The Org Chart

Creating an organizational chart can be fun, but is there a real purpose behind it or is it just “playing business”? I never saw much of a purpose to an org chart before, other than to make people higher up on it feel good, or to make yourself feel like you were organized. But now I see it as an integral part of the system and an essential part of business planning. The way I’m doing this is straight out of the E-Myth, by the way.

As Michael Gerber advises, when starting a business the entrepreneur(s) should create an org chart, starting with positions, and then filling in names. In my case, the org chart starts with the CEO, which of course is me. Then there is an executive level, which includes the following positions, in no particular order:

• CFO
• VP Sales
• COO
• HR
• VP Marketing
• CTO

Each of these positions has an assistant, and almost all of them have employees whom they manage. I’ll focus on the COO because he has the most. Below the COO there is another level of employees:

• Project Manager (PM) – Programming
• PM – Design
• PM – SEO/SEM
• Account Manager

Below the PM – Design there are Designers, HTML/CSS coders, Flash designers, 3D artists, Illustrators, and Copywriters.

In all, my current org chart has almost 50 unique positions. About half of those positions have the names of 15 contractors I use on them. The rest have my name on them. I am the CEO, VP Sales, VP Marketing, COO, HR, and CTO. I am the Account Manager, the PM – Design, and every other position that has management associated with it. My contractors fill up most of the positions like Designer, HTML/CSS, Copywriter, and Link Builder.

So what’s the point of all this? The point is that it gets you thinking about how you’re going to grow your company. As my company grows, I can start filling in these positions one by one, and releasing myself from them. But having the chart helps me think it through. It helps me think about whether I should hire a VP Sales first, or a Sales Person. Should I hire a Sales Person first, or a PPC Manager? At what point do I need someone to take care of HR? At what point can I justify having one HTML/CSS guy working under the COO, and another working full time under the VP Marketing, rather than having the same guy filling both of those positions? The org chart, created in Powerpoint but just as easily on paper, helps me to think through all this better than I would if I just did it all in my head. And when I do start hiring, it will help my employees to understand where they fit in, and where the business is headed.