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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
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
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