very confusing and overly busy environment. Similar to having too many cooks in the kitchen, when there are too many people on the core team they can end up stepping all over each other and nothing gets done. Plus, the more people there are on the core team, the more diluted the responsibility becomes. An ideal team has only a few people at the core who are responsible for getting stuff done and for managing the other contractors who are doing the work.
As the OBM you want to work with your client to help define, source, hire, train and manage team members.