How to write a franchise manual.

Here, we’re concentrating on how to create a ‘Franchisee Operations Manual’. You should also write franchise manuals for your head office, franchise sales (franchisee recruitment) and franchisee training.

Follow these steps (further detail below):

1. Complete our other franchising guides:

   1. Check if you’re ready to franchise (see our guide here).

   2. Learn what you need to include in your franchise system (see our guide here)

   3. Learn what you should include in your franchise manuals (see our guide here)

2. Test your procedures work; refine and retest any that don’t.

3. Plan your manual-writing project.

4. Plan the contents and structure of your manuals.

5. Gather information.

6. Set out the design, formats and graphics of your manuals.

7. Decide what writing style to use.

8. Write the manual.

9. Review, agree and test drafts.

10. Publish manuals in an accessible format.

11. Create resources from manuals.

We discuss each of these steps in detail below.

Steps 2-11 in detail:

2. Test your procedures work; refine and retest any that don’t.

If you include procedures in your franchisee operations manual that need improvement, problems will be magnified by every franchisee who follows those faulty processes. Everything in your franchise manuals must be as good as it can be.

So, before you write franchise manuals:

• Scrutinise everything, look at processes and ask your team what can be improved.

• Strengthen, revise, replace or reinvent procedures that could work better.

• Test any new procedures you create, to make sure they work as hoped.

• Split your procedures into simple and easy to understand steps.

• Write them up in step-by-step procedures to include in your manuals.

You should also consider getting objective advice on your current processes from professionals. We can advise you how to improve procedures because we’re aware of current best practices, changing regulations, franchisee expectations, franchise governance and the activities of your franchised competition.

3. Plan your manual-writing project.

Manual-writing is easier if you plan out the project before you start. Main considerations include:

• Will you use a professional manual-writer or write in-house? (It’s worth talking with a us before you decide. We can give you objective advice in a free initial consultation, even if you don’t go on to use us. And, if you do, we deliver a professional result faster and often more cost-effectively than doing it yourself anyway).

• Who will lead the project? (We can manage everything for you. But if you do choose to write in-house – select a project-leader who’s organised and will strictly manage deadlines).

• What are your deadlines for each stage? (Be realistic but strictly impose deadlines. If you’re not using a professional, it could take 12+ months to create manuals in-house. Many in-house attempts fail because staff neglect the project to attend to their other duties. Professionals are quicker because they are completely focused on developing your manuals).

• What will you include in your franchise manuals, how will you structure them, what style will you use and what formats and designs will enhance them?

• How will you review, agree and test drafts?

• How will you publish and distribute franchisee operations manuals (and other franchise manuals)?

• What resources do you want/need to create from your manuals?

Assign a project leader then write your plan down and put it in a franchise manual development folder.

4. Plan the contents and structure of your manuals.

It’s almost impossible to write a franchise manual from a blank sheet without planning its contents first.

• Look at our suggested contents for operations and franchise manuals here (PDF).

• List the contents you want to include. Consider what you want manuals to achieve; the processes you need franchisees to learn; how you intend to mentor and regulate franchisees and more.

• Handle issues of legal compliance carefully. Don’t direct franchisees on issues of legal compliance or you might become liable if they do something unlawful. Use professionals, like us, to word policies and procedures concerning employment law, tax law, health & safety regulations, food safety etc. or insist franchisees use third party HR, accountancy and health & safety providers.

• Set out contents in a logical structure. Create a master structure (e.g. a table on Excel) that follows the usual flow of your processes and separates operation by department or role.

• Annotate each item in your structure. Create columns in your table for notes on what to describe in each topic, the design or format to be used, the person responsible for content and deadlines.

• Then use your ‘master structure’ table to manage the manual writing project.

Distribute your master structure/project management table to all contributors.

5. Gather information.

Collect all the information, existing policies and procedures, documents and resources you need from your team before starting to write franchise manuals because:

• If the whole team are focused on providing information to the same early deadline (instead of just asking for information as you go along) – they’ll be easier to chase; they’ll help each other; discussions will be more fruitful; and momentum in the project will be preserved.

• You’ll inevitably discover some items are missing, out of date, in multiple versions, corrupted or illegible. You need time to fix these issues before you start writing.

• Some sections, policies or procedures will rely on information from several team members, so you won’t be able to write them up before everyone has contributed.

When collecting information, it’s important to:

• Set responsibilities and deadlines and stick to them.

• Set up one accessible place for all contributions (e.g. a shared folder on a cloud drive).

• Set up logical sub-folders (e.g. name folders to follow your manuals’ master structures).

• Set rules for the format of contributions (e.g. folders, filenames, revision numbers, file types, sharing, password use, etc.).

• Set rules to avoid obsolete items, multiple versions, corrupted files etc. (e.g. insist contributors provide the most up to date versions and check files before uploading them).

• Restrict who can edit contributions (I.e. to avoid situations where well-meaning staff alter the files of other contributors, which can lead to confusion and lost data).

• Check progress against your plan (e.g. use your master structure to tick-off everything collected and to note what’s missing – chase those responsible).

6. Set out the design, formats and graphics of your manuals.

You’ll create better looking franchise manuals and save time later if you set up design formats (& templates) for different sorts of content before you start writing.  

Franchisee operations manuals are easier for franchisees to use if recurring standard formats quickly signal what readers are expected to learn from any page. Keep designs simple and clear, so they don’t distract from content.

See more information on manual design - get our free PDF – ‘Designing and formatting manuals’ here.

