Writing a good operations manual is time-consuming and difficult to get right without professional manual-writing experience.

It’s better (and often cheaper) to use professional operations manual-writers:

• If you want a quality result delivered on time.

• If you want your team to use your new operations manual.

• If you want your business to benefit from it.

Consider the following, before trying to write your own manuals:

Doing it yourself can be a false economy.

You might think that writing operations manuals in-house costs nothing. But think again:

A good operations manual takes time to write and so could cost your business months of lost input from valuable management and staff – input that is typically worth at least three times their salary to your business.

E.g.: Let’s say you pay a manager £30k p.a. - thus expect their role to contribute at least £90k p.a. to your business [at 33% staffing costs]. You give them the operations manual to write and, if you’re lucky, it only takes 40% of their time for a year. Doing it yourself would thus have cost you £36,000 [40% of £90k] - which is MUCH more than a professional would charge.

So using your own team can be more expensive (and riskier to your ongoing business) than simply using the best professionals in the first place.

It’s a myth that experienced staff are the best people to write about your business.

Your most experienced staff may not be the best writers and can flood operations manuals with too much detail, making them difficult to read.

The best operations manuals are written by professional authors who objectively scrutinise each of your processes before writing them down in simple steps that clearly communicate procedures to your team.

It’s difficult to see where to improve your business when you’re living it.

It’s difficult to be objective enough to see everything that could be improved in your business, when all your time is consumed just running it day-to-day.

Professionals are completely objective and have experience working for others in your sector.

We look at your business with ‘a new pair of eyes’ and then suggest modifications (based on current best practices in your industry) to improve your procedures and drive higher standards and better performance.

Manuals written in-house are often delayed (or abandoned), so the true cost rises.

Doing it yourself, the true cost is usually more than expected and manuals get delayed (or even abandoned) because the day-to-day needs of your business and your Teams’ other responsibilities take over.

We work with clients on a fixed fee to deliver an agreed depth of operations manual by a fixed deadline.

So, when you work with professionals, you’ll know what your operations manual will cost, what you’ll get in it and when it will be delivered - right from the start.

If you still want to have a go at writing manuals in-house – have a look at our expanding range of guides and templates>>

Contact us and get our ‘Quick Guide to Writing Manuals’ FREE (worth £5.99)>>