Supporting small business building out and strengthening operating infrastructure

Over the last few years, The Ops Collective has worked with a number of small businesses to help them establish and build out their operating infrastructure and/or strengthen existing business operations. As a S-Corp small business ourselves, we understand the necessity of strong, sustainable, and effective infrastructure and operations protocols. We approach this work with the goal of understanding the ways in which you want your business to grow (e.g., strategy), ensuring profitability, while also maintaining sustainable operations so that you and your employees have a thriving wage and work life balance. 

The Ops Collective Has Supported Small Businesses In the Following Ways:

Human Resources/People Operations 

• Oversee the research and due diligence to identify and provide recommendations for approval of an HR structure to facilitate payroll, benefits administration, and regional registrations and taxes (PEO or other recommendations) for domestic employees and/or contractors. 

• Identify and implement people operations systems as needed, including an employee handbook, PTO policies, hiring/recruiting systems, timekeeping systems (if needed), and expense reimbursement. 

• Design Benefits Package for Employees, including supplemental benefits like Short-term and long-term disability, FSA, HSA/HRA, parental leave, fertility, gender-affirming care, etc.

Financial Management 

• Oversee the research and due diligence to identify and provide recommendations for a financial management structure ensuring all financial operations, systems, and procedures are on track. This includes preparing an RFP for an accounting partner, providing recommendations on potential firms, building a scorecard and rubric, and setting up conversations with firms. 

• In coordination with the selected accountant, oversee the development and implementation of financial management systems, including, but not limited to, identifying a banking partner, credit card system, accounts payable and invoicing platform, developing a chart of accounts, and setting up financial reporting systems. 

• In coordination with the accounting partner, establish an annual budget and cash flow. 

• In coordination with the selected accountant, develop financial management policies and protocols to ensure strong financial controls and process efficiencies. 

Legal & Compliance 

• Identify outside counsel. 

• Identify what insurance coverage is needed to sufficiently cover the organization’s primary risks.

• In coordination with counsel, ensure all necessary governance infrastructure and documentation is in place as well as all necessary business registrations. 

• Prepare a compliance calendar and checklists for annual registrations and reporting.

Contracting and Invoicing 

• Develop and implement policies, systems, processes, and templates to support the execution of client and vendor contracts. 

• Develop process for issuing and managing client invoices. 

• Develop process for tracking client contracts and when renewals, amendments, and extensions are needed. 

Business Development, Bill Rates & Capacity Management 

• Support in determining bill rates and capacity budgets that meet revenue and time-off goals, with the objective of creating a more sustainable work life balance for the entire team. This can include: 

  • Develop an annual budget

  • Develop time off/PTO goals 

  • Calculate bill rates 

  • Supporting the evaluation of what client rates need to increase, what engagements should end due to loss of profitability, or what engagements need to be rescoped based on time spent on clients 

• Establish a capacity management structure for the team. This can include: 

  • Gathering data to input into capacity management software (contracts, hours, bill rates, etc.) 

  • Training team members on how to use and manage capacity management system moving forward 

  • Supporting in any team training for recording time 

• Build out process for tracking and projecting pipeline revenue. This includes: 

  • Projecting revenue based on existing contracts 

  • Determining when new business is needed, and at what level 

  • Establishing revenue goals