What is the difference between a Virtual Assistant (VA) and an Online Business Manager (OBM)?

When I first landed in the VA world, it was completely by accident. I was the client of an online fitness coach, and I happened to be someone that was fairly active in her Facebook Group(s) at the time and would answer questions that were commonly asked. Over time, she found this helpful, and in August of 2015, she reached out to me to ask me if I’d be interested in being her second VA, as her first VA was pretty tapped out with what she could take on. I was working in esthetics at the time and truly didn’t “need” the job, but I thought it would be fun, and hey, if I got the opportunity to make some money, then great.

Fast forward 6 years, and that is a client who I am still with, and I’ve now grown to be her OBM. What I do now differs vastly from what I used to do for her, and so I thought it might be helpful to outline what the difference is between an OBM and a VA truly is.

First and foremost, you can think of the VA as the “do-er” and an OBM as “the delegator”. The OBM will usually be the one that is in direct contact with the stakeholders/CEO and then will tell the VA(s) what needs to get done, assign due dates, and manage the product. While the OBM might do *some* task-based work from time to time, their main role and responsibility is to oversee the team members and their responsibilities.

OBM’s are also thinking holistically about the business, the marketing, launch efforts, and projects, while a VA is only thinking about their specific tasks. The tasks of the VA are generally going to be quite specific - maybe a tech VA, a social media VA, a general VA to oversee calendar, a customer service VA, etc. The OBM would be in charge of overseeing the entire team ensuring that things get done when they are supposed to and that all systems are running smoothly.

Recently, a prospect reached out to me and was looking for someone to transfer their entire course from one platform to another. They specifically knew that I am a Certified OBM, but my first thought was “Do they want me to actually be the one DOING this myself (ie: all of the tech) or do they have a tech VA that is going to be taking care of the implementation, and I can help out with managing the process?” A quick flurry of emails confirmed that no, they do not have a VA (red flag #1 as I do not work with businesses that do not have at least one VA on their team or who do not plan to) and that I would be the one doing this myself (red flag #2 as OBMs are not implementors, we are delegators). Result: call canceled and the prospect was advised that they need a Tech VA and not an OBM. Hopefully, that is a decent example that explains it a little better.

The OBM may also be clued into the financials of the business and is considered more of the right-hand to the business owner.

Here’s a graphic that I posted on my Instagram that might be beneficial to outline the differences. After looking at this, you might decide that what you need is not, in fact, an OBM, and rather a more specialized role (I’ve seen this many times before when prospects reach out and I’m happy to advise that I am not what they need right now). I hope you find it helpful!