Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Business Support

🎯 Role Definition

A Business Support professional ensures smooth day-to-day operations across administrative, operational and commercial functions. This role coordinates internal processes, supports cross-functional teams, manages stakeholder requests, maintains accurate records, and drives continuous improvement in service delivery. Business Support roles are essential in enabling sales, operations, HR and finance teams to focus on strategic priorities by handling operational details, communications, reporting and project coordination.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Administrative Assistant with 1–2 years of cross-functional exposure.
Customer Service Representative or Office Coordinator transitioning to broader operations support.
Junior Project Coordinator or Operations Assistant with demonstrated process orientation.

Advancement To:

Business Support Lead / Senior Business Support Specialist
Operations Coordinator or Operations Manager
Project Coordinator or Program Manager in business operations

Lateral Moves:

Client Services Coordinator
HR Coordinator or Payroll Assistant
Sales Operations or Revenue Operations Specialist

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Act as the primary point of contact for internal and external stakeholders by managing inquiries, routing requests, and resolving issues promptly to ensure uninterrupted business operations and high satisfaction levels.
Coordinate cross-functional schedules, meetings, and logistics for senior leadership and project teams, preparing agendas, documentation, meeting minutes, and follow-up action logs to drive accountability.
Manage and optimize administrative processes including purchase requisitions, invoice processing, expense reconciliation, and vendor management to maintain clean financial controls and timely payments.
Maintain and update CRM and ERP systems (e.g., Salesforce, NetSuite, Dynamics) with accurate account, contact and transactional data, ensuring information integrity for sales, finance, and customer success teams.
Produce recurring and ad-hoc operational reports and dashboards (Excel, Google Sheets, BI tools) that track KPIs, operational metrics, and SLA compliance to inform decision-making and continuous improvement.
Lead onboarding administration for new hires and contractors, coordinating equipment requests, access provisioning, policy paperwork, and introductory training to accelerate time-to-productivity.
Support project delivery by tracking milestones, managing project documentation, coordinating resources, and ensuring timely escalation of risks and dependencies to project managers and stakeholders.
Drive process improvement initiatives by mapping workflows, identifying bottlenecks, recommending automation and standardization opportunities, and piloting changes to increase efficiency.
Administer contract and vendor lifecycles including document management, renewal tracking, compliance checks, and liaising with legal or procurement teams to reduce risk and cost.
Coordinate internal communications, newsletters, and knowledge base maintenance to ensure teams have up-to-date policies, SOPs, and operational guides that reduce repeated queries and onboarding time.
Validate and audit operational data to ensure accuracy across systems, reconcile discrepancies between sales orders, invoices and shipments, and work with finance to resolve variances.
Facilitate cross-departmental initiatives (sales campaigns, product launches, process rollouts) by coordinating timelines, resources, training materials, and feedback loops to ensure cohesive execution.
Handle confidential and sensitive information with discretion, maintaining compliance with GDPR/CCPA and internal privacy policies while facilitating necessary data access for business activities.
Provide front-line support for client-facing activities such as preparing proposals, coordinating contract signatures, and ensuring service delivery commitments are monitored and met.
Manage travel planning, event logistics and vendor coordination for company events, customer visits and offsite meetings, ensuring cost-effective bookings and smooth execution.
Serve as a liaison between technical teams (IT, data) and business stakeholders, translating business requirements into technical tickets and prioritizing fixes or enhancements that unlock operational value.
Prepare monthly reconciliation packages, support audit requests and maintain documented evidence of controls, approvals and process steps to support finance and compliance reviews.
Maintain inventory of office and operational supplies, negotiate with suppliers to manage costs, and implement systems to reduce waste and improve procurement cycles.
Provide level-2 support for commonly used business tools (office suite, collaboration platforms, expense systems), triaging issues and liaising with IT to expedite resolutions.
Monitor SLA and service provider performance, generate trend reports, escalate underperformance and collaborate on remediation plans to maintain service quality.
Assist in risk assessments and business continuity planning activities, maintaining up-to-date contact lists, escalation protocols, and backup procedures to minimize operational disruption.
Create and maintain robust Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), process maps and user guides to support consistency across teams and reduce single points of failure.
Collect, synthesize and present customer and stakeholder feedback to business owners to inform product, service and process improvements.
Support budget tracking and basic financial forecasting for internal initiatives, providing variance analysis and recommendations to managers for cost control.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
Assist with special projects and operational change programs, including pilot coordination, user acceptance testing and post-implementation reviews.
Provide backup reception and general office administration support during peak periods or staff absences.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Advanced Microsoft Excel skills: pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH, conditional formatting, and basic macros to prepare and analyze operational data.
Proficiency with Google Workspace (Sheets, Docs, Slides) and cloud-based collaboration tools (Slack, Microsoft Teams).
Experience with CRM platforms such as Salesforce, HubSpot or Dynamics for updating records, running reports and supporting sales operations.
Familiarity with ERP/invoicing systems (NetSuite, SAP Business One, QuickBooks) and purchase-to-pay processes.
Basic SQL query ability or comfort running parameterized reports from BI tools to extract operational data.
Experience creating dashboards and visualizations in tools like Power BI, Tableau or Looker to communicate performance trends.
Competence in expense management and travel booking systems (Concur, Expensify) and reconciling corporate card statements.
Strong document and records management: version control, access permissions and retention policies.
Project coordination skills including use of project management tools (Asana, Jira, Trello, Monday.com).
Knowledge of data privacy, compliance basics (GDPR, CCPA) and handling of confidential information.
Familiarity with basic budgeting and variance analysis to support departmental financial tracking.
Ability to prepare and format professional presentations and business documentation for executive audiences.
Experience with vendor and contract administration tools or processes.
Comfortable using automation and RPA basics (Zapier, Power Automate) to reduce repetitive work.

Soft Skills

Excellent verbal and written communication; able to present complex information clearly to non-technical stakeholders.
Strong stakeholder management and relationship-building across multiple functions and seniority levels.
High attention to detail with robust organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple priorities under tight deadlines.
Problem-solving mindset with a continuous improvement orientation; proactive in identifying inefficiencies and proposing solutions.
Customer-service orientation: empathetic, responsive, and focused on delivering a high-quality internal and external experience.
Adaptability and resilience in a fast-paced, ambiguous environment; comfortable with changing priorities.
Initiative and ownership—takes responsibility for outcomes and follows through on commitments.
Confidentiality and integrity when handling sensitive business information.
Time management and prioritization skills; able to balance reactive requests with planned deliverables.
Collaborative team player who can also work independently with minimal supervision.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

High school diploma or equivalent; vocational certification in office administration or business operations.

Preferred Education:

Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Management, Finance, Operations, Information Systems, or a related field.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Business Administration
Finance or Accounting
Operations Management
Human Resources
Information Systems / Management Information Systems

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 2–5 years supporting business operations, administrative functions or cross-functional program coordination.

Preferred: 3+ years in a Business Support, Operations Coordinator, Sales Operations or similar role within a fast-paced corporate, startup or professional services environment; experience with CRM/ERP systems and reporting tools is strongly preferred.