We want to apply the structure before people rule to design our Accountability Chart for our three year target, but we cannot afford to hire the external talent needed to fill these new vacant seats today. How do we structure the business for future value without breaking our current payroll budget?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When designing your Accountability Chart, you must build the structure that the business needs to reach its three year target, regardless of your current payroll constraints or people. This future chart represents your exit-ready superstructure. If you design your chart based only on what you can afford today, you will remain trapped in your current operational bottlenecks.

The correct approach is to design the ideal future structure first. Once the structure is locked in, you will inevitably find several major vacant seats that you cannot afford to hire for immediately. Do not ignore these seats. Instead, place the names of your existing leadership team members into these vacant seats as temporary owners.

This forces you to acknowledge that one person is currently wearing multiple hats. It highlights the exact capacity constraints that are holding your business back. You can then use your V/TO® and financial planning to determine the revenue milestones required to fund each new hire.

By mapping out which seats will be funded and filled first, you create a clear, step by step plan to delegate responsibilities. This shows future buyers a realistic roadmap of how the company scales its operations without depending on a single heroic founder. It transforms a chaotic hiring plan into a disciplined strategic resource allocation process.