Develop an Operations Manual

According to E-Myth, the heart of a systems-driven business is a company ‘Operations Manual’. An operations manual will be the guidebook for ‘how things are done’ in your business, and will be an excellent tool to help communicate policy and procedure to your employees.

An operations manual benefits a business by being the single-point reference for all important company information. Content will vary from business to business, but the structure and main sections should be consistent, and include

• Company Vision
• Company History
• Products & Services
• Company Policies
• Systems (Action Plans)
• Position Statements

Everyone Should Use It

The documentation of your company’s day-to-day operational systems, policies and definitions is no small feat, but the rewards of doing it properly are great. Sure signs of a poorly-built operations manual are a haphazard format, covered in a thick layer of dust. Signs of a good ops manual are regular use by employees to get answers to process questions, and regular use by managers in training staff on company policies and procedures.

Create your operations manual by gathering and/or defining the first 4 items on the list above.

Next, document all individual systems, which should be tightly defined using Action Plans. For an Action Plan example see the Coffee Making Action Plan, under Free Resources, on the E-Myth Resources page. Step through all benchmarks of a given process, carefully proofing steps and capturing input from all those concerned.

Define Position Responsibilities

A challenging component of the creation of an operations manual is defining tasks and accountabilities to specific job positions. In E-Myth terminology, this is called a Position Statement.
Start by listing all positions in your organization, and create a paper file location and a digital file location to store all documents pertinent to that job position. Once this document inventory has been established, you will be able to identify information gaps, and determine what materials still need to be developed.

These individual ‘Position Statements’ will describe where employees fit into the organization, for which systems they'll be held accountable, a list of work tasks that must be completed, the standards to which the work must comply, and what results employees will be expected to produce. Employees will be expected to 'sign off' on their position statement, and adhere to its requirements.

Updates and Distribution

Additional factors to consider with regard to your operations manual are the scheduling of update sessions, and planning for distribution. Regular annual or bi-annual review sessions should be scheduled to ensure that elements of the ops manual are kept up-to-date. At these sessions, gather managers and administrative support members to do a quick review of the manual’s contents, make updates, add new material, remove out-dated content and redistribute the document.

A well-constructed, relevant operations manual becomes a company resource of key importance. Plan on keeping both digital and paper copies of your operations manual, and keep backup copies safe.