20 Organizational Chart Examples for Small Businesses (2024)

Are you looking for a small business organizational chart that fits your business? Then you have come to the right place. A good organizational chart can give hierarchy and structure to your business, and can help your team perform to its fullest potential.

However, there is no one-size-fits-all organizational structure that works for every small business. Therefore, we've put together 20 small business organizational chart examples and templates that you can edit using Visme's organizational chart maker.

Here’s a short selection of 8 easy-to-edit organizational chart templates you can edit, share and download with Visme. View more templates below:

Let's get started.

Table of Contents

• What is an Organizational Chart?
• Types of Organizational Charts
• 20 Organizational Chart Examples to Inspire Your Own
• Does My Small Business Need an Organizational Chart?
• How to Create a Small Business Organizational Chart

What is an Organizational Chart?

An organizational chart, also called an org chart, is a graphic organizer that helps you illustrate the employee hierarchy relations in your organization. It helps demonstrate roles and responsibilities, and who employees should report to within the team.

Many small businesses choose to not create one as their employee relationships are uncomplicated and clear. However, this is not a wise decision. A small business organizational chart is more than just the visualization of reporting relationships of the employees.

An organizational chart has many potential benefits in managing human resources issues. Let's look at 20 small business organizational chart templates to help you create your own.

Types of Organizational Charts

As we mentioned earlier, there is no universal formula for creating an organizational chart that fits all the businesses. Therefore, before jumping into making the small business organizational chart, understand the types of charts available.

Below are some of the most popular types of organizational charts. Choose the one that makes the most sense for your business.

1. Hierarchical Organizational Chart

Also known as the line organizational chart, the hierarchical organizational chart is the most popular and useful one due to its simplicity. This type of org chart is ideal for sales, marketing, and engineering departments.

However, you can organize this chart by function, product, geographic location, or by many other companies. This type of small business organizational chart works well for defining roles and responsibilities and helps visualize the organization's employee hierarchy.

Look at the small business organizational chart below. The CEO comes at the top, then comes the VP of advertising, and then other managerial positions such as creative manager, product manager, art director and others.

2. Horizontal or Flat Organizational Chart

A horizontal or flat organizational chart is another popular chart. This org chart organizes its components in a more lateral grouping, ideal for small businesses with a lot of overlap in their roles.

A horizontal organizational chart is better for a startup or small business in its early days when employees wear many hats instead of an organization with lots of middle managers.

Use this type of org chart when you want your team members to take more responsibility and work independently while continuously communicating with each other. Furthermore, this chart helps improve coordination, increasing the speed of implementing new ideas.

3. Matrix Organizational Chart

A matrix org chart is best for visualizing a more complex organizational structure. This chart follows a matrix-shaped diagram, so the layout focuses more on relationships and communication, and less on the hierarchy of authority. Here is an example.

The best part about a matrix org chart is that it streamlines various teams and allows more accessible interactions. Furthermore, it gives you a clear picture of how an individual team collaborates. Project managers love this type of org chart because of its ability to make project management more efficient.

20 Organizational Chart Examples to Inspire Your Own

1. Team Organizational Chart

Let's start with the horizontal, simplistic organizational chart template. In this template, the CEO is at the top, then comes the directors, and then the managers and other employees. You can use this template to decorate your "Meet the Team" page.

2. Product Organizational Chart

Does your company deal with multiple products? Then you might have different teams set for each product. Use this small business organizational chart to display which team is responsible for which product and their roles and responsibilities.

This template will bring more transparency to your business operations and give your employees complete visibility into what they are building together.

3. Sales Department Organizational Chart

The structure of a sales force has a significant bearing on its success. Because sales is what ultimately generates revenue and helps the business grow. Use this sales department organizational chart template to build your sales org chart in minutes.

The template displays the most common sales structure: a sales director, distribution manager, regional sales manager, sales supervisor, channel supervisor and sales representative.

4. Editorial Department Organizational Chart

The editorial department of a newspaper organization is its heart and soul. In fact, the entire business of a successful newspaper organization depends on the effectiveness of its editorial department.

From gathering news and selecting which news and features should be published in the newspaper to editing and laying the news for print, the editorial department takes care of everything.

So, if you are a newspaper organization or planning to build one, use this organizational chart template to create the perfect structure.

5. Small Photographic Organizational Chart

You may have heard the phrase, "A Picture Tells a Thousand Words." Take your org chart to the next level by adding pictures and giving it a more personal touch.

Create a photographic organizational chart using this template. This org chart can be a handy tool for vendors, customers, job applicants, new hires and others who should be more familiar with your team.

