Organisational structure is the arrangement of who is responsible for what and who reports to whom.
Why it becomes a problem later rather than sooner
With a handful of people, everyone reports to the owner and everyone knows what they do. It works.
It stops working at the point the owner becomes the bottleneck for every decision — which arrives gradually and is usually recognised late, as a feeling of being unable to keep up rather than as a structural problem.
Span of control
How many people report to one person. Beyond roughly five to seven, supervision becomes nominal: there is not enough time in a week to give each person real attention.
The usual answer at that point is a layer — a lead or supervisor — which is a genuine change in how the business runs rather than a title.
Delegation
Handing over a decision, not a task. Delegating tasks while retaining every decision leaves the owner as the bottleneck with more people waiting on them.
What makes it work is stated limits: the range within which someone decides alone, and the point at which they escalate. Without limits, people either escalate everything or overreach, and both get corrected, and they stop deciding.
Accountability
One person answerable for each outcome. Where two people share responsibility for the same thing, it is usually nobody's — and where nobody is named, it defaults back to the owner.
Why it matters beyond tidiness
It is the main lever on key person risk, and therefore on what the business is worth. A business where every decision routes through the owner cannot be sold as anything other than a job.
It also sets the ceiling on growth: the business can only take on what its decision-making can absorb — see growth capacity.
In the platform
Access follows the structure rather than the other way round — see roles and permissions.