Since the start of my work in the area of operations and management for small business, I focused on the title of General Manager, Integrator, Director of Operations, or Chief Operating Officer as the 2nd in Command...the number two. We recently fine-tuned our ideal client down to business owners with 1-10 employees. During our assessment of businesses in that size, We determined that the 2nd in command in these small businesses is referred to most of the time as the "Office Manager".

As we thought more about it, we determined that the Office Manager role is way under appreciated. They are often required to do frontline work as well as managerial work and then on certain days, strategic work. They need to understand all aspects of the businesses operations. One day completing payroll the next day dealing wit a client issue. They are typically the ones that would be executing our 6-practices of Structured Operations: Process Development, SOP Documentation, Role Descriptions, Analytics, Training Plans, and Continuous Improvement.

I promise going forward that we'll give proper care and recognition to the brave, hard working Office Managers.