Are you spending your time doing “strategic work” — the kind that adds meaning and value to your long-term goals? Successful small business owners, or SMBs, do. “But, how does a small business owner ever find the time to do strategic work?”, you ask. “That can take up as much as 80% of my day.” I’ll tell you how — by developing systems of policies, procedures, and forms for doing the tactical, daily work.

Unsuccessful small business owners struggle to prioritize their time. They’re continually fighting fires or doing the mundane tasks — going to the post office, running around their disorganized workspace, answering the phone — and getting nothing done.

Does That Sound Familiar?

If your business is based on a system of policies, procedures, and forms, it will run on its own without you having to tend to all the details all of the time. This may seem hard to believe, but it works — Fortune 500 companies have been doing this for decades. “McDonald’s” now uses a clearly defined system of policies and procedures to unify marketing, operations, and customer service worldwide — they started in 1940 with a single restaurant, in California.

“You deserve a break today.”
(McDonald’s campaign slogan, 1971)

McDonald’s is just one example of how a small business like yours can — and must — create a system of policies and procedures to ensure its success. Start by imagining that you’re creating a model for your own series of franchise locations. Every day when you go to work, take one process at a time and systematize it with the policies, procedures, and forms your employees need to do the job you want them to do.

Why Start from Scratch?

That’s where Bizmanualz MS-Word procedure templates come in. Our renowned series of policies, procedures, and forms provides hundreds of templates and guides for your accounting, finance, human resources, information technology, and other departments. Every Bizmanualz policy and procedure manual comes with a set of sample procedures, a “How To” guide to help you get started, and a sample manual for the department manager to use as a guide.

Focus Is the Key

Today, start working on your business instead of in your business. Focus on strategic work and delegate the tactical work with Bizmanualz procedure templates — you’ll realize your goals, get out of the office more, and build the successful business you set out to build.

Free Procedure Samples

Why not check out the Bizmanualz line of free procedure samples and see for yourself how you can use these powerful procedure templates in your business?

In a blog post I recently read, the writer said that in America, when someone says “our policy is…”, the policy is stated and adhered to but in his country, “not so much”. He went on to say that the cultural signals are different between the two countries.

The writer goes on to suggest that in his homeland, they seem to operate on the premise that if most people are told, “We can’t do that…it’s against our policy”, they will not question the assertion and will just walk away. But, if you argue forcefully and with conviction, they will comply. In America, you don’t have to argue – they do what they say.

I’m happy he’s satisfied with the way things are here. I would argue, though, based on my many and varied experiences, that policy as written and policy as executed are two distinct branches on the same tree here, there, and everywhere else. And the wrong branch is dying.

I’ll give you an example: I once did business with a certain purveyor of wireless products and services before I became an employee. Once I became an employee, I naturally enjoyed a sizeable discount on everything wireless.  The service wasn’t that great but for the price, I felt I could bear some pain. A few years down the road, the company ”rightsized” and I became an ex-employee.

The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.
Socrates

At the end of my wireless contract, I looked at what the now ex-employer wanted to charge me for its goods and services (retail prices had gone up quite a bit).  I asked at a local office if my being a steady-paying customer for over eight years counted for something. What would they do to keep a good customer?

They said they were powerless to do anything – it was driven “by corporate”. I asked them to check with A/R and even offered to get my credit report to show I was a customer worth hanging onto. They wouldn’t deal, though.

I decided to take it to the corporate office. Sure enough, they were as indifferent to my “plight” as the local office. They said, ”If we do it for you, we have to do it for everybody.”

Their stated policy is to “give customers exceptional service” but what their actions say is “…as long as it doesn’t cost us up front.”  Their implicit policy is to treat customer service (or customer satisfaction) as a necessary evil.

The time-honored maxim — that it’s cheaper to keep customers than it is to replace them — seems to have lost its meaning. Perhaps, too, the concept of “cost control” has become the top priority…to the exclusion of everything else.

What do you think? More importantly, what do you tell your customers, and what do you do?

On January 7, 2010, Timothy Hendron, 51, a longtime employee of ABB’s north St. Louis, Missouri, plant, reportedly took the lives of three coworkers, wounded five others, and took his own life.  This is just one of the latest incidents of worker-on-worker violence that have been on the increase in the last several decades.

In retrospect, of course, it is always clear that “the signs were there”. The individual was under a lot of stress…he was disaffected, alienated, a guy who kept to himself…bills were mounting…he had an unusual interest in weapons…and on, and on. Not everyone fits “the profile”, but most are close enough that we invariably ask “Why didn’t they (we) see it coming?”, or “Why didn’t somebody do something about it before it got to that point?”

