What to call yourself and the services you offer

From VA to CoS: Stripping away the “Title Snobbery” in modern business support.

When you first start a business, you wear every hat, the CEO, the Finance Director, the Doe’er, the cleaner, the intern, and the person who fixes the printer. But as you grow, those hats start to feel a lot heavier. Suddenly, you’re hearing terms like “Fractional COO” or “OBM” and wondering if you’re falling behind on the corporate lingo.

The truth is, these titles can get incredibly “muddy.” Because they aren’t regulated professions, the lines between them often blur. To build the right team, you need to look past the labels and focus on the output you actually need.

The “Title Trap” vs. The Skill Set

The title on a LinkedIn profile matters far less than the output a person produces for your business. You might hire an OBM who has the strategic brain of a Director of Ops, or a Chief of Staff who is happy to dive into Admin Consultancy to fix your systems.

Instead of asking “What is their title?”, you should be asking: “What problem am I trying to solve?”

To clear the mud, stop looking at the labels and start looking at the deliverables. Here is how to categorise the output:

• Output: “Clear my plate.” You need someone to take the recurring, manual tasks away so you can breathe.

  • Likely role: VA (Virtual Assistant) or Admin Support.

• Output: “Organise my chaos.” You have the ideas, but your projects are stalling and your team doesn’t know what to do next.

  • Likely role: OBM (Online Business Manager) or Project Manager.

• Output: “Build me a scalable engine.” You need your internal processes (hiring, onboarding, tech stacks) to work without you being involved in every decision.

  • Likely role: Director of Ops or Admin Consultancy.

• Output: “Be my second brain.” You need someone to sit in the high-level meetings you can’t attend, protect your time, and ensure your “Commander’s Intent” is being followed.

  • Likely role: Chief of Staff.

• Output: “Fix my profit and strategy.” You need a heavy hitter to look at the P&L, the long-term roadmap, and the high-level risks.

  • Likely role: COO (likely Fractional).

Understanding the Different Roles

1. The Task-Takers and Managers

• Virtual Assistant (VA): Your implementation specialist. They are doers who handle specific, repetitive tasks (inbox management, data entry) to keep the wheels turning.  They might market themselves as a VA or as a Virtual PA, Freelance PA, or as an EA.  This is not to say this person is purely reactive – they tend to be very proactive.

• Online Business Manager (OBM): The bridge between your vision and the team. While a VA asks “What do I do today?”, an OBM looks at the calendar and says, “Here is what the team needs to do this month.”

2. The Strategic Heavyweights

• Director of Operations (DOO): The architect of your infrastructure. They build the systems and workflows that allow you to scale without breaking.

• Admin Consultancy:A hybrid model. They don’t just “do” your admin; they optimise it. They audit your current mess, set up the tools, and often provide the staff to run it.

3. The Executive Suite (The COO vs. The CoS)

This is where the most friction happens because, on paper, they both look like “the person who runs things.” As someone with 23 years military service in the Royal Navy, I find the military analogy helps perfectly here.

If the COO is the Executive Officer (XO) running the ship’s internal mechanics and performance, the Chief of Staff is the Admiral’s right hand, managing the Admiral’s influence and focus.

Why the CoS Role is Hard to Pin Down

The CoS role is often “slippery” because it essentially “fills the gaps” of the CEO. In the Military or the Civil Service, the Chief of Staff isn’t a high-level admin; they are a senior officer who ensures the commander’s intent is understood across all departments.

It is not an admin role. They aren’t booking flights; they are ensuring that every move the unit makes aligns with the Commander’s 5-year intent. They have the strategic weight to tell a senior officer “no” on behalf of the leader.  They know as much about the organisation as the Boss.

The “Hybrid” Professional & The Fractional Model

It’s important to remember that one person can often do several of these roles depending on their background. A military-background operator is a prime example; they have the discipline for high-level admin but the strategic training for operational command. They might start by fixing your diary, move to managing your lead gen, and eventually run your entire strategic plan.  This is why veterans make amazing Virtual Assistants.

What does “Fractional” mean?

For many SMEs, hiring a full-time COO or CoS is a massive financial leap. A Fractional executive provides a high-level brain for a fraction of the time (and cost). Instead of £150k+ a year, you might pay for 2 days a month to have an expert look at your margins and strategy.  They tend to work with several companies and so they are always remaining fresh and current in the way in which they lead.

Who do you actually need?

Hire for the problem you have today, but look for the background that allows them to grow into the problem you’ll have tomorrow.

How to Start: Before you post a job advert, list every task or decision that has stressed you out in the last fortnight. Once you have that list, we can see if those tasks are “Implementation” (VA/OBM), “Integration” (COO), or “Influence”(CoS).

Message from Amanda – A Note on “Title Snobbery”

I want to address something I see far too often in the industry: title snobbery. There is a lingering idea that a “VA” is “just admin” or that you aren’t a “real” business until you have a “COO” on the payroll.

As someone with a military background, I find this focus on rank over results incredibly counterproductive. In the military, you don’t care what someone’s badge says; you care if they can execute the mission and do their job.

We need to stop the snobbery around these roles. It isn’t about the prestige of the title on a LinkedIn profile; it’s about hiring the right person for the job the person who can actually do what they say they can do. Whether they call themselves a VA, Freelance PA, Consultant or a Director of Ops, if they deliver the output your business needs to survive and thrive, that is all that matters.

Benchmarking with the Global Skills Matrix

If you are still struggling to separate the titles from the actual level of responsibility within the admin profession, I highly recommend checking out the Global Skills Matrix. It is a fantastic framework that provides a clear, consistent standard for administrative and operational roles worldwide. It breaks down the levels of work—from core support to strategic partnership—so you can see exactly where a role sits based on the complexity of the tasks rather than just the fancy name on the door. It’s an essential tool for anyone wanting to move away from guesswork and towards a professional, structured team.