Online Business Manager, Raven Howard

Greetings!

Raven Howard | Certified Online Business Manager

Thank you for visiting My Virtual Sidekick. My name is Raven Howard and I am a certified Online Business Manager. In a nutshell, I manage the processes, team, expenses, and ROI stats for awesome business owners.

I started working virtually December 2007 as an internet technician for Comcast. Though this type of work seems to bore most, I have always enjoyed fixing things. Having a clear understanding of how something works and examining the symptoms to find the most  likely cause and solution to a problem is pretty thrilling to me.

It was during this time that I did my first administrative assistant duties by helping my  virtual manager schedule meetings, train new employees and oversee chat rooms full of other virtual customer service reps. Becoming the right-hand gal – to someone I hadn’t  met – was very interesting!

At that moment, I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. So I got busy doing it! I landed my gig as a virtual assistant as a sub-contractor in 2009. Though the work was completely new to me, I managed to get promoted to their highest level of virtual assistance within the first three weeks. This was the first time they had given someone the promotion that soon.

It wasn’t easy starting my business, but my husband, Joshua, supported me (both mentally and financially!) as I split my time marketing and seeking further training in my passions: shopping carts, html, newsletters, teleseminars, audio/video editing and social networking—to name just a few!

I assisted a variety of business owners. I discovered what my clients truly wanted and what I could do to meet those needs. Every task I took, I set two goals for myself: deliver above the client expectations and do it faster and better the next time around.

My ideal client began to surface: A successful business woman with a clear understanding of her target market. She is creative, passionate and committed to getting her valuable message out. A woman whose products and/or services truly help people on the deepest levels of confidence, inner and outer beauty, intelligence and financial success; and since I am a bit of a goof, I love a business owner with a sense of humor and style!

The fall of 2009, I got into a comfortable grove of assisting many clients with e-commerce and was filling my client roster by referrals only.

My clients stopped dictating basic administrative duties to me, but would say, “I don’t really want to focus on this, Raven, can I just give it to you to manage?” My clients began giving me their ideas and projects they wanted to accomplish and trusted I would make it happen. I set up, tested, tweaked and managed the performance and statistics for pink spoons, teleseminar series, product creations, successful social media strategies, membership sites and affiliate centers.

I was doing it all! Creating the game plan and executing it. Some days, I would  leave the office only to sleep. I was in overload aka “the breaking point” that Tina mentions in her book: Becoming an Online Business Manager. I knew that the smorgasbord of services I was providing to many clients should be polished and delivered in a more valued way to only a select few of higher-level clients, so I earned my Online Business Manager certification in April of 2010.

The transition from being a Virtual Assistant to becoming an Online Business Manager came when I  hired my own Virtual Assistants to handle my day-to-day tasks so I can focus on going deeper with my treasured clients.

Today, my business is thriving. I relieve the stress of  business owners  by taking over the operations they do not have to do and building upon their success.  I meet my client’s challenges head on and I either complete the tasks directly or oversee the work progress done by others.

When I learn a potential client needs an Online Business Manager, I ask myself, “would I love to wake up everyday and have a proactive role in the growth of their business?” If the answer is yes, I pursue getting to know them!