Team Test: Your Team Structure

http://eventualmillionaire.com/webinar

Are you a successful business owner? And still feel like everything you do, which is a ridiculous amount, is never enough? Don’t worry. You are not alone!!

I’m Jaime, I’ve worked with entrepreneurs, 6- and 7- figure ones, for over 10 years straight. Hundreds and hundreds of them. And they all feel similar.

You are building momentum bit by bit but not nearly as much as you want. And you get a thousand things turned at you every single day. You always have to be on top of things. You have to make the decisions and it never feels you are. Like you are always out of control.

I’m going to go through an easy step-by-step process that I use for my clients to figure out what those key pieces are to make you feel like your getting on top of things so you will have that clarity where you can move forward and start feeling more in control.

Our process will help you be more effective, happier and feel like you’re on the right track!!

The TEAM TEST: 3 Part Series:

• Part 1: Right Structure (the video above)
• Part 2: Right Strengths
• Part 3: Right Metrics

Key Learnings:

• What the wrong structure looks like
• Why you might need an operator
• 3-Step process for having the right structure

Action Items:

1. Create your Team Roster

Download Team Roster Template

2. Pick A Structure

Download Structure 1: C-Suite Template

Download Structure 2: Owner & Operator Template

3. Fill in the roles?

Transcript: Download

Video Transcription provided by GMR Transcription Services.

Welcome to Eventual Millionaire!

I'm Jaime Masters and today on the show we have... ME!

So today, I'm doing something a little bit different. I'm actually gonna tell about a new thing that I've been working on the background for almost a year now. Plus, I'm gonna give you some amazing content that's gonna tell you whether or not your team sucks.

So an assessment will be going through a few different videos coming up in the podcast all about it. But stay tuned because I'm gonna tell you a brief introduction of what I've really been working with with my client.

Because I am working with a hundreds of 6- and 7- figure clients for ten plus years. I've been a coach for ridiculously long time. It feels like there were patterns that keep coming up over and over again.

So, in the first 6 figures, you are really trying to work on sales and marketing. It's grow... grow... grow... And you really don't pay much attention to the systems. You're building up your team as best as you can but you don't have a lot of cash flow. That's totally cool.

When you hit 6- and 7- figure, especially mid 6-figure, that shifts. Right? That really shifts. It really is a lot more about your team and the systems you are creating and making sure that things are efficient. So that way we don't have to spend so much time on the marketing and selling. And I'm getting overwhelmed. Oh, no. The team is getting crazy. And then, you degrade on the marketing and sales side because you are trying to wear too many hats all at once.

So that's a huge problem. And when I would go and talk to clients, they know it's a problem. They feel overwhelmed. They feel like everything they do is not enough because it is a constantly evolving thing. It keeps growing and growing and growing. Your to do list never ends.

And the problem with that though is that the lowest priority is always tended to be systemization. Because that does not make you the cash flow and you are worried about cash flow. Especially, if you have a team to need to pay.

I get very excited over this.

So, the issue was or what I found is that your team, sometimes they don't know the best way to systemize and because you don't have the capacity to go through step by step with them. Usually, being an entrepreneur, systemization is not your sweet spot. You are visionaries. Definitely, not great in details. Typically, it starts to fall by the wayside. But what I wish for them is they could have, ideally a robot that does all our SOPs for us. Right? That figures out the best systems so that way we don't have to reinvent the wheel each time.

But when you look at those businesses or franchise businesses, those SOPs are those that people pays a tons of money for.

But I think that's changing. I think that systems are going to be way more open source and transparent. And I wanna start helping people with that now. So that way, it is easier and the team does not have to reinvent the wheel for each individual business.

I share SOPs with my clients all the time. I teach them the better and most efficient way to do these things. And that's what this new brand is all about.

Cause what would happen is that the owner would come to me. And the owner would go, "So, I know we need to do this but I don't know exactly where to start. And if I don't have somebody on my team that's really amazing at it. I can't tell them what to do either."