Unfortunately, there is no “one size fits all” answer — the answers are as varied and as complex as humanity itself. Recognizing, though, that workplace violence is the ultimate antisocial act against social animals, there are things we can do to and for one another to minimize the risk, among them:

• Showing respect for one another;
• Getting to know coworkers;
• Being better communicators (which means being much better listeners);
• Taking an interest in coworkers outside the workplace;
• At least occasionally, putting coworkers’ interests ahead of our own;
• Watching out for one another;
• Not thinking “someone else can take care of it” or “it’s not my job”;
• Becoming more aware of and responsive to coworkers’ needs, stated and unstated;
• Knowing coworkers well enough that you know what their “normal” is; and
• Having the courage and compassion to help when their “normal” isn’t there.

Does your company have a workplace anti-violence policy? Better yet, do you have a personal policy regarding the prevention of violence in the workplace?

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
(Lao Tzu)

Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

For good or bad, it’s the policies we make that drive our actions.  Our policies reflect our goals and priorities.  They drive our behavior, our processes, and our procedures.

Our business procedures are dependent on policy and without good company policy, our procedures do not provide value.  Bad policy cannot be corrected by procedures, no matter how well the procedures are written.  Here’s an example of bad policy…

The Glass-Steagall Act (aka, the Banking Act of 1933 – USA) was enacted in response to the massive failure of commercial banks in the early thirties.  Commercial and investment banking, among others, were separated in an attempt to minimize risk.

This risk-averse policy appeared to work for the economy in general, though it didn’t work for large investors and institutions that wanted to “compete with overseas institutions that (were)n’t hamstrung by archaic laws”.  Totally ignoring the issue of increased risk, banking and investment moguls pushed for a law like Gramm-Leach-Bliley…and they got it.

They (Citibank, Bear Stearns, etc.) managed to undo Depression-era restrictions on consolidating and diversifying, and they grew dozens of times over.  That is, until their hubris caught up with them and the “Great Recession” exploded onto the economic scene.  Derivatives processes — they failed in part because they were overly complex; they also failed because of the economic policies that allowed them to exist.

So what’s old is new again.  Members of the U.S. House and Senate are pushing for reenactment of Glass-Steagall, believing — perhaps rightly — that we all paid the price for this ill-advised change in banking and investment policy and we have to correct it.  And, who of sound mind can blame them?

Another possible example of bad policy: There was a story just this week of H&M and Wal-Mart stores, located on the isle of Manhattan, not merely tossing out unsold clothing but destroying it, making sure it could never be used or sold.  In this economy — and in the middle of winter, no less — a reasonable person has to wonder why that clothing wasn’t given intact to any of dozens of charitable organizations.

Granted, the parent corporation in each case probably doesn’t have a policy of “if we can’t sell it, we’re destroying it”.  I also hope no store manager would be so stupid as to have a procedure, formal or otherwise, for destroying unsold merchandise.

However, one has to wonder, “Did one employee ‘go rogue’ on the company? Or were employees told to ’destroy this stuff and get rid of it’?”  Just because it’s not written doesn’t mean it’s not policy.  Or, maybe they’ve had a policy of not putting unsold clothing out where someone could sell it (and for nothing but profit) and somebody just took that policy and ran with it.

I know what some of you must be thinking: “Well, I don’t run my business like that.  Besides, we’re much smaller than they are, and we have everything under control.”

Consider this, though. You’re in business to make money, and naturally you want to grow your business.  What policies do you have that enable you to do that?

Now, consider that in this hyper-competitive business environment — made all the more cutthroat by the global recession — a company might find itself bending its policies.  Oh, maybe just a little, at first.  Then, maybe a little more.

How far would you be willing to bend?  Which of your policies might have bent already under the strain of the recession?  (Your policy on wages? Your quality policy?  Others?)  Are these policies likely to bend back when the economy improves?

You’ve heard my opinion.  Now let’s hear yours.

******

By the way, here are some excellent articles on this topic:

• “The AIG Fiasco Keeps Getting Worse“, Fortune online, 7 Jan 2010
• “U.S. Senators Propose Reinstating Glass-Steagall Act“, Bloomberg online, 16 Dec 2009
• “The Curse of Policy-Based Evidence“, Science & Development Network, 13 Aug 2009

You have decided you need policies and procedures, but which business policies and procedures do you need?  Assess the business impact of each of your core business processes to generating revenue or introducing risk and then rank the results.  Core business processes that greatly impact your revenue or risk are where you want to start.

The Bizmanualz CEO Company Policies Procedures Manuals are designed with your core business processes in mind.  The nine business procedures manuals in the series provide your entire company with examples of the primary procedures used in writing your company procedure manuals.  How do the nine procedure manuals address the core business processes?