6. Project Team Organizational Chart

The success of your project depends on the strength of your project team. Misaligned project management teams negatively impact the outcome of a project. So, create a project team organizational chart to determine the hierarchy and authority of people involved in your project.

The project team organizational chart template helps you define each team member's function and reporting relationships. Also, the chart allows you clearly understand which employees are part of which team.

7. Small Business Organizational Chart

Edit this organizational chart template to create a perfect small business organizational chart. The chart follows a hierarchical structure where the owner is at the top, followed by the managers and the assistant managers.

8. Cross-Functional Organizational Chart

Does your team include diverse talent and responsibilities that are traditionally separated into different departments, business units, or teams?

Then this cross-functional organizational chart is for you. Customize this template to create a perfect org chart to help all your teams and departments work together.

9. Law Firm Organizational Chart

Are you a law firm business owner? Then you might want to consider our law firm organizational chart template. It will help you structure your organization's hierarchy of command efficiently.

The template includes your board of directors, president, legal manager, non-legal manager, treasury officer, general secretary and many others.

10. Police Organizational Chart

Police departments often publish their organizational chart to give the public a clear visibility of their structure. Visualize the reporting structure of your police department easily using this organizational chart template.

Here, the Police Chief is at the top with Sergeants, Lieutenants and other Officers arranged in a hierarchy, helping you visualize the whole department easily.

11. Restaurant Organizational Chart

Use this restaurant organizational chart to align jobs with necessary tasks for the success of your restaurant. However, since every restaurant operates differently, there may be some variations in the structure.

For example, a fast food restaurant, where guests order through a cashier, is different than a full-service restaurant, where guests are seated, served and cared for.

Customize every part of this template to create an organizational chart according to your business structure.

12. Church Organizational Chart

Like any other organization, a church needs a structure in place to be able to operate properly.

The structure helps the church point out the functions of each department and their reporting relationships and also allocates duties according to departmental functions.

A church structure is best illustrated with an organizational chart. Customize this stunning org chart template to represent the relationship between units or departments graphically.

13. Nonprofit Organizational Chart

Nonprofits, like for-profit organizations, can use organizational charts to highlight the hierarchy within the organization. It will help you define staff roles, responsibilities and relationships with each other to make the team more productive and efficient.

Furthermore, an org chart helps you market your nonprofit internally and externally. Use organizational chart this template to do the same.

14. Construction Organizational Chart

Most construction businesses, especially the small ones, don't have an organizational chart.

Owning and operating a construction company without a decision-making tool like an organizational chart is like trying to build a project without a set of plans. Consider using a small business organizational chart for your construction business to operate smoothly.

The hardest part of designing your organizational chart is knowing where to start. So, use this template to create an org chart within minutes.

15. School Organizational Chart

Since organizational charts are used to outline the roles and responsibilities of team members, they can play a vital role in schools. They can give you a bird's-eye view of your school's organizational structure, therefore, better work distribution.

If your school needs an organizational chart template, consider using this one. It contains high-quality components such as effective design elements and placeholder content, which you can easily customize to meet your org chart design needs.

16. Hospital Organizational Chart

Hospitals are the critical organizations that require precision in executing job roles and responsibilities and multiple layers of accountability to function effectively.

In order to achieve this, most hospitals follow a proper organizational structure with multiple layers of management.

Use this organizational chart template to ensure hospital employees know their responsibilities, reporting relationships, and who to approach in emergencies.

17. Startup Organizational Chart

Statistics revealed that over 50% of US startups shut their doors within five years. And one of the significant reasons for startup failure is poor team organization. Startups are unable to develop a group of people that will work together effectively on the same project.

So, to make a strong team and rapidly grow your startup, you need a proper organizational structure. Customize this template to create your startup organizational chart.

18. Marketing Organizational Chart

The recipe for marketing success depends on three ingredients: a breakthrough strategy, a strong execution plan and a great team.

How you organize your marketing team significantly impacts your ability to achieve your marketing plan and goals. Why? Because your marketing team is responsible for core marketing functions like content creation, social media, product marketing, ads and more.

Edit this template to design a great marketing organizational chart.

19. Project Organizational Chart

A properly designed project organizational chart is essential to your project's success. An organizational chart should be in your toolbox if you are a project manager.

It will help you assign tasks to different team members and help them understand their responsibilities and reporting relationships easily.

You can edit this template to create your own project organizational chart.

20. Digital Marketing Organizational Chart

Creating a digital marketing team can be tricky. Defining roles and responsibilities, the right mix of talent and strong leadership to keep the team in sync and aligned with the company's marketing goals is not an easy task.

However, an org chart can help you perform these tasks quickly and efficiently. Regardless of your team structure, this template can help you create a stunning organizational chart in minutes.

