Category: Operations

Many business owners are a little confused between an Online Business Manager and a Virtual Assistant – they think they’re one and the same.  To some extent they are, but there is a role for both types of virtual support professional in your business. And it very much depends on where you’re at in your business.

To put simply, I equate an Online Business Manager with the traditional Office Manager/Executive Personal Assistant in the corporate world; and a virtual assistant with an administrative assistant.  I think most people understand these concepts.  So in an online business, the Online Business Manager and Virtual Assistant fulfill these same roles.

When you first start out in your business, you typically have very few clients; your marketing strategies are simple; and you have a limited budget.  In this situation a Virtual Assistant can fully support you and take some of the basic day-to-day tasks off your plate, leaving you to build and grow your business.

But as you do your job in growing your business – you get more clients, your income increases, you start to offer products and programs – then typically you’ll find yourself not only growing the business and working with clients, but also managing a lot of the day-to-day activities that you shouldn’t really be managing.  This shows up in ways such as:

• Knowing that you don’t have enough systems in place, but not having the time to put them together.
• There’s so much going on in your business that you don’t know what’s getting done and what isn’t.
• Delegating work between your Virtual Assistant, your web designer, your graphic designer, or your affiliate manager, and having to constantly check in with them.
• Not having the technical expertise (either yourself or your team) to get your Infusionsoft or 1ShoppingCart account set up properly.

And as a result you become frustrated and overwhelmed, and all the fun goes out of running your projects.  A lot of those projects you want to implement, which you know will generate additional revenues for you, are getting put on the back burner because you’re spending most of your time putting out fires.

This is when you need … an Online Business Manager!

In an organizational chart (see graphic), the Online Business Manager will sit between you and your team members.  They can see the Big Picture for your business (because they’re big thinker strategists), but they are also be able to break down that picture into step-by-step projects to delegate to your team.

Your Online Business Manager will take responsibility for:

• Project Management – setting up that new online program or membership portal.
• Operations Management – ensuring that your Infusionsoft or 1ShoppingCart account is set up correctly to deliver your automated marketing plan, programs, and products.
• Metrics Management – tracking your stats so you know exactly what’s working in your business and what isn’t.
• People Management – managing the day-to-day tasks of your team members so that you don’t have to.

And your time is freed up to focus on growing your business. The result … your Big Picture gets implemented and your goals are achieved!

Understanding how these various roles fit into an online business will help you determine the best needs for your business. You’ll be able to hire the right team member, at the right time.

And when you have this level of support – someone who understands both business strategy and is very detail oriented – you have a winning combination for growing your business from five figures into six figures and beyond.

If you haven’t heard by now, Gmail is rolling out a major change to how its users receive emails. Basically Gmail will be sorting emails for its users and putting them in pre-determined folders.

Why would Gmail be doing this? I suspect at least part of the reason is because a common complaint from people who have an email address is “too much email.”

So, as an entrepreneur who uses email in your marketing, rather than worrying about which folder you end up in, I think a better use of your time is to take a look at how you use emails in your biz so this is not an issue for you and your subscribers will want to receive your emails.

And to help you with that, below you’ll find 3 tips to improve your email practices.

1. Start by taking a good look at how you’re using email now. Some things to look at include:

* How often are you emailing your list? Is it often (several times a week), is it moderate (several times a month), is it once in a blue moon? If you’re only emailing once in a blue moon, then unfortunately that list you worked so hard to build is probably pretty cold right now and when you do finally send an email, it will probably be regulated to spam.

Successful entrepreneurs typically send emails regularly to their list. That’s how you build a relationship with your list — you reach out and communicate with them. If you’re not reaching out, then you can’t expect to build a relationship with them.

* Are you sending content your subscribers find valuable so they WANT to receive your emails or are you just sending promotional emails? If all you do is send promotional emails, again you’re going to run the risk of your subscribers tuning you out. Sending out a balance of solid content with no strings attached (in other words they don’t have to opt in or listen to a pitch at the end) along with promotional emails for your subscribers who want to go deeper with your teachings is the way to build a strong responsive list.

* Do you encourage your subscribers to interact with you (clicking on links, submitting questions or comments, asking for their feedback)? Encouraging interaction is a great way for your list to feel like you actually care about what they want and it’s not just a one-way street with you pushing promotional materials down their throat.

2. So now that you’ve looked at how you treat your list, I want you to take a hard look at your results. Are your results what you want? Or do you think they could be better?

