Online Business Manager or Virtual Assistant? A small guide for coaches

The past few years I’ve had the opportunity to see the different struggles coaches face, especially those coaches out there that have been running their coaching business mostly in 1 on 1 settings, or group sessions in a local setting, and are now thinking of scaling the business.

This can seem overwhelming at first, you might have an idea of what you want to do, you might say to yourself:

“Ok, I’ve been focusing on my clients on an individual level and I love that I can help them in the way that I do. But I want to help more people out there, I want to reach my people through more channels and share as much wisdom as I can in a way that the impact is felt on a greater scale. “

OR you might say

“I feel I have so much more to share and offer to my audience. But running my business in this format won’t create the impact that I want to make. I want to grow, and I want to increase my income and my free time. I want to become an authority in my field.”

Then you might start to wonder “how do I do that?” You might want to create your very own online course, or an academy. What kind of course? What’s the best platform to use for this? How about marketing or sales funnels? What is actually a sales funnel, and is that needed?

The good thing is that there’s always a VA or Business manager to help with answering all these questions. The best thing is that they can help you with implementation as well, so you, as a coach, don’t have to worry about it.

You might consider your VA as your right-hand. For them to do a great job, they must know your coaching business, so much so, that they could eventually become your Online Business Manager. They know all the ins and outs of your business: what type of clients you have, what services you offer, your goals and mission, they handle your subscriptions and even payments, they can be your go-to person for the rest of the team, planning your entire agenda and inbox is also on the table, planning and coordinating your next projects, you name it.

On the other hand, choosing one or the other might sometimes be the way to go. Depending on the type of growth you are aiming for your coaching business and the kind of help you are looking for, a Virtual Assistant could be a better option than an Online Business Manager, and vice versa. You might decide that you want to start small and handle your own planning, calendar, and inbox, and hire a VA to help you only with scheduling and posting on your social media, or with copywriting. Or you might look for someone that can advise you into how to create an online course, that can help you with the setup and contributes with ideas and strategy into how to grow your business. Then you would rather be looking for an Online Business Manager.

Of course, the more included your VA is in your coaching business, the likelier it will be they will transition into an Online Business Manager role. The more you share with them, the more involved they will be. The trend is actually to see an Online Business Manager in a different role than that of a Virtual Assistant. And there is a difference indeed. But I like to say that a VA that is passionate about their niche and their work, will also naturally transition into an Online Business Manager role once they know your business well enough, if that is what you’re looking for.

However, some Virtual Assistants don’t have the strategy skills and knowledge, or even the focus on coaching businesses. Some might not even have an interest in the strategy part of the business. And that’s ok. It’s great to know your zone of genius. There are plenty of specialized VA’s out there. You can find anything from social media, to marketing, design, copywriting or finance VA’s, and they can truly help you with that particular area of your business.

The Online Business Manager on the other hand might not want to handle the administrative, scheduling side of things, but rather be more involved into strategy and processes. This is why I think it’s important to make this clear distinction of what you are looking for in terms of virtual support, and of course, the level of investments that you want to make in this collaboration.

Safe to say, the more involved your next VA or Business Manager will be in your business, and the more skilled and passionate they are about what they do, the likelier it will be that you’ll gain a trustworthy person by your side, looking to promote your coaching business and help you grow.