Small Business Owner

  • What’s the difference between a VA and OBM?

    As a business owner, you may not be familiar with the difference between a VA and an OBM. It’s likely you already have a Virtual Assistant that’s an integral part of the day-to-day running of your business, but is it time to take things further and move towards having an Online Business Manager?

    In this post, I’ll be sharing just what the difference between the two roles is, and how an OBM can have many positive benefits for your business. 

    The difference between a VA and an OBM 

    For me, an Online Business Manager is a next-level Virtual Assistant – imagine Iron Man to Tony Stark if you will. All the brains you’ve grown to love in a VA but with a few more nifty gadgets and ideas up their sleeves. 

    Both a VA and an OBM have important roles in your business, but an OBM can swoop in with that strategic element you might have been missing.

    Whereas a VA is mainly task-orientated, an Online Business Manager brings custom strategies, and project manages everything from start to finish. 

    Imagine your business growth is a bit like a car journey. Before you set off, you want to be sure that a) you know where you’re going and b) your ‘car’ is up to the journey ahead. Your OBM takes on two significant roles here. One is the role of navigator – i.e. listening to your business goals and suggesting strategies and ‘routes’ to achieve them. They can help you look for any potential diversions too, so you’re not stuck in a jam on the business growth motorway due to roadworks.

    But they also adopt the role of a mechanic, tinkering around under the bonnet to make sure everything is working as it should be, looking at the numbers and the processes you already have in place. Are these helping or hindering your business growth? Could you be doing anything differently that could yield better results? Here at Jennifer Cooper Timesaver, I look for ways to help you save time too. 

    Once your OBM has supported you to identify the best journey ahead, they’ll create the task list needed to help you move forwards and grow.

    Your VA will then complete those tasks under the OBM’s supervision, which means you can continue to focus on providing the best service or products for your customers.

    What are the benefits of an OBM? 

    So now you know the difference between a VA and an OBM, let’s look at the benefits of working with an OBM.

    Running a business can feel frustrating, overwhelming, and brilliant all at the same time. Often, you know there are things you need to do, but there are so many other bits you feel you have to do first. It often feels chaotic and you might be at a point where you’re struggling to do it on your own. 

    You need someone who knows exactly how it feels – someone who’s been where you are and understands how challenging and overwhelming things can be.

    An Online Business Manager can be that person – supporting you to bring your vision to life and being an integral cog in the wheels of your business. They become an essential part of your big-picture thinking, offering a different perspective. They’re also directly involved in your business growth and can help you look for opportunities to scale in a way that feels right for you.

    So if you’re at the stage where you feel you need this kind of support, why not get in touch and see how I can help you? You don’t have to feel overwhelmed anymore – we can work together to make your business just what you always hoped it would be. 

    And maybe even a little bit more. 

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  • Google My Business: What on earth is it and why should you use it?

    Google My Business – what on earth is it and why should you use it? Good question. In the busy world of running a small business, it might just feel like yet another thing you’re ‘supposed’ to do rather than something that will truly benefit you. 

    But it’s not. It’s actually a fantastic way of getting more eyes on your business and boosting your ranking on the world’s biggest search engine. And the best bit? It’s totally free and you can quite often get instant verification. Winner.

    What is Google My Business?

    We’ve all been there. It’s Friday night and you’re exhausted from a busy week of running your business There’s a pile of washing staring at you from the corner of the bedroom and your youngest is nagging you about their homework – making a replica WW2 bomb shelter out of biscuits. 

    The thought of cooking dinner is about as appealing as a wisdom tooth extraction. 

    You pick up your phone and you type into Google ‘takeaway pizza near me’ all while trying not to dribble onto the screen. Bingo! You’ve just used Google My Business (GMB). 

    Google is the world’s most popular search engine – with 75% of the market share. Out of the 5.6 billion daily searches, a large percentage have local intent. People want to shop and buy locally. Which is great news for you…but you have to be easy to find.

    And that’s where Google My Business comes in, swooping in to make your business more visible than ever before. 

    It’s a free service designed to help local businesses get online and enables you to manage how your business appears across Google and make it stand out. But from conversations we’ve had here at JCTS, it’s widely underused. 

    So here are some of the reasons why you should consider using Google My Business, in the hope it will entice you to create your GMB profile and start reaping the benefits.

    Why you should use Google My Business 

    In order for more people to know about your business, you need to make it as easy as possible for them to find you. A GMB profile will make that happen. But that’s just the beginning. Try on a few of these other benefits for size.

    1. Google Maps and Local Pack Listings 

    Remember the last time you went out of town for a fun family day out? Chances are you relied on Google Maps to help you find somewhere to eat or stay. Up pop local restaurants, hotels, doctors and other places of interest, all identifiable by that little pin in the map. 

    One of the best bits about being one of those pins on Google Maps – also called a Local Pack Listing – is being at the top of the search page, therefore highly visible. Not only is your business highlighted, it also gives people additional information about you – e.g. contact information, opening hours and website etc. 

    You can only get to be a funky little pin if you have a Google My Business profile. And who doesn’t want to be a funky little pin at some point in their life?

    1. People can leave reviews 

    We all know why reviews matter – that know, like and trust factor that’s so important when asking people to buy from you. As many as 93% of people are influenced by reviews as they know they’re legitimate – i.e. they’re mostly made by real people with real experiences of your product or service.

    If you’re anything like the team here at JCTS, we’re always reading reviews for all sorts of things – mainly notebooks and the best type of pen, but then we’re kinda quirky that way. 

    But it’s not all about people loving your business. Research by Moz shows that online reviews make up a whopping 10% of how search results are ranked. That might not sound like much but in the world of SEO, it’s pretty mega. And in terms of local SEO, it’s even better.

    Google My Business: What on earth is it and why should you use it
    1. Google My Business Insights

    If you’re a bit geeky like us, you’ll enjoy looking at the data behind your business. And if you’re not, you could be missing a trick, but that’s another blog post. Google My Business aims to help the small business owner by providing key analytics for you to track in order to help you grow, and learn what your customers really want.

    Here are the main ones:

    • Views – of your GMB profile so you know the effectiveness of your campaigns
    • Search queries – you’ll know specific keywords people are using when searching for your type of business. This will help you stay relevant.
    • Engagement – how are people interacting with your GMB profile? Which posts are they sharing? Which are people commenting on?
    • Audience demographics – including age/gender/location, so you know if they’re the right type of audience for you
    • Website clicks – how many people are taking action and actually clicking your website link? You can then marry this up with Google Analytics on your website and see where they’re going next. 

    So there you have it, Google My Business in all its glory. As you can see, it can really help with your overall business strategy and provide you with a simple (and FREE) way of making your business as visible to as many of the right people as possible. 

    If you’d like some support with setting up your Google My Business profile, why not get in touch? We’ll get our full geek on and help you in the best way possible. 

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