Small Business Organizational Chart
Searching for how to understand your business from the inside? You would require a tool that provides a high-level overview of the company. This article will tell you what a small business organizational chart is, how it is made, and why it is essential for your business.
1. What is a Small Business Organizational Chart?
A small business organizational chart is a document that presents an overview of a business, including departments and connections with other entities. It shows us how a company works internally, how its departments are functioning, the relationships with other departments, the head of the departments, etc. The diagram helps in many ways to control and track the business from the inside. The data can be used to produce analytics with meaningful information and intelligence.
Click on the image to edit. Source: EdrawMax Online
1.1 Types of Small Business Organizational Charts
Hierarchical Organizational Chart
Hierarchical organizational charts are used for the companies or businesses that are small or enormous with hundreds of departments working. A startup can use a hierarchical organizational chart because if it does not belong to the parent organization, it would have five to six small departments with a few employees. Enormous companies can use hierarchical organizational charts because tracking such companies is possible with this type of chart.
Hierarchical Organizational Chart
The hierarchical small business organizational chart is used in every industry to get a high-level overview of the business. Whether small or large, a business can be mapped using the hierarchical structural model. On completion, you will get a hierarchy with every department working inside the company and their connections.
Functional Organizational Chart
If a business has large departments and works independently, then a functional small organizational chart can map those departments and their connections. The chart also presents more lines of communications for the directors and managers to collaborate with multiple teams. So, all the things are mapped in the functional small business organizational chart.
Matrix Organizational Chart
In a matrix small business organizational chart, those businesses are mapped with cross-functional departments. Due to the cross-functionality and multiple jobs of employees and departments, a complex hierarchy is made, which can be handled with a matrix organizational chart.
Circular Organizational Chart
Circular business organizational charts are more like hierarchical charts, but they are not mapped as described above; rather, the circle's core includes the leading positions in a circular chart. Other departments or staff cover the center forming a circle.
1.2 Does My Small Business Need an Organization Chart?
You will see this question almost everywhere in your quest to find bits and bytes about the small business organizational chart. People ask this question because they do not know the importance of a small business organizational chart. There are endless situations in which you would require a perfect small business organizational chart. Some of them are listed below. Below, we have gathered some use cases for our readers to showcase the importance of the diagram.
Help in decision making
Business organizational charts help the board of directors, managers, executives, and other business leaders to make the right decisions for the betterment of the business. If business leaders have an organizational chart on their table, they will quickly make decisions without any research.
Means of communication
An organizational chart helps employees know about the means of communication inside the business. With an organizational chart, an employee quickly knows to whom they must communicate or report.
Roles and Responsibilities
The organizational chart helps everyone understand how the business is working and the true sense of their roles and responsibilities.
Produce meaningful data for improvement
The organizational chart helps the analytics team understand the business's internal environment, which allows them to produce the intelligence to boost the business's growth quickly.
Click on the image to edit. Source: EdrawMax Online
2. How to Create a Small Business Organizational Chart?
This section will tell you the general concepts used in making an excellent small business organizational chart. Before jumping directly at the tool, you must know how the chart is created. We will discuss the tool in the last section.
2.1 Know the type of structure your business follows
The first step you have to perform is very important, and it is the core of every small or large business organizational chart. Above we have already discussed the types of the organizational chart. The step is to find the internal structural model your organization follows. For those readers who skipped directly to this section, we will give an overview of the types of the organizational chart.
When you make an organizational chart, you first complete the hierarchies by seeing the employees' connections in the department or an organization. Those organizations with large departments will use the functional organizational chart. In the matrix model, those departments that work cross-functionally and have multiple jobs are mapped. Any structural model can be mapped on a circular model. In the circular model, the circle core covers the leading positions.
2.2 Gather all the data and information
After identifying the structural type, you have to gather all the data about every department working inside the organization. The information like the head of departments, functions, relationships with external parties, etc. Gather all the data like this and write it down for the next steps.
2.3 Pick up the suitable tool
Now, pick up the tool that will help you make an excellent business organizational chart. You can try multiple tools that provide diagram-making services, but the best practice is to get the tool that provides the template functionality and helps you in avoiding errors.
2.4 Complete the organizational chart
After selecting the tool according to your need, start building the organizational chart. You can begin with the template to boost productivity, then map all the data gathered and include the necessary organizational chart symbols. When completing the chart, send it to review from the supervisor for corrections and approvals.
3. Small Business Organizational Chart Examples
To make your mind clearer about the small business organizational chart, we have gathered some examples so you can take ideas and learn from them quickly.
Example 1: Small Construction Company Organizational Chart
It is the best example of a small construction company organizational chart. The chart shows the leading position of the CEO and then multiple positions like finance, operations, IT, sales marketing, etc. The sales manager gets notes from the marketing department. The diagram follows the hierarchical model only because of its size and lack of many employees.
Example 2: Small Business Coffee Shop Organizational Chart
The chart is of the small coffee shop organizational chart. The leading position of the owner is who gives directions to the administrator. The administrator manages the whole shop on behalf of the owner with the micro-manager below him. The micro-manager supervises the chef, waiters, and baristas. The chart also includes some degree of the functional structure.
Example 3: Small Real Estate Company Organizational Chart
You can get a quick guide from this small real-estate company organizational chart. The company is very small and follows the hierarchical structural model. There are only five employees, including the owner. The owner notes the positions below him, like marketing, payroll officer, managers, etc. The agents are also included as they bring clients to the company.
Example 4: Small Travel Agency Organizational Chart
This small travel agency organizational chart includes both hierarchical and functional models. The company has multiple departments and includes micro-managers like sales, operations, and administrators, who perform their respective tasks. The chart does not include any director and executive position; only managerial position is included. Such charts in which only administrative functions are included as a leading entity can be made for separate departments.
Example 5: Small Retail Store Organizational Chart
It is the construction company's organizational chart. The chart uses the hierarchical organizational chart model because construction companies don't have divisions spread across multiple locations. The chart can also be made using the matrix or functional organizational chart because some departments in the construction company work cross-functionally. So to handle them, you can take ideas from this chart and make yours. The chart does not include the business leadership positions, and so the diagram only depicts the department's managers working together.
Example 6: Small Cleaning Company Organizational Chart
It is the perfect example of a carpet cleaning company organizational chart. It includes hierarchical and functional models with multiple departments, but all work under the president's umbrella. The operations manager, salesperson, office manager are the head of their respective departments. All the departments in the organization are working independently.
4. Best Small Business Organizational Chart Maker
For this highly professional and time-consuming task, you can prioritize EdrawMax Online, developed by Wondershare. The application is full of features and easiest to use. You will make your diagram with drag-and-drop functionality in EdrawMax.
EdrawMax also includes the templating feature in which you can choose the template from the EdrawMax template library and start modifying it. The application has more than five thousand diagram-making symbols, which you can include with simple drag-and-drop. EdrawMax also allows you to import your project for further editing and export them in multiple formats.
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