If you think they could be better, let’s look at what you can do to improve your results. Can you add an ezine? If you have an ezine, can you publish it more frequently? Are you sharing good content with your subscribers that they want to read or could THAT be improved? Can you find ways to interact more with your subscribers? Or maybe you’re someone who doesn’t really like to promote your products and services so while you happily publish an ezine, you not-so-happily send out promotional emails (so adding a few more promotional emails to your schedule may be your growth edge).

3. Now, put a plan together on how you’re going to improve your email practices and the IMPLEMENT it. Start small if that makes it easier but do start — because the sooner you do the sooner you’ll start seeing better results in your biz.

The web is a wonderful platform to start and grow a business, but there is much to be desired when compared to a physical location.

A physical location allows businesses to interact with customers face-to-face; it allows them to take a stake within their community. An equally important reason one would consider, when choosing a physical location, is that the web cannot possibly provide the same quality of experience in certain industries which you may have chosen (e.g. an ice cream shop or roller skating rink).

The following is a cross-selection of items and activities you may want to consider when building your presence in the physical world.

Location

As they say: “Location, location, location”.

The physical presence of your business will greatly impact its ability to succeed. You may offer an amazing product or service, but if you fail to receive foot traffic you can’t possibly expect to generate enough sales to cover costs. Likewise, over-budgeting just to acquire prime real estate in a busy district could cause strain on your business that would require cut backs during crucial times.

Outlined in GetEntrepreneurial.com’s post “8 Office Location Tips for Small Business”, we can see why the location truly does matter:

·  Meeting the needs for employees and clients

·  Accessibility

·  The ability to show creativity (by avoiding saturated areas)

·  Space for expansion

The list goes on mentioning many other factors you will find vital to physical success.

Appearance

People judge books by their cover … they’ll do the same for businesses.

The building is representative of your unique selling point (what you have to offer). Consumers can take one glance at a location and immediately make a judgment as to whether the store has what they need or desire (it may not always be correct but appearance becomes a factor).

The use of construction software will allow you to coordinate plans with the construction company, granting you access to all the necessary features you’d want when overseeing the project. In the hands of the right construction company this type of software will streamline the building process so you can launch your business in due ready fashion.

The appearance will be under your direction but there are certainly elements to consider such as:

·  A “cartoonish” appearance if your product/services are aimed at young adults and children

·  A hard, futuristic look if you sell cutting-edge technology solutions

·  A rustic, Earthy design to compliment home décor

Pair your vision of the business with a sense of design and you will break from the blocky nature of physical businesses and stand out within the community.

Efficiency

Does the physical location of your business allow for maximum efficiency?

There are many questions to keep in mind when determining the location:

·  Will employees have easy access to conduct off-site sales and marketing?

·  Does my location offer high-speed connectivity?

·  Does the layout of my business reduce wasteful actions during automation?

Small business efficiency goes well beyond elements such as computer programs, outsourcing, SaaS services, time management, and employee tracking. A physical location has the benefit of being an area that can inspire employees to do great things. The location can be tailored to your ideal workflow to improve production time and customer satisfaction. The location can even take on a form to reduce the hassle of completing a purchase by removing analysis paralysis.

Throughout the process of building the physical location should be a nagging voice that asks whether a particular element will aid the workflow or become a burden.

Networking

Have you taken the time to meet your potential business contacts (or competition)?

Business-to-business referrals can be a very powerful way to generate leads and sales as long as there is some form of value exchange or relevance to the customers coming through both locations.

Consider taking time, before making the decision on the location, to scout the area, meet with business owners, employees, and customers of these stores. Take notes about what you’ve found, categorize and evaluate the potential to build a business contact, and generate ideas on marketing campaigns you may introduce between the businesses.

Having a game plan going into to the community will allow you to launch with support.

Conclusion

There are, of course, many other elements of building a physical location (i.e. legal) which goes far beyond the scope of this post (and its purpose), but these four items and activities should kick-start your creativity and entrepreneurial spirit. The physical world has many great opportunities for those that want to do something different and willing to take the leap.

Article contributed by Jenna Smith

Whether you are just starting out in business or have been running your company for many years, one of the biggest challenges you face is finding and maintaining professional, comfortable and affordable office space. And even when you have the ideal offices, sometimes things go wrong, or you simply grow too big, and you have to start all over again.

