Step 5 of Building a Better Business

Anna Stubbs • August 2, 2023

Get your organisation structure right

Your ideal structure will allow your business to become more efficient and achieve economies of scale. This increases your bottom line returns at a greater rate than your revenue. Your organisation structure should allow your revenue to increase without creating bottlenecks.


An organisation structure should show all ten departments in your business, who is responsible for what, and how the hierarchy works.



Each department should have only one leader. The same person can lead more than one department, but two or more people can't lead the same department.

Every organisation has 10 departments:

  1. Shareholder.
  2. Director.
  3. Leadership.
  4. Product / Service Development.
  5. Operations.
  6. Marketing.
  7. Sales.
  8. Finance.
  9. HR.
  10. Admin / Technology.

If you’re the owner of the business and currently lead multiple departments, ask yourself how well you're leading each department. It's likely there are some you don't enjoy as much as others and procrastinate doing the tasks within that role.


Consider outsourcing or training one of your team members to take over the leadership of those departments you've been neglecting. They’ll likely do a better job and you’ll free up some time! Remember, overloaded team members (you included) are more likely to make mistakes. Also, paving the way for your team to grow and develop improves loyalty and engagement.



It’s important that your Organisation Chart is a living and breathing document that your team understands and works in sync with. Check in regularly to ensure your team is aligned with the structure and the hierarchy is being respected. During performance reviews, discuss whether there have been any changes to each team member’s role and update the chart to reflect these.

We can help you create the best organisation structure for your business, along with job descriptions for each role. Get in touch!

“Mission defines strategy and strategy defines structure.” - Peter Drucker

By Anna Stubbs April 9, 2025
Hiding in the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) announcements published on 26 March was a technical note entitled ‘Modernising the tax system through Making Tax Digital‘. This note announces that the income threshold for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax & Self Assessment (or MTD for ITSA) is to drop to £20,000 per annum for sole traders and landlords. If you fall into this category, this means moving your tax completely over to digital by April 2026. But don’t worry, let’s see what MTD for ITSA is all about.
By Anna Stubbs April 9, 2025
Uncertainty can be a major threat to your strategic financial planning. Being unsure of what lies around the corner makes it difficult to make those important financial decisions around operational budgets, investment and growth funding. But by using forecasting and scenario-planning, you make it easier to manage your finances and reduce some of the financial uncertainty.
By Anna Stubbs April 9, 2025
Some great new enhancements have come to Xero in the first few months of the year, here's some important features that have been released: Enhancements to the new invoicing Keyboard shortcuts. Drag and drop attachments. Date Picker quick select. Exchange rate adjustments in the invoice. Tracking categories for invoices. Automated bill entry The ability to upload bills directly to Xero, create one or many bills by dragging and dropping multiple files. Xero creates draft bills with the key details, and the original document is attached. Other important features (region dependent) Bank feed updates (Australia adds Suncorp Bank, United States gains PNC Commercial). Simplified whole operations with improved sales orders (United States). Easier 1099 reporting and filing (United States). Streamlined tax workflow and compliance (United Kingdom). Easier reporting (United States Schedule C compliance report, New Zealand not-for-profit tier 3 & 4 PBE reports). For the full breakdown read Xero's update .