One of the ‘growth engines’ that I used to make my $7 million in 7 years was Business [AJC: actually, I used it to fuel a real-estate investment strategy much like that described in my Perpetual Money Machine series], as I suspect it will be for many readers so, from time to time we will cover business topics.
Therefore, I was interested to read this comment on A Closet Entrepreneur from a reader who runs their own interesting site:
I have a section [in my business plan] defining the roles and responsibilities for all jobs within the new company, even though initially all the jobs will be filled by me.
This is interesting because this is what Michael Gerber suggested that I do when I read his classic: The E-Myth Revisited …
Think about it: you are busy doing everything in your business either as a sole operator or because you still have few staff, yet you are going to take precious time out for some seemingly esoteric exercise?!
Let me tell you how important this ‘useless waste of time’ task was for me:
When were only a handful of employees (perhaps 4 or 5; I can’t recall exactly how many there were) I promoted my first ever employee, who was still with me (and still is today!) to supervisor of the other 2 or 3 staff – by default, 2IC to me …
… then, when we won a major new contract and moved – as we had suddenly outgrown our old office – our new location was mostly open-plan but outfitted with four ‘closed-door’ offices, as well.
Naturally, I took one office for myself, and put the new supervisor in another since he was still the only manager and it didn’t make sense to leave the offices empty. Then my accountant moved in, taking another office (a great move for both of us!) and the final office was taken up with office equipment: servers, copier, faxes, etc.
The problem was the company kept growing [AJC: a GREAT ‘problem’ to have 🙂 ]; soon, to 14+ staff while still in that location, and I had to hire a more experienced manager, as well … now, who gets the office? I could hardly kick my most loyal employee out, could I?
Then I came across The E-Myth Revisited and realized that I needed an organization chart NOT for now, but for when we were ‘done’ … so, I drew up an organization chart for 60 people.
Much like the reader who commented above, many of the roles were triple- and quadruple-teamed, even though we had 14 employees by then … how many times does 14 employees go into 60?! 🙂
Now, here’s the thing:
1. When we moved into our next office, I outfitted it for 50 people immediately (even though we were only 20-strong by then), with room for 10 more.
2. I also outfitted this office mainly as ‘open-plan’ but with 4 ‘closed door’ offices … this time I had no problem leaving them empty. They were reserved for Senior VP-level management of which, at that time, I had none!
3. Over time, we grew to 30+ staff and knew exactly what roles needed to be filled and when, because the Organization Chart that I drawn up NEVER CHANGED.
4. When we opened in the USA, with up to 100 staff, that same Organization Chart, with only minor modifications, became the US Organization Chart, making our HR issues that much easier to resolve.
So, if you have a business of any size … it’s time to draw up your own Org. Chart 🙂
Hint: Keep the chart simple and hierarchical: the old-fashioned structure of CEO/President => Sales/Marketing + Operations + Finance/Admin as the three positions underneath the CEO (President) still works just fine.
