The 5-person org chart

~~~ Founder ├── CS Specialist (1 person) ├── Ad Manager (1 person) ├── Operations/Designer hybrid (1 person) └── VA (existing) ~~~

Founder: Strategy, supplier relations, financial decisions, hiring/firing

CS Specialist (new): 100% customer service, return processing, chargeback prevention

Ad Manager (new): Campaign management, A/B testing, creative direction (works with designer)

Operations/Designer (new): Product page design, ad creative design, spreadsheet management, basic bookkeeping

VA (existing): Order management, supplier follow-ups, weekly reporting, customer comms (routine)

The meeting cadence (weekly)

Monday 9am — Founder + All-hands (30 min)

• Weekly revenue update (last week's numbers)
• One key metric update (ROAS, refund rate, avg response time, chargeback rate)
• One strategic decision (e.g., "We are pausing this product line" or "Budget increase for this audience")
• Questions

Tuesday 10am — Founder + Ad Manager (30 min)

• Ad performance review (ROAS by campaign, spend allocation)
• Creative testing update (what's performing, what's paused)
• Next week's tests (new audiences, new creative, new landing pages)
• Budget changes

Tuesday 4pm — Ad Manager + Designer (30 min)

• Creative brief for next week (product angle, tone, format)
• Review ad creatives in progress
• Feedback on designer's work

Wednesday 10am — Founder + CS Specialist (30 min)

• Refund rate, chargeback rate, response time
• One quality issue or pattern (e.g., "Sizing complaints on Product X")
• Operational change (new return policy, new process, new response template)
• Any supplier issue (quality, delays, communication)

Thursday 10am — Founder + All-hands (30 min)

• Weekly planning: new products launching, promotions, tests, changes
• Any blockers or risks
• Celebrating wins (e.g., "New product hit in 5 days!")

Friday 4pm — Designer working session (optional, 30 min)

• Ad Manager + Designer can sync on feedback in real-time
• Not all weeks, only when needed

Total meeting load: 2.5 hours per week (not bad for a 5-person team).

Hiring the three new roles (timeline)

Timing: Hire them in order, 3-4 weeks apart (do not hire all 3 at once).

Week 1: Hire CS Specialist

• Free up founder + VA from customer service
• Stabilize refund rate and chargeback rate

Week 5: Hire Ad Manager

• Now founder has time to work with Ad Manager on strategy
• Ad spend scales 2-3x

Week 10: Hire Designer

• Ad Manager can brief the designer on creative tests
• Output goes from 1 ad creative per week to 3-5 per week

Why stagger: Each new hire needs onboarding. Staggering prevents chaos. Founder is focused on one integration at a time.

The role split in detail

Founder (you)

Hours: 30-35 per week (down from 50)

Responsibilities:

• Product sourcing: test new products, read winning scores, competitive analysis
• Supplier relations: negotiate bulk discounts, quality issues, payment terms
• Hiring and management: recruit, onboard, reviews, compensation changes
• Financial decisions: monthly P&L review, reinvestment decisions, pricing, AOV optimization
• Strategy: quarterly planning, market pivots, new product lines, exit planning

Does NOT do:

• Customer service (CS Specialist owns it)
• Ad campaign setup (Ad Manager owns it)
• Design or creative (Designer owns it)
• Order management or spreadsheets (VA owns it)

CS Specialist (new)

Hours: 40 per week

Responsibilities:

• Customer service: all Inbox emails, fast response (under 4 hours)
• Refund and return processing: approve refunds per policy, track all returns
• Chargeback prevention: identify at-risk customers, proactive outreach
• Return logistics: label generation, tracking, return receipt
• Quality escalation: flag product quality issues to founder

Does NOT do:

• Supplier negotiation (founder owns it)
• Bulk ordering (founder owns it)
• Campaign strategy (Ad Manager owns it)

Ad Manager (new)

Hours: 40 per week

Responsibilities:

• Campaign management: set up, launch, pause, optimize Meta and Google ads
• Performance monitoring: daily ROAS check, audience decay detection, spend allocation
• A/B testing: new audiences, new ads, new landing pages
• Creative brief: work with designer on weekly creative testing
• Reporting: weekly ad performance summary to founder

Does NOT do:

• Customer service (CS owns it)
• Design (Designer owns it)
• Supplier relations (Founder owns it)

Operations / Designer (new)

Hours: 40 per week (can be split with ops focus 70%, design 30%, or hire two people if budget allows)

Responsibilities:

• Ad creatives: design 5-10 ad variations per week, respond to briefs from Ad Manager
• Product pages: design page layouts, optimize imagery, write page copy
• Spreadsheets: maintain operations dashboard, daily data entry, trends analysis
• Basic bookkeeping: daily revenue tracking, reconciliation with Stripe
• Supplier comms: routine follow-ups (Ad Manager sometimes does this too)

Does NOT do:

• Email reply (CS owns it)
• Campaign strategy (Ad Manager owns it)
• Supplier negotiation (Founder owns it)

VA (existing)

Hours: 40 per week

New focus (after CS hired):

• Order management: export daily orders, update tracking sheets, notify customers of shipments
• Supplier follow-ups: chase delayed shipments, request documents, quality photos
• Weekly reporting: compile revenue, refund, response time, ROAS data into weekly summary
• Assist CS Specialist: provide context on repeat customers, flag unusual issues

No longer does:

• Customer service (CS Specialist owns it)
• Design or creative (Designer owns it)

Common 5-person mistakes

Mistake 1: Hiring all 3 at once → Fix: Stagger hires 3-4 weeks apart. One onboarding at a time.

Mistake 2: Too many meetings → Fix: 5-person team needs 2.5 hours of meetings per week. Not 10. Ruthlessly cut.

Mistake 3: Founder still in the weeds → Fix: If you are doing customer service or design, you are not scaling. Delegate it.

Mistake 4: No clear role boundaries → Fix: Write the 5-person role split. Share it with the team. Update it monthly.

Mistake 5: Hiring before A 50k/month → Fix: At A 00k/month, you are not ready. Hire one Ad Manager instead. At A 50k, hire the full team.

Payroll for a 5-person team (A