They don't have the wherewithal to create amazing business systems typically. I call that right person on the team, I call them operator but they can be the executive admin, project manager, online business manager or even what Rocketfuel calls, an integrator. But somebody that can really run with that stuff.

So what we did is we really want to make sure that the owner only have to make decisions that they really needed to make. What workflow we are using for? Sales process. What onboarding are we using for? What is the workflow look like and what are the pieces of decisions the owner needs to make. And then, go team. Go run with it.

So, we ended up doing is a Done-With-You service. It's been in beta. We actually did Done-For-You before that. And then, we did Done-With-You. In that way we could figure out what pieces and parts, which are hugely important. We gave them email templates, scripts and all that fun stuffs. So that stuff has been in beta. I'm super excited about it. We are going to talk about launching it in beta for the last time with you guys.

But before that, I really wanna help you no matter what cause we really worked with 6-figure companies. This is even helpful even if your barely making 6 figures. It would be really helpful if you are making over 6 figures.

So, I wanted to give you some content for free that we have been teaching. That will help you understand that it can be done and it is easier than you think. And you may or may not fire someone potentially. But we need to make sure that you are in the owner box.

So my mentor, way back when, used to always say that you need to be in the owner box. So, I say, "So, okay. Great. That make sense." We worked a lot on transitioning when somebody who is older and they want to retire and they wanted somebody else to take care of their business.

So, they had to be in the owner box not in the CEO box. When you think of an org chart, you think of who's on that list. And typically, the owner wears every single hat. Especially at the beginning. Or ten hats. They are the CEO and maybe the Marketing Manager because they love the marketing piece. Or maybe they are the sales guy because they also love doing sales.

What we wanted to do is get you out of those boxes and up into the owner box. So you can sell your company. Or you can go and sit by the beach and no one is bugging you. And that takes some time.

So, stay tuned because I'm gonna be doing a 3-part video series of how to find out:

a. If you team sucks or not.

b. What to do about it.

So that way we can start organizing a team structure, so you can actually get the most efficient processes put in place easier.

Sometimes, you feel like you are running on a hamster wheel because you tell your team to do stuff and it doesn't happen. That could be that you are a bad manager, as a lot of entrepreneurs tend to be, or it could be that your team isn't the right fit for the right roles.

This assessment of these 3 videos that I'm gonna share with you, will help you determine whether that's true or not and what to do about it.

I'm really excited to give you amazing content. So, stick with us. I will be teaching you a lot about this in the future.

Hope you have a fantastic day and keep watching.

How to Figure Out That Right Team Structure

Hey! Its Jaime from OwnerBox. And in this video, we are going to go over how to figure out that right team structure.

First, we have to go over what a wrong structure, that you might have, looks like. Along with, why you potentially need what I call "Operator." And then, we will be going over a 3-step process. To figure out which template, which we attached, is most useful for you. And how to fill in the right structure so that you know exactly what to do next.

If you ever heard of an org chart before, usually people think that it is for huge organizations. An organization which has a whole C-suite. Unfortunately, a 6- and 7- figure, especially lower 7-figure, it is difficult enough to have enough cash, enough gross revenue or enough profit to be able hire somebody really fantastic for those high-level positions.

So, the tendency to happen is we cobble together this org chart thing and we have too many people on too many spots on that org chart. And nobody has a clear picture of who technically is doing what.

Most of the time, when I asked entrepreneurs, they don't have anything written down of who's doing what or even great job descriptions of each one. They did when they hire that person and then, that person would take 3-4 different roles now. And now, it's kinda wishy wash on what everybody is doing.

I wanna go over the wrong way and how you'll know whether or not it's the wrong way.

take a look at this. This is one way that I have seen and it will make as an owner feel crazy. Whether you have 5 people reporting to you or whether you have 20... 30... 40... Usually, when you have 20-40, you don't have a structure like that. But, typically, the owner is the one that get stuck in the middle. And they didn't even notice that they are doing it. They know in their head that so and so report to so and so. And yet, because as owner we have as sometimes a problem of letting go of things. We micromanage a little bit more than we need to. It's difficult to even recognize that you have this.

