Importance of an Operations Manual

Often small businesses aren’t highly systematized.  Those that are tend to be more marketable and attractive to buyers because there is a clear road map about how to operate the business.  If you are buying, or have bought a business that lacks good systems then improving the systems will not only make the business easier to successfully operate, but it is also a good way to make the business more marketable and valuable for a future exit.

If you’ve read many of my blog posts then you know I’m a strong advocate of strong business systems.  For business owners that aren’t sure how to do that I suggest they read the E-Myth series by Michael Gerber, Sam Carpenter’s “Work The System”, and become familiar with how to use a database program like Filemaker Pro to automate and systematize business functions.

A short article in the Wall Street Journal titled “How to Write an Operations Manual” provides a concise framework on how to structure writing an operations manual that makes the task less daunting – if you are trying to tackle that task I would recommend the article.