Do You Need a VA or an OBM? - EP 126 Advanced Freelancing

Are you a solopreneur ready to grow your team?  Outsourcing some of the backend tasks of your business to an assistant or strategic partner will allow you to flow in your zone of genius and take your business to the next level.
But who should you hire first?  In this episode of the Advanced Freelancing Podcast, my guest Katelyn Hamilton shares the difference between an online business manager, virtual assistant, and project manager.  We discuss which you should hire first and at what stage of your business you should bring them onboard.
Here are some things we covered in this episode: What is the difference between an OBM, a virtual assistant, and a project manager? What does an OBM or VA actually do? Should you hire an OBM or VA first? At what stage of your business should you hire an OBM? What you should expect from each type of service provider An example of a typical contract and monthly retainer The value of long term contracts After listening to this episode, share your action steps and take-aways with our group:
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Connect With Katelyn: Bio:
Katelyn began her career in marketing and public relations in Nashville, Tennessee. After working in the agency world for six years, she decided to pursue the entrepreneurship route to create more freedom and flexibility in her life. Now, Katelyn works as an Online Business Manager where she helps entrepreneurs organize, strategize and prioritize the backend of their business to go from overwhelmed to out-in-front. A Georgia grad, she bleeds red and black and is a diehard Georgia football fan, dog mom and outdoor enthusiast.
Website: www.katelynehamilton.com
Instagram: @katelynehamilton
Facebook: www.facebook.com/katelynehamilton
Read the Transcript:
(00:00):
Welcome to the advanced freelancing podcast. I'm so happy to have you here today. Would you like to go ahead and tell us a little bit more about you and how you got started owning your own business?
(00:12):
Yeah, absolutely. So, uh, thank you for having me on the show. My name is Katelyn Hamilton and I started in the corporate marketing and PR world. Uh, when I graduated from college, my goal was really to climb that corporate PR ladder. And I had, you know, the vision that you're exposed to from an early age of, you know, you go to college, you get a job, you climb the corporate ladder, you retire. So that was really my focus and my goal. And it wasn't until I got into that sort of world that, I kinda saw the corporate politics side of things. And, uh, I realized, you know, it just wasn't as black and white as what I had thought it was going to be. So the long and short story is I did continue to advance through my career. Switched companies, worked myself up the ladder a bit, and then I ended up having an unfortunate sort of, encounter, I guess, with a previous boss.
And we just didn't mesh very well. Eventually, I got laid off and that was something that really shook me to my core. I was never expecting that I had, Oh, I've always been a high achiever, go get her. So being like go was not in the plans. And during that time of looking for a new job, trying to figure out what I wanted to do, I started dabbling in freelancing and that's where I realized, wow, this is an entirely new world. And it gives me that flexibility, that freedom that I really was looking for, and being a millennial, I love to travel. I love to do things on my own terms. I love to really just create and cultivate like that working environment that gave me the ability to travel and see friends work the hours I wanted to work and just live the life I wanted to live.
So as I was looking for a new job, I was trying to essentially fit a square peg in a round hole because I wanted all of these things, but that's not what the traditional corporate structure gives yo