How to use an org chart for business growth

We have been going through a mini-series on setting up or revisiting your org chart for your business.  If you have not read those article, please read them.  It is CRUCIAL that you do the steps in our second article and have a solid list of tasks you complete in your business.  Go read the article on developing an effective org chart to grow your business if you haven’t and come back to this article once you complete the exercise.

Since this is a page for Christian entrepreneurs, I am going to take your word that you did the exercise in our article about setting up an effective org chart.  Now let’s jump into how to use an org chart to grow your business.

If you are a solopreneur, you will have a much easier time doing this process, but it is very important you take this exercise seriously.  If you have multiple staff, it may mean rearranging responsibilities and positions and making decisions based on your new understanding of your business.

Let me be clear.  This process is not an exercise to get rid of staff.  God gave us the people we have working for us.  Our goal is to use them to the potential that God has created each and every one of them.  You may reorganize and reposition, but there is rarely a case where a worker cannot continue to work in a company.  Be creative and if you truly start to grow your business, you can afford to have all your staff and more.

 

Start with your org chart tasks

In our previous exercise, you should have created a list of all the tasks that you do as a business as well as all the tasks you personally do.  It should include everything from unlocking the door to developing new products and helping customers.

I want you to go to the tasks first, not the positions.  Put a dollar amount on each task.  You can continue to use sticky notes or mind maps, or you can create an excel sheet.  I suggest an excel sheet because you can sort and analyze the data.  If you don’t have Excel on your computer, use Google Drive or other Microsoft Alternatives.  (See our article here.)

For each task, ask how much is the task worth and how much could you pay a worker to accomplish that task?  For instance, answering a phone may be a ten dollar task, but closing a sales lead may be a hundred dollar task.  Depending on your business, the tasks may be widely different amounts.  You should know what value each task brings to your business.

Our goal is to create an understanding of our hourly task responsibilities.  Once you have an understanding of how much each task is worth to your business, you have a plumb line to make some decisions about where to spend your time best and how to delegate better.  Both of those decisions are what lead to business growth.

 

Assess how much your time is worth

You are the owner of your company working under God’s authority.  As a Christian business owner, you are not above taking out the trash because you know that we are all servants.  However, you need to realize how valuable your time is so you can focus on the things that grow your business and put time into growth activities for your business.

We often get so busy working ‘in’ our business that we forget to work ‘on’ our business.  When we work ‘on’ our business we can focus on growth.  Your time is worth much more as your business grows.  Your time may be worth one hundred, one thousand or one hundred thousand dollars.  You have to see how much value you bring to your business.

Let’s say that you spend two hours checking emails and replying to requests.  You analyzed your time and realize that if you spent those two hours developing new products you could develop a product each month.  That product would bring in four thousand dollars to your business.  That means your time would be worth one hundred dollars an hour.  (For the math people, 2 hours a day, 5 days a week for a month would be 40 hours.  40 hours divided by the income of $4,000 = $100 per hour of value.)*

Now you ask yourself, could I hire someone to weed through my emails and respond to the basic inquiries for less than one hundred dollars an hour?  The answer is an astounding YES!

*This example was for simplicity.  In reality, we want to see how much income those activities produce over a year or over the lifetime value of a customer.  You must start simple and move to the more complex if you want to grow you business.  Doing these kinds of assessments on a yearly basis may be exactly what you need to maximize your business growth.

 

Knowing how to better utilize my time by hiring different types of workers

There are a lot of options in today’s digital world for how to get worker.  You can hire full-time, part-time, virtual, contract or task-based.  Each of these workers holds value to you and your company and each of them are valuable in their own rights.

The first thing people think about when hiring is full or part-time.  They want a person physically present to do the tasks assigned.  That is a great decision if it works for your company.  Take into consideration where they will office, insurance, and all those other things that comes with hiring a new employee.  Your goal should be to hire new employees who will work for you for the rest of their lives.  You want to take care of them so well, they never want to leave.

If a new employee is not what you need right now, consider a virtual or contract person.  These people work on a specific task or job for a specific amount of money or a specific amount of time.  Since you are contracting them, they will handle all the taxes, insurance and all of those things.  You still want to consider hiring someone who will work for life, but this person will work from a distance.  Make sure you have solid procedures and expectations laid out for each task for each person.

 

Understanding the term “Virtual worker”

Virtual workers could live around the block from you, in another state from you or around the other side of the country from you.  Virtual just means they do not office in your specific location.  If you hire an accountant to do your books, they are technically a contracted virtual worker.  I don’t want you to get hung up on the word ‘virtual.’

I know some people frown on using workers from outside of their country.  Some people say we take advantage by paying them too cheap.  Others say we are giving away jobs that could be for people in our country.  Either way, let me try to clear this up.  You are hiring a worker so that worker can support their family.  You will pay them a fair price for what they do.  If their cost of living is lower than yours, they may ask for less.  If the task is simple, you may not have to pay as much.

Knowing what to pay for tasks is why we do an hourly cost basis for each task. We hire based on what we are willing to pay for a task to be completed.  We are not trying to find the cheapest worker, we are trying to find a mutually beneficial solution for their gainful employment. We hire a contract or virtual worker to fit your needs and help that person find honorable wages.

I have worked with a lot of different types of workers.  From college student in my city to a single mom in Tennessee all the way to an Asian Man trying to support his growing family.  Each of these people become special to me.  I cared for them, prayed for them and paid them what they were worth.  I treated them both with respect and got nothing but respect back.

My only note of caution is to make sure you understand the culture you are working with.  If it is outside of your country, do some research and understand expectations from business owners.  For instance, some countries have a thirteenth month pay and it is required by their labor law.  More than that, it is expected by those employees and you want to be a good boss to them.

You can use a virtual services to find virtual employees, but be careful about using a virtual employee service.  Many times you may not get the same employee for your tasks.  They are sometimes trained to do specific task, but the worker may not receive what you are paying.  I worked with one company (I won’t name them) and found out their workers only got half what I was paying.  Their owner ran around with Rolexes while their workers barely made a living . . .don’t be like that. God help those people.

 

Conclusion

When you understand how much your tasks are and how much your time is valued, you can make decisions about hiring and creating new positions.  You can grow you business by focusing on the tasks that bring your business the most money.  Your time is valuable and you want to maximize your results based on how much time you spend.

If you have multiple positions, you may want to look at the tasks given to each employee and the benefits it brings to your company. They may need reorganization or a pay raise.  Assess which positions are bringing in the most revenue and add a position to augment or assist that division based on your task assignments.  For instance, you may hire a project manager specifically for your sales staff.

The key to all of this is to care for your employees and customers enough to grow your business. It will take time to do all of these exercises, but if you don’t do them, you will continue to stay where you are.  Ultimately, you owe your Boss, God, the respect and honor of growing your business.

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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 working IN your business and want to work ON your business, join our membership today.