When we go over the third part of this, which is that 3-step process, you will be able to figure this out a little bit easier.

But this is what it looks like, imagine everybody is looking at you. Everybody is like, "What do I do now? What do I need to do? Approve this. Look over this. Look at the copy. Look at this."

Even if you have a project manager, sometimes the project manager does a pieces of it and reports back to you. And everyone else reports to you. This especially happens when you have a few contractors and no person with authority that you have let go of the reins. In order to give authority to them.

Does that make sense?

On the next part, I want to talk about what I call an "operator." An  operator to me and what we use an owner-operator role setting could be an EA (Executive Admin, PM (Project Manager), OBM (Online Business Manager) or an integrator, which the book Rocketfuel by Gina Wickman talks about. It's a great book. Typically, for companies that are over $2 million. By I find it a really good read for even if you have less than that. Probably, 500,000-ish plus in gross revenue, depending on the service business. Depending on what your structure is. Because having somebody that could really be your right hand and you know can make the decisions and run with it is extremely important. But what we have tendency to do is we don't give anybody the authority that they need.

So, your operator is the person who has the authority to take what you say and run with it. Even if, it's not the exact way that you would do it as entrepreneur. That's always the little cracks in the problem because, as an entrepreneur, you want it done your way. And there are certains ways that you think versus certain ways that people who are potentially more detail oriented; like a project manager thinks. We need to give them what they do best. We'll talk about strengths in the next video. But please understand that having somebody like that, that you give a task to and walk away from and know it gets done is an extremely refreshing attitude and point of view of being a business owner. Because you don't have to feel like you are holding the weight of the world yourself.

Let's get through that step by step process so that we can start to figure out:

a. If you do need an operator, and
b. Who the heck it might be if its so.

So what I want you to do right now, we've included an excel spreadsheet but you can write it on a piece of paper if you like. It does not have to be formalize. The reason why you could put it on an excel document is that this will actually become your team roster. You can actually keep it in your business too, what we have attached there in the team roster excel spreadsheet.

But I want you to do is want you to right down every employees name. Write down your name, then write down every employee you have and underneath that write down every contractors' name that you have. Write everything down, so, eventually you can fill out the rest of it and it will become your team roster, like their email address, phone number. Because you should have that information in one place anyway. I'm gonna give about a minute to write that down. You can either stop the video or you can just wait.

The reason why I want you to do this right this second is because if you are watching this video and you are in the car, you're not gonna do it. You just not. If you are audio listening to it, I want you to actually do this right now. If you don't do it right now, most likely you're not gonna come back to it later and do it again. So go ahead...

Alright, step number two, there are two templates that we've included. Now, this is mostly for service type businesses. There's a totally different structure for eCom or product based company and we don't typically focus on those. I've worked with people that are more in the service business. So, don't get me wrong. We can totally send you, if you are an eCom company watching this right now. We can send one of those. Send us an email at contact@onwerbox.com.

But if you are a service company right now, there are two templates. I want you to look at both of them. One has a typical C Suite structure. It is a template that you can  move around. It's in keynote and powerpoint, so you should be able to do it yourself. I don't wanna use some crazy type of software that you don't have an access to. I just want you to be able to move things around, simply and easily. If you want to draw this out too, it is also helpful. But look at the structure template that we have and draw it out for yourself. Or if you have a mind mapping software that you really like that would be great too.

1. C - Suite type.

2. The Owner and Operator type.

When you are really small, it's difficult to have a whole entire C Suite. So what the tendency that we have to do is put every single name in every single box. So, if you are the owner, you are also the COO... You are also the CMO... You are Chief of Sale... You are also the CFO... You're in every single box and it makes it very difficult to understand where you are in what box at that time. Because you are running like a crazy person doing all those stuffs all day long and it does not matter which box you are in. It's just an extra stuff that you care about as an entrepreneur and you are running forward. The problem though with having those different roles is that you don't take on what you really should.

