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Organizing Your Small Business

Copyright 2005 Mark Meshulam

A fundamental challenge of small business can be summarized as

"too many tasks, too few people."

Unlike large enterprises which can have whole teams devoted to

limited tasks - think "Task force for the unification of stapler

specifications and procedures" - small businesses can have one

person covering anything and everything.

The time to address "who does what" in an organization is the

time when the organization contemplates adding its very first

employee. If you are a "one man (or woman) show" and you want to

grow, now is the time to start.

Organizing small business starts with an organizational chart.

This chart is a thinking tool which evolves over time, so it is

a good idea to use a medium which allows change, such as a

spreadsheet program.

To start, think about the main function areas in your company. I

will make this easy for you because, guess what? Companies all

need basically the same things: infrastructure, selling and

performing.

Some companies may have additional main function areas such as

R&D, marketing, legal, purchasing, etc. however in smaller

businesses, these would probably be tasks or subsets of main

areas such as selling or infrastructure.

When building your chart, list the main function areas. Under

each, list the tasks which need to be performed.

Example: Infrastructure tasks might incude: manage office space,

manage budget, pay bills, invoicing, collections, insurance,

payroll, office supplies, computer equipment, network

administration, etc.

The first time you start listing tasks, be prepared to feel

overwhelmed. You may be shocked at the sheer number of tasks

which need to be done in order to keep a business afloat. Fear

not, your chart will be your friend. As you continue to look at

your organization and its tasks, you will begin to germinate

ideas about how to do them better.

Organize and group tasks in ways which make sense to you. You

might, for instance, order tasks chronologically, or by

similarity, or by shared resources. This brings me to the next

step: listing resources.

A resource helps get the task done. Your outside accountant

might be a resource for a list of tasks. Someone within the

company might be a resource for certain tasks. If you like

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thinking this way, you might even list non-people resources such

as links to websites, paths to files, phone and account numbers

of vendors, etc.

If you go this far, you are moving in the direction of creating

a resource guide, which is but a stepping stone away from a

procedure manual. These tools also promote orderly growth, but

are topics in their own right.

The last step in creating your organizational chart is to assign

responsible parties to each main area and each task.

Now stand back and look. Does it make sense? Is it orderly? Are

people positioned for efficiency and for the best use of their

skills? Would outsourcing certain tasks be beneficial?

Use the chart to explore such questions, both with your

employees as well as your outside resources. Every six months

update your chart and reissue it to your team. This will raise

good questions, clarify others, and convey to all the correct

impression that your company is positioned to grow.

About the author:

Mark Meshulam offers information, rumination and illumination

about people, processes and productivity at work, in his blog

http://www.poingology.com See his software productivity tools at

http://www.poingo.com