Finding a new office space can pose a big problem and cause many headaches and sleepless nights for bosses. It may seem like city centres are full of unoccupied office buildings just waiting for new tenants, but these are not the cheapest of spaces, and actually are not always that attractive or viable for many businesses. If you’re a new company or have just a handful of staff, these decorated and maintained offices are often way beyond the budget, and, in all honesty, not necessary for the smooth and efficient operation of day-to-day business. And for some larger firms, the lengthy contracts can be off-putting and restrictive if they are looking at potential changes down the line.

A great alternative is the portable office. With companies like Mobile Mini, firms of all shapes and sizes can get their ideal space. There are many benefits of these office units, making them a viable option for many businesses.

Variety of combinations and sizes

One of the key benefits is that portable offices come in a wide variety of combinations and sizes. You can have straightforward office space, set up as cubicles, open-plan, or meeting rooms, add in a canteen or storage space, and also have additional units with bathrooms. The configuration can be tailored to exact requirements, so you don’t have to put up with oddly-shaped buildings and can utilise your office furniture to its full extent.

Secure

Portable offices are incredibly secure. Made from steel they are difficult to break into, so your office equipment is safe inside. But this does not mean you are working in a tin box – portable offices do have windows and are well ventilated so they can be kept cool in summer and warm in winter.

Cheaper and quicker

If you need new office accommodation quickly and do not have a massive budget, portable offices are the perfect choice. They can be ready to move into really quickly and without tying yourself in to expensive rent and maintenance contracts for many years.

Article Contributed by Erik Johnson

Business process optimization can seem overwhelming if your business processes and management systems are in desperate need of an overhaul. Many businesses just put on blinders when they know they need help, because they don’t know where to begin and don’t think they have the resources to make the necessary changes. With the right business process management consulting, however, it’s possible to take the initial steps toward developing a strategy and then follow through on all those steps to complete the process of optimization. Most importantly, it takes the right practices to make the strategy work.

The following are among the best practices for business process management (BPM) optimization:

• Make the Necessary Changes in Phases
• Create a Guide for Documenting Your Processes
• Develop a Matrix for Making Strategic Decisions
• Analyze and Test Ideas Before Implementing Them
• Communicate Well at Every Level
• Observe and Track Every Process and Task

Most BPM consultants recommend making the necessary changes in logical phases that follow one another in a principled manner. With careful analysis and strategic planning, it’s possible to develop a set of stages that keeps teams, tasks and structures organized as changes are implemented step by step. This not only makes the process less messy, but it also makes it possible to more closely analyze and assess what is going on at all levels of the organization as goals are met and deliverables are measured.

Business process improvement consulting experts also recommend a system for documenting every step of the optimization project to understand what’s working, what areas could be improved upon and what strategic decisions should be made. A guide for documenting processes can help make it easier to record all the information related to a project in order to understand its full scope, see what procedures are taking place and figure out who the major decision makers are. A matrix for making decisions can also be quite helpful, and is highly recommended as a best practice for BPM. Information about who is overseeing a project, who is monitoring the successful completion of milestones, what tools are being used to get from start to finish and what decisions are being made can be recorded in such a matrix. When there are many decision makers affecting the outcomes of organizational initiatives, this can ensure a structure of checks and balances even when projects span cities and countries.

Analyzing and testing ideas before implementing them should sound like a no-brainer, but it’s surprising how often we need to be reminded of this best practice for business and life in general. Ideally, this should include imitating a process to see how well the idea works, comparing different processes and testing the outcomes of those processes before adopting them permanently. BPM consulting can help make these processes much simpler thanks to firms’ experience with such aspects of the planning process, so hiring outside help is worth considering.

None of these best practices will work, however, without effective communication. Any project requires effective communication at all levels to succeed. Members of every team that is involved in a project should be fully informed, and should not have to continue asking questions to understand what’s going on and what their roles and responsibilities are. If people don’t seem to understand what’s going on, a breakdown of communication has occurred and must be fixed before moving forward. And, of course, the processes involved in the completion of a project must be monitored to ensure everything is going as planned, and to make adjustments when it’s not.

If it seems more complicated than your organization can handle, you’re not alone. Business process management consulting can help in this challenging effort to improve your business processes.

About the Author

Erik Johnson is the Digital Marketing Analyst for Paragon Solutions, an advisory consulting and systems integration firm that specializes in business process management consulting and business process optimization for organizations in various industries.