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2.  An organizational structure identifies roles in a business. It not only provides each employee with a clear definition of the chain of command, but clearly outlines who is responsible for each task.  This eliminates duplication of activities in the company and gives employees the comfort of knowing that each job within the company has been detailed. Read more: http://www.ehow.com/how_6876876_develop- organizational-structure.html#ixzz2l1BMOtcvhttp://www.ehow.com/how_6876876_develop- organizational-structure.html#ixzz2l1BMOtcv

3.  A plan can help you: o Set priorities for your work o Make sure tasks get done on time o Focus on one thing at a time o Share work among staff, board members and volunteers o Make your goals clear to funders o Get a handle on big projects by breaking them down into smaller tasks o See the big picture of what your organization is doing  What part of an organizational plan might look like: o Fundraising: Seeking Individual Donations. o Goal: Raise $ 600 by August. o Research how to ask for money. April. Meg and Tyrone. o Ask stores for donations. May-July. Rachel. o Write letters for personal donations. May. Carmelita and Meg. o Send donation letters. June. Carmelita. o Record and deposit donations. May-ongoing. Tyrone. o Send thank-you letters. July-August. Meg and Rachel.

4.  Organizational structure is about definition and clarity. Think of structure as the skeleton supporting the organization and giving it shape. Just as each bone in a skeleton has a function, so does each branch and level of the organizational chart. The various departments and job roles that make up an organizational structure are part of the plan to ensure the organization performs its vital tasks and goals. Purpose  Organizational structures help everyone know who does what. To have an efficient and properly functioning business, you need to know that there are people to handle each kind of task. At the same time, you want to make sure that people aren't running up against each other.  Creating a structure with clearly defined roles, functions, scopes of authority and systems help make sure your people are working together to accomplish everything the business must do.

5.  No matter what your business does, finding the right staffing level can be a challenging task. If you hire too many workers, you will suffer from high costs with an office or factory full of workers with nothing to do.  If you hire too few people, the workers you do have will feel stressed and overworked, productivity will suffer and some of your best producers may even move on to greener pastures.  One of the best ways to strike the proper balance is to develop a comprehensive staffing plan for your business.

6.  Step 1 - Gather all of the statistics you can regarding the productivity of your current workforce. o Keeping accurate statistics is a vital part of business management as those statistics can be used to reward your best workers, develop effective training plans and identify bottlenecks in the production process.  Step 2 - Use the statistics you gather to determine how much the average worker can do in each working hour. For a call center this would be the average calls taken by each operator. o For a factory it could be the number of widgets produced by the average worker on the line. Be sure to use the average instead of relying on the statistics for your best workers. For instance, you can get the average phone calls taken in an hour by totaling the number of telephone calls processed and dividing it by the number of active operators for that hour.  Related Reading: Formula for Calculating Staffing NeedsFormula for Calculating Staffing Needs

7.  Step 3 - Examine the statistics for your business to determine your needs during the busiest periods. Many companies have a slow season and a busy season—be sure to factor in the needs you have during the busiest time of year. o For instance, if your call center volume spikes during the holiday season and you suddenly receive 5,000 calls per day, use that number in determining the highest staffing level you are likely to need.  Step 4- Determine how many workers you will need during your heaviest periods by dividing the number from Step 3 by the average productivity number you found in Step 2. o Keep in mind that you might need to round that number up to account for the training of new workers. Until they get up to speed and gain some experience, your new hires will probably be less productive than the average veteran worker.  Step 5- Create a plan to staff your business during the peak times without leaving you with too many workers when business goes back to its normal levels. One of the most effective ways to ramp up quickly during peak periods of activity is to use temporary or contract employees.  Developing a good relationship with a quality staffing agency can help you get the workers you need when those spikes in activity occur. Another advantage of using temporary workers is that those temps can be an excellent source of full-time employees when the need arises.

8.  1 Identify what tasks need to be performed to create and service customers. Identify important business procedures inside your company. o According to Michael Gerber, author of The E-Myth Revisited, these roles should revolve around tasks to service customers. Three foundation activities include: innovation (sales and marketing), quantification (finance) and orchestration (operations).  2 Create a work flow chart. List work flow steps to create a product, sell and market the product, create and service the product, bill clients, track accounts payable and receivable and report results. o Listing each business function allows the owner to find opportunities to create systems in each step. This allows the owner to hire people with low knowledge levels rather than expensive experts.  3 Look for log jams in your business processes. Break apart these work flow steps among each of the key business areas. Creating and distributing marketing pieces may be a function of sales and marketing, while manufacturing widgets falls under operations. o Look for log jams where business processes may stall. Divide these tasks further to speed up work flow and improve your organizational structure.  4 Become profitable by serving clients reliably. Decide on the target profit level of the company. This profit goal should be referenced throughout the creation of the organizational chart. o Gerber maintains that companies exist to make profits, not create revenues to be spent in creating and servicing customers.

9.  5 Place a price tag on each task performed by the operation. Determine costs to perform each task and maintain the operation. If the target profit amount cannot be maintained, re-examine the organizational chart to determine how profits may be created while still creating and satisfying customers.  6. Create a clear list of tasks and chain of command for your operation. Divide tasks into defined roles with a clear chain of command for each role. Initially, the same person may fill more than one role until your company expands enough to hire a person for each position. o Later, these positions will be divided as an increased work flow makes hiring additional staff necessary. By knowing the tasks that need to be reassigned, you will be able to better target potential employees when hiring.  7. Create target compensation amounts for your organizational structure. Place compensation numbers on each position in the organizational structure based on income and profitability. Initially, these monetary goals may not be feasible because the business has not ramped up to its own target income level. o However, these goals help the owner plan the operation, and may be used to give new employees hired into each role an idea of the income potential of each position within the firm. They may also be used for profit sharing and commission-based incentives, if desired.  8. Closely look for bottlenecks in your workflow. Re-examine your organizational chart as the business operates. o According to the AGI Goldratt Institute, your business speed and profitability are always slowed by bottlenecks in your process. Change your business process and organizational structure to remove these constraints. A good organizational structure based on process flow will allow you to determine the core constraint quickly.

10.  Determine what positions and responsibilities are critical for your business start-up. Assign job titles to the positions and decide who should report to whom.  Write a rationale for your decisions and prepare an organizational chart to depict that structure.  Place the organizational chart and rationales in your folder.