The #1 reason why many fail to succeed in online business is they believe they need to “bootstrap” and learn/do everything themselves. That is a recipe for slow progress, no results, and financial/mental burnout before achieving success.
I know this because I have experienced this first hand! When I started building my own online business, I made all of these mistakes.
As you start down this path, you don’t know what you don’t know. As you begin to learn what’s required for success, the list of things you need to learn and implement grows faster than the amount of time or expertise you have.
On this path, you can easily spend thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars “learning” and have nothing to show for it.
The primary challenge that your business model needs to solve is ensuring YOU are able to spend 100% of your time in your “zone of genius”, the areas where you are already an expert. That means creating content, serving your customers, attracting new customers. It is NOT learning about blogging, messing around with WordPress, trying to learn Facebook ads.
There is a business model that allows you to have that 100% focus. We call it the Expert Business Model. We discovered this during our research and work with successful online entrepreneurs. The top difference between the successful online entrepreneurs and those who aren’t is having a second in command you can delegate entire functions to (like tech, marketing, etc.)
The best description of this concept comes from the book Rocket Fuel:
“Visionaries have groundbreaking ideas. Integrators make those ideas a reality. This explosive combination is the key to getting everything you want out of your business. It worked for Disney. It worked for McDonald’s. It worked for Ford. It can work for you.”
– Rocket Fuel, Gino Wickman
Your Virtual COO
The first key element of the Expert Business Model is what we call a “Virtual COO” (i.e. the Integrator) which is your (the Visionary’s) second in command.
The reason this is SOOOOO important is that it’s the key to freeing up your time. Having a highly qualified second in command is what enables you to delegate and stop worrying about entire aspects of your online business. It does NOT mean you aren’t involved, it simply means you and your COO set a vision/direction and the COO ensures it gets executed.
Rather than you managing flaky virtual assistants, freelancers, vendors; or you figuring out tools / systems / processes / etc., your COO is responsible for all of that. They assemble and manage your shared virtual team of experts.
The reason this is a virtual role, at least in the beginning, is because you need a highly qualified individual for this role, so part time / fractional makes the most sense.
You may not be aware that these types of folks exist, but they do!
This is THE most important element of the Expert Business Model and what we provide to our clients. Your virtual COO manages your shared team and the execution of our done-for-you services.
Imagine being able to completely delegate technology, marketing, content re-purposing, and more to your virtual COO, setting strategy, direction, and metrics while they handle EVERYTHING else…
Check out the case study to learn how: