If you’ve reached the point where your business looks successful on the outside but feels increasingly heavy behind the scenes, you’ve probably at least heard of the term OBM.
Maybe someone told you, “You need an OBM.”
Maybe you Googled it at 11:47 p.m. after another long day of being the bottleneck.
Maybe you hired help before (VAs, contractors, specialists) and still feel like everything somehow comes back to you.
So let’s slow this down and get clear.
Because hiring an Online Business Manager can be one of the smartest moves you make (or an expensive, frustrating mistake) depending on what you think an OBM is supposed to do.
Let’s break it down:
What Is an OBM (Online Business Manager)?
An OBM — Online Business Manager — is a strategic operations leader who oversees the day-to-day execution of your business so you don’t have to.
They’re not just completing tasks, they’re actually managing how the work moves through your company.
At a high level, an OBM typically owns:
- Operations and workflows
- Team management and accountability
- Project management and launches
- Systems, documentation, and process improvement
- Communication rhythms and execution oversight
A good OBM makes sure that the right work gets done by the right people, in the right order, without having everything bottlenecking back to you.
If your business currently runs on your memory, your Slack responses, and your ability to hold 37 things in your head, then it might be time to look into bringing on an OBM.
What an OBM Is Not
This is where most founders get tripped up.
An OBM is not:
- A VA with a fancier title
- Someone you hire to “just take things off your plate” without structure
- A replacement for leadership or decision-making
- A magic fix for unclear offers, messy boundaries, or broken systems
If you’re hiring an OBM hoping they’ll:
- figure everything out without context
- clean up chaos you haven’t acknowledged
- make decisions you won’t define
- lead a team you haven’t empowered
…it’s going to be a rough experience for everyone involved.
An OBM amplifies clarity. They cannot create it from thin air.
When Are You Actually Ready to Hire an OBM?
You’re likely OBM-ready if most of these are true:
- Your revenue is relatively consistent
- You have offers that are selling (even if delivery feels messy)
- You’re tired of being the point person for everything
- You know your business needs structure, not more hustle
You might not be ready if:
- You’re not making consistent income month over month
- You don’t want to document anything
- You’re uncomfortable delegating decisions
- You expect someone else to “own the business” for you
OBMs work best in businesses that are close to (or right on the other side) of scrappy but have not yet sustainably structured.
What an OBM Actually Does Day to Day
This varies by business, but typically an OBM:
- Runs weekly team meetings
- Tracks priorities and deadlines
- Manages projects and launches
- Enforces processes and SOPs
- Identifies bottlenecks and fixes them
- Shields the CEO from unnecessary noise
- Makes sure decisions actually get executed
In other words: they turn your plans into progress.
If you’re constantly thinking, “I know what we need to do, I just can’t get it all moving at once,” that’s an ops problem and OBMs live there.
OBM vs. VA vs. COO: What’s the Difference?
This is where clarity matters.
- VA (Virtual Assistant): Task execution. You tell them what to do.
- OBM: Operational execution. They manage how work gets done.
- COO: Strategic leadership. They design the systems and structure long-term.
Many businesses hire an OBM as a bridge between “founder-run chaos” and “true executive leadership.”
The mistake is expecting one person to be all three.
Luckily, at Behind the Screens you can hire all three. 😉
How to Know If You Need an OBM — or Deeper Operational Support
I want to be honest – sometimes founders don’t need an OBM. They need operational leadership to design the structure before someone manages it.
If your business lacks clear systems, has undocumented processes, relies heavily on you, and/or has team confusion baked in then you’ll want to dive deeper.
Hiring an OBM without fixing the foundation first often leads to frustration on both sides.
That is why we created the CEO Extraction Method – this is what leaders need in their business to get the foundation right before bringing on consistent OBM support.
Hiring an OBM isn’t about “getting help.”
It’s about deciding how your business will run without you holding everything together by hand.
When done well, an OBM gives you time, mental space, operational stability, and a business that can actually scale
When done poorly, it just adds another layer of unnecessary complexity.
Want Help Figuring Out What You Actually Need?
If you’re unsure whether an OBM is the right next step — or whether your business needs deeper operational restructuring first — that’s exactly the work we do.
Apply to work with us here and we’ll hop on a call to help you assess what your business needs.
Want to find out whether or not you’re actually the bottleneck in your business? Take our Bottleneck Assessment HERE.