My mentor used to always tell to just put on a different hat. If you are on the CFO hat, put on your CFO hat. Pretend that you are putting on a different hat. MOst people don't do that.

If you have the capacity and your team, when you look at the team roster that you have, you have enough employees to actually move them in more into project management or manager role so that people can actually report to them. You don't have to call them CMO because that would most likely mean that they're gonna ask for money. But you wanna start giving them more of those responsibilities or grooming the people who are in potentially marketing to move up into those roles. That way you know who you might need to hire next. Oh. I don't have somebody that could be an amazing marketing manager. Therefore, I'm gonna hire that next person and groom them so that I can step out of that role. Does that make sense? Sometimes it's good that you really feel the C Suite and know that you have enough employees that fill those roles. That's why you would wanna pick the number 1.

If you are smaller or you feel that you don't have those people on the team that could really move up in the management role, then I want you to take a look at number 2 for that template. Number 2 is where we talked about the owner and operator. The operator is having this right hand that really pays attention to the accountability, the details. They're technically operations manager-ish material. They could be an executive admin. I know I have an executive admins that's so amazing, they get everything else done and pretty much manage everything for me. So that great thing about, even having an EA, you don't necessarily call them into a project manager you can call them into that. We are calling them an operator because what I want is a one point of contact. If you are not a great manager, this is the great structure for you. Because if people are reporting to you and you're too quick with them or you don't explain it well enough, that's big problem that entrepreneurs have, they don't have a definition of "done" when they give a project. They just say, "Go do it" and then get something back. It's not their employees fault, it's their fault for not describing the end result - the best.

So, if you have that type of attitude like, "Go and be free," and don't really wanna be the manager that you know you need to be. Look at the operator type role. Now, do you anyone in your company already that you might be able to move up into that role? What I found is sometimes you don't and we need to bring in an online business manager. We need to bring somebody, even as a contractor position, that can really run the rest of the group.

What I want you to do right now is pick either structure one, the C Suite, or structure two, which is the owner and operator. I'll give you a couple of minutes to open those up and take a look and decide which one you want.

For the last part, step number 3, you've chosen which one that you want, so now, I need you to go ahead and understand who those team roster goes where on this new structure. You might need to create new categories or new people. If you take a look at that org chart structure or team structure, it all have one box for contractor and a double box for people who are employees. So that you can know that this is my employees versus this is my contractors. So that someone looks at your template really quickly, you'll be able to know who's what type of employee or contractor for you. Take a look t that and what I want you to do is map it. You can totally draw that out first if it is easier, especially if you messed up a few times. Most likely, there will be duplicate names in duplicate boxes. For example, you have somebody in your marketing type team but they do the design, they also do the ghost writing sometimes, they also project manage a little bit. So, you'll probably put the same names in many different spots. What I found out is that the owner has a tendency to wear typically 17 different hats. So, when you actually look at the structure is the owner is actually doing way more than they even realize.

In the next video, we are going over why it says strengths in each one of these. And exactly how to find those typically strengths. And if we got the right people in the right boxes. Because I'm gonna make you rate everybody. But for now, all I want you to do is just record who's doing what.

It should be pretty easy but let us know if you have any questions at all. So that at the end of this, just a little recap, you'll know if you having that wrong structure in your company or not, where everybody is coming to you. Along with, if you need an operator or not. And by now, if you actually took the time to do it, which I'm give you time right now. You better do it right now. So go ahead and have that end result structure in a keynote or powerpoint with names in each box. Make sure you save it because gonna be using it in the next video.

Take care.

Tags: Business Owner, entrepreneur podcast, eventual millionaire, functional organization structure examples, jaime masters, millionaire entrepreneurs, podcast, start-ups / startups, startup entrepreneur, team organizational structure, team structure examples, top entrepreneurs

Categories: Business

Hi I’m Jaime. Each and every week I bring you the top business advice from the people who know best.

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