7. Decide what writing style to use.

A good franchise manual must be easy to read:

• Use the right ‘tone’ and get the right balance (E.g. a ‘bright and friendly’ tone is accessible but be careful to remain authoritative where needed; using simple language and steps makes a manual clearer but take care not to patronise; a stricter tone can come across as aggressive, so use only where absolutely necessary; etc.).

• Don’t use too much legal or academic language. (I.e. Overly convoluted legal or academic language (& jargon) confuses and alienates readers and really isn’t necessary except in some legal documents and statutory policies).

• Don’t add TOO much technical detail. Writers sometimes get carried away adding all the detail they know irrespective of whether readers need it. Get to the point and leave out the ‘padding’.

• Try not to over or under-estimate readers. The best franchise manuals assume all franchisees are new to the business and so explain EVERY step of EVERY process, even if they seem obvious to you. But word things carefully because you don’t want to appear condescending to franchisees or disrespectful of their independent status.

• Choose one ‘voice’. I.e. Manuals are easier to follow if they’re written in one consistent style (often by one author) with the same approach, tone, use of language, level of technical detail and amount of internal jargon (or not) throughout.

8. Write your franchise manual.

Consider using a professional manual writer before you start. Get in touch with us for a free consultation in which we’ll happily come to you and give objective advice on franchising and how to write a franchise manual and franchise training, even if you don’t go on to use our services. And if you choose to work with us, we deliver a better result, faster and more cost effectively than writing manuals yourselves.

If you still want to write manuals yourselves:

• Avoid most ‘franchise templates’. Franchisees deserve manuals that are current and written bespoke for your franchise. ‘Franchise templates’ are generic, not always up to date, sometimes dangerous and can cost as much as just using a professional to write a better manual for you anyway. For more in-depth information, see our article ‘Are Franchise Templates Any Good?’ (click the link).

• Split work into small (subject) chunks and deadlines. It’s easy to become intimidated – a good franchisee operations manual can contain from 400 to 600+ pages – so don’t try to write the whole thing all at once!)

• It may be easier to start at the beginning and complete manuals in order. Writing a manual from start to finish helps you think what to include and can be more rewarding because you can see your progress. Just be careful your manual doesn’t become one over-detailed continuous narrative – instead of a more useful collection of individual operating procedures.

• Be careful to stay in the same ‘voice’. Once you’ve chosen a ‘voice’ and design, stick to it.  Manuals are easier to follow if they use the same tone and formatting throughout. (You may need to adapt contributions from other teammates to fit).

• If you get stuck – ask. Speak with colleagues who know more about the procedures or subjects you find difficult to complete. Don’t write something you’re unsure of just to fill a page. A franchise manual should be a longstanding and incontrovertible reference for your franchisees and any errors will undermine your business for years.

• Get advice when you need it. If you need legal or specialist input for any policy or procedure, seek it – particularly in heavily regulated areas, such as employment law, health and safety, data protection, taxation, etc.

9. Review, agree and test drafts.

Franchisee operations manuals (and franchise head office manuals) are large documents, so it’s inevitable that initial drafts will contain errors, omissions and updates the author hasn’t spotted. Ask colleagues to review every draft and to give feedback - then get a consensus on what needs to be changed:

• Set deadlines for the completion of each draft (complete or by section).

• Decide who will review drafts and give feedback.

• Agree how to name different edits and how to collect feedback.

• Prevent unauthorised persons from making changes to documents.

• Set deadlines for feedback and be strict.

• Set meetings to get a consensus on changes and edits in each draft.

• Make the agreed changes.

• Once you’ve completed a version, move old edits into a different folder to prevent confusion and protect the live version from unauthorised editing.

If you’re introducing new procedures or significant changes in any draft, you must TEST them in the ‘real world’ before publication. A good franchisee operations manual must be definitive and incontrovertible and would be undermined if anything in it didn’t work.

10. Publish manuals in an accessible format.

Franchise manuals are only useful if they’re accessible by those who need them:

• Divide manuals into sections to make them more accessible. Franchisees need a complete copy – but their front-line staff only need instruction in individual roles. Separate manuals into booklets by section, role or department, so that franchisees can easily pass relevant information to their staff.

• Choose formats that are easy to use. Physical print-copies are always useful (however old-fashioned they may seem); separate booklets are good for the staff of franchisees who don’t need the whole thing; laminated cards detailing procedures are good ‘on the shop floor’ and at workstations; electronic, ‘app.’ and online versions are easy to reference anywhere and cheap to distribute (but be careful, they do tend to be easier for franchisees to ignore than well-designed physical copies).

• Protect the manual from unauthorised copying and distribution.

• Get copies out to all franchisees and ensure they pass the appropriate sections or booklets to their own staff.

11. Create resources from manuals.

Don’t expect that all franchisees or staff will read everything in your franchise manuals, so turn extracts into useful tools and reminders and link the manual with training, training workshops, induction, franchise-network culture and your ladder of support.

Resources to develop from manuals include:

• Individual sections, booklets or mini manuals created from the main manual for specific types of staff and roles in a franchisee’s business.

• Individual procedures and checklists taken from the manual that are then turned into laminated quick reference cards, posters and signage etc.

• Automated processes and software.

• Videos and animations that augment the manual.

• Third party services that support elements detailed in the manual.

• TRAINING: including franchisee training, franchisee staff training, franchisee business coaching, franchisee/staff CPD, procedural training, individual skills training, etc. (We can develop training for you, see how here)

But don’t get stuck and waste time learning how to write a franchise manual yourselves.

Get a better result, save money and make it easy - let us write franchise manuals for you in simple & affordable ways. Get in touch.