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Without a business plan or access to historical documents, you will be
operating at an extreme disadvantage. If you have really good background
information as you indicated, you can mitigate this to some degree, but you
still run the risk of inaccuracies.
Useful P&P docs require a thorough knowledge of current and ideal state
workflows/processes. To do this effectively you should embark on a process
analysis project first. If you can't get face time with the owner, can you
get some time with any of the staff? Finding out what they really do,
versus what the owner thinks they do can be ... extremely enlightening....
Visit some of the document template sites (DocStoc comes to mind), and
search for policy and procedures and related terms. Chances are, you'll
run across some good ideas to get started. Develop a google search that
includes policy, procedures, operations, templates and janitorial or dry
cleaning (Spotless Cleaning could be either, so I guessed) to enhance your
results, and then develop a template that incoporates what you've found out
through your background infor, research and--if at all possible--interviews
with the owner and staff.
Any company in business for 40 years must be doing something right, so it
should become a great case study. Good luck!
Connie P. Giordano
The Right Words
Communications & Information Design
(704) 957-8450 (cell)
www.therightwords.com
"It's kind of fun to do the impossible." - Walt Disney
-------Original Message-------
From: schmittl -at- students -dot- westerntc -dot- edu
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Manual Project
Sent: 12 Oct '10 13:49
As a tech comm student, I am compiling a "policies and procedures" manual
for a small business--operating for 40 years. I have solid background info
on this client; but, without direct access to any documents, how do I
determine optimum outline headings and (or) content choices re: inventory?
Note: The client has not implemented a business plan or any
product/services/customer inventory, and he is seldom available for
interviews.
If anyone has advice for content/collecting data, I would welcome it.
To give some context, I have included the following proposal item.
Project PurposeThe prospective business manual will (1) serve as a first
step in organizing Spotless Cleaning and (2) echo philosophies and protocol
that have shaped a successful business. The segments of your business
likely to be documented include products and services, customers and
inventory, and equipment and labor.
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