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OBM Larissa Parks Nominated for two Assist U Awards

August 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

I’m honored to announce today that I’ve received two (count ‘em…two!) nominations in this year’s Assist U Community Recognition Awards.

One is for the 2010 VA of the Year and the other is for the 2010 Techie of the Year. That one I’m pretty excited about because I do take pride in my technical skills!

In case you haven’t been following along this has been a very transitional year for me and it’s been full of changes (more on that later).I’ve been spending a great deal of time doing different training programs including one  that will make me an Infusionsoft expert (when I’m done) and another that gave me 1ShoppingCart expert status. I’ve also taken the exhaustive OBM Certification program.

(Psst….don’t tell anyone, but I’d really like to win the title of 2010 VA of the Year. I was nominated last year and so if I don’t win this year I’m going to develop a Susan Lucci complex.)

Dang it’s hard to type with your fingers crossed…. :-)

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I’m officially an Online Business Manager!

April 9, 2010 By 1 Comment

Wow, am I tired. I mentioned in my last post that you wouldn’t be hearing from me in awhile and I’m coming back to announce that I just earned my certification as an Online Business Manager! Yay me! I’m a Certified OBM!

In case you haven’t heard the phrase ‘Online Business Manager’ before, it’s defined as:

“A virtually based support professional who manages online based businesses, including the day-to-day management of projects, operations, team members and metrics.”

Sounds sort of similar to the definition for a Virtual Assistant, I know, but it’s different. A VA does tasks for clients but an OBM focuses more on the managerial role, strategy and project management. Besides, I am a firm believer in continual education so I can help my clients in as many ways as possible.

Of course I picked up loads of new skills and future clients – I hope you appreciate what I just went through for you.

OBM Training is a five month program but I did it in three days. Intense…ALL DAY…three days. I then did one entire week of grueling and rigorous certification. ONE WEEK. Those five days were spent performing real life strategy projects, working for actual six-figure and seven-figure clients. I created project plans, mapping and techniques to help the clients grow their businesses.

So there you have it. Larissa Parks the Virtual Assistant is now also Larissa Parks the Online Business Manager.

And I look forward to serving new and existing clients in an even bigger way!  Well, let me get back to spring cleaning, because a lot of changes are about to happen.

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Micro-managers need not apply

March 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

I’m surprised at how many of the VAs on my team react when I give them full control over a project. See…I am not a micro-manager. I never appreciated being micromanaged a hundred years ago when I was an employee and I won’t put up with it today as a business owner.

I choose the best of the best when it comes to the people I add to my team. They’re the experts at what they do, so I trust they’re doing the projects they’re assigned to the best of their ability. I oversee “bigger picture” projects and liaise with clients. I don’t need to be involved in every single project because, quite frankly, I’m busy enough with building the business, keeping it humming and signing on clients!

Besides, the reason I’ve added these professionals to my team is because they’re skilled in areas I am not…for the most part. Trust me, I’m not getting in the bookkeeper’s way because it would be a waste of my time (and hers) to be in her business all the time because she knows what she’s doing.

I’m not going to give my copywriter a list of guidelines about writing press releases before I ask her to write one. I have her on board with me because she knows what she’s doing. I trust her and everyone else on my team to do what they do best.

Fancy that.

Unfortunately, this trust factor is a rarity to most people who have ever worked admin in an employee role. We’ve all been micromanaged at one time or another and we’ve all hated it. We’ve called that micro-manager nasty names behind his (or her) back and complained to our spouses about them after a long day at work.

If you consider yourself a micro-manager you do not want to enter into a contract with us at Seven Winds, or with any VA anywhere for that matter. You will not be popular.

The whole point of partnering with a virtual assistant is to free you up to do other things. That means you need to give your VA control over her tasks, otherwise, you’re completely defeating the purpose of the relationship.

All that will get you is one frustrated VA and the feeling that working with a VA is taking up more of your time than you expected.

That’s a classic symptom of micromanagement. It wastes your time and it’s precisely why you would be much better off hiring yourself an in-house assistant who will put up with the constant stream of instructions and over-the-shoulder-looking.

So you have fun with that while we go ahead and make a real difference in the lives and the businesses of the trusting business owners we choose to align ourselves with. And if you know some entrepreneurs like that, send ‘em our way. We pay referrals.

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