Creating an effective org chart will help your business grow

Org charts are helpful to let us see how many things we actually do on a daily and weekly basis.  If you can get your tasks and positions laid out for your business, you will have a blueprint you can use to grow your business.

In our last article we introduced org charts and talked about how to put God in charge of our business.  In our next article we will talk about using the org chart we develop to actually grow our business.  But, first we need a solid org chart.

Even if you have been in business for ten years, doing this wonderful exercise could help you fine tune your business to become a revenue building machine.

If it is just you, write down everything you do.  Do this exercise thoroughly and carefully.

If you have a staff, write down everything they do, then ask them to add anything you may have forgotten.  It may surprise you to find overlaps and lacks in business positions.

 

Getting started on your org chart

Your first org chart may be tough.  We may not be aware of all the little things we do for our business.  So, for one week I want you to become aware of all the tasks you are doing or your staff is doing.  If you empty your wastebasket at the end of the day, take note of it.  If an employee does that for you, jot it down.

What I suggest:  For one week, keep scratch paper, digital note pad or sticky notes close by your desk.  Every time you do something for your business, take note of it no matter how small it is.  You don’t need to write something down more than once, but make sure you are aware of all the tasks you do: checking email, answering the phone, locking your office, etc.  This simple exercise will be invaluable for you to create an org chart that can help you grow.

Our goal is to create an org chart to help you grow your business.  Think about the inner workings of a car.  There are hundreds of moving pieces.  If your car is not running properly, you need to know what is not working and how to fix it.

Your org chart is a layout of your business motor.  It shows you where everything is and how to get the most out of your engine. When you know the parts, you can make your engine go as fast as you need.

 

List all the tasks you do for your business

After jotting down some of your tasks for a week, set aside a day to really nail down everything that is done in your business.  I highly suggest using sticky notes at this juncture because each task can go on an individual note.  (You can also use a mind mapping program if you are more techy.  See our article on Xmind.)

Look at all the tasks you wrote down from your last week.  Add to them as you think of things.  For instance, you may have written down “make coffee.”  Well, someone has to order supplies for the coffee, filters, cups, or whatever.  Someone has to pay the water bill.  Someone has to clean the counter.  Let your mind go deep into every aspect of your business.

What I suggest: Take an hour and pick one task at a time.  Think about what all goes into that task just like we talked about for making coffee.  After an hour, take a walk, a drive or do something to get your body moving and your mind relaxed (you may want to bring some sticky notes and a writing utensil with you).  After a 20-25 minute break return to start listing tasks again.  Do this till you have exhausted your list.

Our goal is to list every task so you can get a broad picture of your business.  Every task that you do in your business or someone else does should be listed.  This may be tedious at first, but the good thing is, you only have to do it once.

 

Group your tasks together into systems and positions

The next step works great if you have been using sticky notes because they can stick together.  Even if it is just you, group tasks that could be done by a single system.  For instance you may create an admin category with things like phone answering, emails, book appointments, etc.  You want to think first of the big categories: admin, sales, marketing, production, finance, human resources, property management, etc.  Find the categories that work best for your business.

After you have the categories and all the tasks in that category together, take each category separately and list any positions you need for that task to be completed most efficiently.  For instance, finance may include a book keeper, a tax accountant and a CPA.

You will put any tasks under the position that would handle that task.  Place your positions under the main category.  These will be the basis of job descriptions when you are ready to hire your staff.  Like I said, you may be a solo-preneur, but you don’t plan to be that way forever.

And, if you have been around for ten or twenty years, you need to revisit your job descriptions using this exercise.  WARNING: Don’t start with job descriptions and work from there, do the exercise how it is laid out in this article.  Starting with what you currently have in place gets you the same results you currently get.  You want to grow your business and sometimes, we need to get back to the basics.

Our goals is to list our business systems and positions to understand how to best grow our business.  We want to start at the bottom and build our org chart up from the bottom up.  Too many people start from the top and what everyone else is doing.  They miss the little things that may be holding up an entire system.

To go back to our car analogy, if you have one screw missing at the bottom of your engine, you have an engine that will quit working.  You want to make sure every piece is in the right place and every hole is plugged so you don’t have further damage to your business engine.

Conclusion

Creating an org chart for your business is well worth your time.   It may take a week or a month, but the results of a business that is primed to grow it invaluable.  The more you can grasp all the little things that you do and your staff does, the more you can use that as a basis for growth.

In our next article, we will begin to take that org chart and lay out a blueprint to grow your business.  Don’t jump ahead.  Create a holistic org chart FIRST.  You must know all the pieces before you can create an engine to get your business moving towards growth.  Growth starts with tasks, develops the people and grows the business.

As Christian entrepreneurs, we realize that God is the Boss of our business.  That does not mean that we are not responsible for all the little things that go into the daily running of our business.  We have many people that we care for and the better we can understand our business from the bottom up, the better we can care for all the people God has placed under our care.

When God is Owner of your business, you realize how important every person is. #ChristianBusiness #ChristianEntrepreneur Click To Tweet

If you really want to grow your business, consider joining our membership program.  We have monthly group coaching where you can send in your questions for a very affordable price.  If you are tired of running in circles and want to get your business on the right track for growth, join our membership today.