1. Customer Strategy & Relationships (Marketing) is a good place to start.  Most businesses talk about the customer being the most important part of any business.  Well, if your customer is so critical, have you mapped out a clear customer strategy and customer relationship process?  Do you have customer strategy procedures for developing awareness and education of your business in the marketplace?  The Bizmanualz Sales and Marketing Policies and Procedures Manual provides sample policies and procedures to help you set marketing strategy, marketing tactics, and marketing planning to cover the first part of your marketing sales funnel — awareness and education.

2. Employee Development & Satisfaction is essential to your business because your employees are the ones that talk to and develop your customers.  The Bizmanualz Human Resources Procedures Manual provides example procedures for hiring, administration (e.g., personnel records, compliance), compensation, and — the most important part – developing your employees.

The HR manual also includes a sample Employee Handbook and an HR Manager’s manual to provide a complete discussion of human resources.  Keeping employees and facilities safe is the focus of the Bizmanualz Security Procedures Manual, which includes coverage of guard force management, employee conduct, emergency operations, protection, and safety.

3. Quality, Process Improvement & Change Management is driven by competition, your desire to excel at what you do and make your customers happy.  The Bizmanualz ISO 9001 QMS Procedures Manual provides a sample quality manual, the six quality procedures required by ISO 9001, and additional supporting procedures to provide a foundation for your process improvement and change management initiatives.

4. Financial Analysis, Reporting, & Capital Management is critical to fast growth companies.  Cash is the lifeblood of your company and a fast growth company consumes cash quickly.  The Bizmanualz Financial Procedures Manual has example procedures for financial administration, raising capital, managing capital, financial statement reporting, and the internal controls necessary in a fast growth company.  A controllers manual is included to provide the direction and organization for controlling your company cash.

5. Management Responsibility addresses all of your core business processes and is integral to every area of your company.  Every manual in the “CEO Company Policies Procedures Manuals” covers the management of that departmental area.  Each manual provides a departmental (functional) manager’s manual that describes the departmental organization structure, major responsibilities, departmental guidelines, ethics, policies, and – of course – the primary business processes for that department.  The Bizmanualz Business Procedures Manual provides a simple, fast, and easy way to provide immediate oversight for all of your operations.

6. Customer Acquisition (Sales) is about engaging the customer and closing the sale.  The Bizmanualz Sales and Marketing Procedure Manual contains procedures for the entire sales funnel, sales process, sales administration and sales management common to organizations that have to oversee a sales force.  The Bizmanualz Accounting Procedures Manual contains procedures for controlling cash and the revenue cycle, which is a parallel and supporting activity to the sales process.

7. Product Development must obtain requirements from sales and develop products that satisfy the customer.  Therefore, product development procedures are found in both the Bizmanualz Sales and Marketing Procedure Manual and the Bizmanualz ISO 9001 QMS Procedures Manual, which contains procedures for customer requirements, as well as the design and development of new products.

8. Product/Service Delivery The Bizmanualz Accounting Procedures Manual contains procedures for shipping, receiving, and inventory control.  But since delivery is part of ISO and quality, the Bizmanualz ISO 9001 QMS Procedures Manual also provides coverage of this critical customer facing area.

9. Accounting Management is about accounting transaction management, as opposed to finance which is focused more on raising, managing, and using cash effectively.  The Bizmanualz Accounting Procedures Manual focus is on controlling operating cash receipts, cash disbursements, inventory and assets, the revenue cycle, and general accounting administration.

10. Technology Management is about all of the technology in your company.  The Bizmanualz Computer, Network and IT Procedures Manual contains procedures for IT administration, IT asset management, IT training, technical support, IT security, IT disaster recovery, and software development.  More in-depth continuity planning coverage is provided with the Bizmanualz Disaster Recovery Procedures Manual.

Business Process Policies Procedures

The Bizmanualz CEO Company Policies Procedures Manuals collection is the best overall deal — you save 45% when you buy the set, compared with purchasing all nine manuals individually.  The series covers all of the core business processes in one simple bundle.  It includes manuals for:

• Financial Policies and Procedures
• Accounting Policies and Procedures
• Computer & IT Policies and Procedures
• Human Resources Policies and Procedures
• Sales & Marketing Policies and Procedures
• ISO 9001 Quality Policies and Procedures
• Security & Disaster Policies and Procedures
• Business Policies and Procedures Sampler

Every critical area of your company is now covered with the Bizmanualz CEO Company Policies Procedures Manuals set.  Coverage is now easily at hand for Accounting, Administration, Customer Service, Disaster Management, Engineering, Environmental Management, Finance & Credit, Information Technology, Manufacturing, Personnel, Sales & Marketing, Security Operations, Shipping, Purchasing, Inventory, and ISO 9001 conformance.