3 Things Every Coach Should Know About Working an OBM

So you have a flourishing coaching business – congratulations! But are you starting to feel overwhelmed by the amount of work that goes into it? All entrepreneurs reach a stage with their business where it becomes necessary to hire an online assistant or business manager to continue growing and developing.

Coaches, in particular, want time to focus on the aspect they are passionate about – helping others develop and coaching them to change – rather than the day-to-day running of the business.

We understand. It’s not that you’re not passionate about growing your business as well, but sometimes you need support and advice. An OBM is there to provide exactly that, as well as bringing their extensive experience.

Why Coaches Need To Hire an OBM

We know that you love your coaching practice. You’ve worked for years to get to this point, to build a community, and to develop your skills as well. It’s worth it when you get that positive feedback about how much you’ve helped people.

But sometimes it feels like you’re getting caught in an endless cycle of calls, scheduling, website maintenance, accounts, marketing, staff management, emails, admin (yes, we could go on!). These things are all vital for a successful business, but it’s not why you started on this journey. Or, if we’re honest, these tasks might not be your strengths.

This is why hiring an OBM could be the single best thing you do for your organization. They’ll ease this load while providing invaluable advice and business acumen. They’ll help your business thrive with their ability to take in the big picture, streamline processes and manage projects and teams. A specialized online business manager understands your industry inside and out and makes effective decisions accordingly.

This gives you the time and space to concentrate on what you love doing – inspiring, encouraging and coaching people to change. Dreaming up new approaches and courses. Writing sessions. You’ll start loving your work again, which in turn means you’ll do better work. Meanwhile, you know the management of your business is in safe hands.
Now you see the benefits of hiring an OBM, what things should you know?

Three Things You Should Know About Working with an OBM

It’s an Exercise in Trust

Letting go can be one of the hardest things to do, but it’s also one of the most important. Your business is your baby. As we said above, you’ve been working for years to get where you are, and if you’ve been involved in every step of the process, it’s hard to hand over even part of the responsibility to someone else.

Just remember that this is exactly why you’ve taken the step of hiring an online business manager. You want to be able to let go of some of your responsibilities. You’re a trained coach, not a business manager, and there’s freedom in letting go.

You might worry about how you’re going to train an OBM to do things ‘your way.’ Allowing them to get on with things is the most sure-fire way of getting things moving effectively. Sure, they’ll be working within the vision and systems you have set up and need to learn about these, but their extensive experience means there should be almost no learning curve.

A smooth and easy transition is what you want, and if you’ve hired a specialized online business manager, you can feel confident in their knowledge. This trust is important as there might even be things they do better than you; if this happens, you need to trust them to make the right decision for your business.

It’s a Collaboration

Following on from the point above, it’s important to remember that working with an OBM is collaboration. They’re more of a partner than an employee, which is why we talked about trust before. They’ll bring a fresh perspective to your business and often might see ways to improve processes and campaigns that you didn’t.

It’s their job to cast their objective eye over your business model and to help improve it – they’re not criticizing! They will bring their ideas and strategy to the table, and it’s up to you if you want to utilize this. We’d recommend you do, though. After all, they have the background and business expertise.

Of course, on the flip side, you also have to be working just as hard as your online business manager. It’s a process of feedback and interaction on both sides. They need to understand your vision and help you make your dreams a reality. You need to be willing to listen to their suggestions and act on them. Perhaps you’re heading a little out of your comfort zone, but that is only ever a good thing.

It’s an Investment

Sometimes coaches think they can’t afford an online business manager. But when you sit down and think about it, it’s a false economy to avoid paying for an OBM when you’re losing money doing all those tasks yourself.

All the time you’re spending managing your business is a time you could be spending building relationships with new clients (and bringing in more money!). A good online business manager also works more efficiently than you (it’s their profession, after all!), ensuring they do more with the time. So it’s a win-win investment.

Why These Three Things Are So Important

These are so important because working with an OBM is not about ticking a box. It’s about committing to developing your business, it’s about allowing an expert to help you help others, and it’s the joy of collaborating with a proactive business manager.

You will still need to show up every day to help your coaching business grow, but with a great OBM taking some of the business management off your hands, you’re showing up to do the thing you love

And that’s worth its weight in gold, trust us.