Manager vs. Business Manager vs. Chief of Staff: What Each Role Does (And Why You Need All Three)
- Tarra Stubbins
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
TLDR: A manager builds your career. A business manager protects your money. A Chief of Staff executes your vision and runs the operation that makes everything else possible. Most athletes, influencers, and creatives have the first two. Almost none have the third. If you have more ideas than you have people who can make them real, this is the role you are missing.
You have the idea. You have the platform. You have the audience, the deal, the moment. What you do not have is anyone whose actual job it is to take what is in your head and turn it into something real.
Your manager is working on the next opportunity. Your business manager is watching the money. And you are sitting on three business ideas, two partnership deals, and a product you have been trying to launch for eight months because nobody around you is built to execute.
That is not a talent problem. It is not a manager problem. It is a Chief of Staff problem. And understanding the difference between these three roles is the first step to building a team that actually works.
Here is what each role does, where it ends, and what falls through when the third one is missing.
The Manager
What a manager actually does
A manager’s job is to build your career. They are your advocate, your negotiator, and your strategic advisor in the market. The best ones have spent years building relationships in your industry specifically so they can open doors for you that would otherwise stay closed.
What they handle day to day:
Sourcing, negotiating, and closing deals, partnerships, and opportunities on your behalf
Advising on which opportunities align with your brand and long-term positioning and which ones to pass on
Building and maintaining relationships with labels, leagues, networks, brands, and other industry players
Thinking strategically about where you need to be positioned in one, two, and five years
Protecting your reputation and brand in conversations you are not in the room for
Helping you navigate major career decisions; signing with a label, switching agents, entering a new market
A great manager is worth every penny. They are thinking about the big picture of your career while you are focused on performing, creating, and showing up. That is exactly what they should be doing.
What they are not built for: Once the deal is closed, someone has to figure out how to actually deliver on it. Coordinating your team, managing logistics, turning your ideas into launched products are all not what managers do, and it is not fair to expect it from them.
The Business Manager
What a business manager actually does
A business manager is responsible for your money. In most cases they are licensed financial professionals with a legal obligation to act in your best interest. Their job is to make sure that the money you earn is accounted for, protected, and managed correctly so it does not disappear.
What they handle day to day:
Managing your taxes, accounting, and financial compliance so you are never caught off guard by the IRS
Overseeing investments, real estate, and asset management to grow your wealth long term
Handling insurance, estate planning, and financial structures that protect you and your family
Paying bills, tracking income across all your revenue streams, and maintaining financial records
Reviewing contracts from a financial perspective before you sign them
Advising on major financial decisions: buying property starting a business, taking on a partner
Coordinating with your attorney and manager to make sure the financial side of every deal is structured correctly
Without a good business manager, athletes and creatives lose money in ways they often do not even see coming. This role protects what your career is generating. It is not optional once you are earning real money.
What they are not built for: A business manager manages the money your operation generates. They are not managing the operation itself. The people, the projects, the launches, the day-to-day execution all fall outside of their scope.
The Chief of Staff
What a Chief of Staff actually does
A Chief of Staff runs the operation. They are the person who takes everything your manager is building and your business manager is protecting and makes sure there is an actual functioning business behind it. If you have ever had an idea that never got off the ground because nobody could figure out how to execute it, a Chief of Staff is the persona you were missing.
Think about it this way. When Kim Kardashian had the idea for SKIMS, someone had to turn the idea into a company. Source manufacturers, build the team, manage the launch timeline, coordinate legal, handle the logistics of going from concept to product on shelves. That execution layer is what a Chief of Staff does.
What they handle day to day:
Taking your business idea from concept to launched reality and figuring out the how, not just the what
Managing your team so they know what they are doing, why they are doing it, and what is expected of them
Coordinating across your manager, attorney, publicist, and business manager so nothing falls through the cracks
Building the systems and processes that let your operation run without you being in the middle of everything
Managing partnerships, vendors, and collaborators on active projects
Handling the logistics of major deals and launches after they close
Keeping projects on track on time, and on budget
Being the person who figures out how to solve the problems nobody else has authority or bandwidth to solve
Protecting your time and attention so you can focus on what only you can do
In government, global business, and the highest levels of entertainment, the Chief of Staff is one of the most consequential roles in any serious organization. The athletes and creatives who figured this out early are the ones building real empires. The ones who did not are the ones still doing everything themselves, or have a team half in and half out and not all in their own lanes of genius.
What makes this role different: A manager tells you what deal to take. A business manager tells you what it means for your taxes. A Chief of Staff figures out how to make it happen and makes sure it does.
The Real Problem
Most athletes, influencers, and creatives come to us with the same situation. They have more ideas than they have people who can execute them. They have a team, but nobody is actually running it. They have deals, but the work of delivering on them keeps landing back on them personally.
In our work with professional athletes, influencers, and high-profile creators, we see this pattern constantly. They have great managers securing deals and experienced business managers protecting their wealth. But when we ask “who’s executing on your business ideas?” The answer is usually “me” or “a little of my business manager and his team” or “nobody.”
One client came to us with three business ventures they’d been trying to launch for over a year. Great manager bringing in opportunities. Solid business manager handling finances. But no one whose job it was to actually build the business.
Six months after bringing in a Chief of Staff: all three ventures launched and generated revenue. The manager could focus on securing more deals because they knew execution was handled. The business manager could focus on protecting the wealth being created. And the client reclaimed 25+ hours a week they’d been spending trying to coordinate everything themselves.
A 19-year-old athlete who just signed their first NIL deal did not sign up to also become a project manager, a team coordinator, and a business operator. But that is exactly what happens when there is nobody in the Chief of Staff role. The talent absorbs the operational work by default. And that is the most expensive way to run anything.
The ideas do not get executed. The business does not get built. And the person who should be focused on performing is buried in logistics instead.
Function | Manager | Business Manager | Chief of Staff |
Responsible for | Your career | Your money | Your operation |
Primary focus | Deals & positioning | Finances & protection | Execution & team |
Time orientation | Future / strategic | Past / protective | Present / active |
Turns ideas into reality | No | No | Yes |
Manages your team | No | No | Yes |
Coordinates across your advisors | Partially | Partially | Yes, fully |
What breaks without them | Career growth slows | Money gets mismanaged | Everything stays an idea |
These three roles are not competing with each other. They are designed to work together. Your manager opens the door. Your business manager protects what is behind it. Your Chief of Staff builds what you need to walk through it.
When all three exist and are working correctly, your ideas get built, your money gets protected, and your career keeps growing. When one is missing, the others absorb the gap in ways they were never designed for. And usually it is you who ends up absorbing most of it.
A Note for Managers Reading This
We are not here to replace you or complicate your relationship with your client. We are here because the best managers we know are tired of closing strong deals and watching them fall apart in execution. Or watching their clients burn out trying to manage an operation that has no real leadership.
When your client has a Chief of Staff, your work lands the way it was supposed to. The deal gets executed. The idea gets built. Your client is not overwhelmed, which means your relationship with them stays at the level it is supposed to: strategic, focused, and productive.
The managers who partner with us do not see it as competition. They see it as finally having the right person on the other side. If that sounds like a conversation worth having, reach out.
About Take It Easy Group
Take It Easy Group is a Chief of Staff firm for athletes, creatives, influencers, and celebrities. We are the people you call when you have the vision and need someone to actually build it. We specialize in taking ideas from concept to reality, managing the teams and operations round high-profile talent, and making sure the business behind the brand runs as well as the brand itself.
If you want to talk about what this looks like for your situation, reach out at: hello@takeiteasygroup.com
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