Does My Small Business Need an Organizational Chart?

There are around 32.5 million small businesses in the US alone, which account for 99.9% of all businesses in the US. But what most startups struggle with is coming up with a scalable and stable structure that positively impacts efficiency and productivity.

As a business owner, you want to make the most of your small business. An organizational chart can help you drive efficiency and streamline business operations in many ways.

Here are a few reasons your business may need an organizational chart.

1. Visually Represent Company Structure

Imagine a newly hired employee joining your company and attending her first meeting with the management team. The newly hired may know the hiring manager and a few other members but not everyone on the team and the other stakeholders. Just imagine how the meeting will go.

Use a small business organizational chart to visualize the structure of your organization. It's like a map that shows job positions and helps clarify leadership paths.

2. Improve Communication and Collaboration

Did you know that 86% of employees and executives cite the lack of effective communication and collaboration as the root cause for workplace failures? On the flip side, a team that communicates effectively can increase productivity by 25%.

As your small business grows and more and more employees join the team, communication and collaboration become tricky due to various teams and departments. An organizational chart can help you solve this problem.

With working relationships visible in an organizational chart, every team member knows whom to communicate with when they need assistance instead of struggling alone. The organizational chart will help the team understand the responsibilities of all the employees, helping to reduce wasted time and increase efficiency.

3. Make Quick Data-Driven Decisions

Small businesses have come to rely heavily on data-driven decisions to improve sales and grow their business. As an owner of a small business, there are various areas that you want to improve and optimize. To do that, you need to use every piece of data in the context of the business structure.

Which team does a manager lead? How many employees are on the team? What are the roles and responsibilities of each team member? You need answers to these questions to solve any problem. And with the organizational chart in hand, you know where to look for.

What team does the manager lead? How many staff members are on the team? What are the specific functions of each team member? To solve any problem, you need context. And the organizational chart is the first place to start when using employee reports.

4. Manage Business Growth Effectively

As a small business owner, you might want your company to grow rapidly. However, you should always be prepared to manage your company's growth effectively.

Whether you are merging two teams into one or hiring more employees, you can map out all the movements beforehand using the org chart, helping you to predict the team's success or failure. Ultimately helping you manage the growth of your organization.

5. Streamline the Onboarding Process

One of the most challenging parts for the new hire during the onboarding process is finding the way around the office. However, your small business organizational chart will orient the employee to the chain of command and facilitate onboarding.

The organizational chart is one of the easiest ways to introduce all the roles and responsibilities of the coworkers to the new hire. In other words, the org chart is a cheat sheet for the new hire to understand whom to approach for what information.

How to Create a Small Business Organizational Chart

Once you have decided on the type of organizational chart best for your business, it's time to create one. Follow these simple steps to create a small business organizational chart.

Step 1: Find the Right Type of Organizational Chart

Before making an organizational chart, you need to find the type of organizational chart that best fits your business structure. Whether it's a startup with 20-30 employees or a large business with more than 1000 employees, you can benefit from implementing an org chart best suited for your business size and work environment.

Choose the type of org chart from the types of organizational charts we have already discussed: the hierarchical, horizontal or matrix organizational chart.

Step 2: Choose an Organizational Chart Maker

Creating a small business organizational chart can be challenging, especially if you don't have any design experience. Fortunately, many free and paid tools are available in the market that can help you. One of the best among them is Visme's free organizational chart maker.

Visme offers a wide range of professional organizational chart templates that you can easily customize and make your own with a few clicks. Furthermore, the organizational chart maker comes with thousands of visuals such as icons, illustrations, lines, shapes, images, and much more.

Step 3: Customize an Organizational Chart Template

Once you have decided on the type of organizational chart that will best fit your organization, select an organizational chart template from Visme's template library to customize it.

With Visme, you can customize every aspect of your org chart template. Replace the employee names with yours, change the fonts, colors, shapes, lines, background and more.

Once you're satisfied with the organizational chart, download it in a high-quality PNG, JPG or PDF format. Moreover, you can share the chart or embed it on a blog or webpage using a unique link generated by the editor.

Read this article about how to make a flowchart to learn more about creating organizational charts in Visme.

Or, check out this video on how to make an organizational chart in Visme.

Create Your Small Business Organizational Chart Today

Now you know that an organizational chart helps visualize team structure, hierarchy or the reporting relationships that make your team more productive. So, create a small business organizational chart to help your employees find the right person to talk to, avoid bottlenecks and meet the growing needs of your business.

However, creating an effective organizational chart should not be difficult. Choose a template that matches your business type and customize it using Visme's organizational chart maker.

With Visme, your small business organizational chart is just a few clicks away. Create a free Visme account to get started!