Why it's important to have an operations manual in your shop
by Paul Mathewson
members.atra.com www.atra.com
putting off the things that we know we should do because there are things that we must do. The age-old title for this is “The Tyranny of the Urgent”. As I write this I feel a need to climb
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into the confessional box and give a personal story. I am well aware of the need to have in place a “legal will” that could be executed by preselected “executors” in the event of my death and/or the death of my wife. There is in fact a will in place that Ruth and I prepared early in our marriage about the time we started a family. It dictated who would provide for our little children if we were both killed. That will is still in effect even though our “kids” are now married and have families of their own! I know we need a new will; I also know we both will die. What is keeping me from getting it done? The role of a life insurance sales-
man is to help people to get ready to die. Property insurance is preparation for disaster from fire and explosion. Disability insurance prepares us for the most horrid eventualities that might
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here is a normal procrastination influence that runs through our busy lives. I’m talking about
sideline us for the rest of our lives while our loved ones maintain us. None of the above hurries us to purchase insurance; we believe that we have lots of time before death or tragedy visits us. Last year I wrote a series about
writing your own shop’s Operations Manual. Such a guide would be invalu- able if:
1. You were sidelined by acci- dent or sickness and someone else had to take over your responsibilities, or 2. You wanted to sell your busi- ness and a potential purchaser wanted to buy not just a pile of stuff, but wanted a written document to show how you convert that stuff into a strong cash flow, or 3. You died suddenly and left your wife with a business to run or dispose of, or 4. You wanted to back off the daily responsibilities at the shop, train someone else, and focus on something else.
As I pointed out in the Operations Manual series, it’s not necessary for
franchised shops to write their own Operations Manual – the franchisor provides one as part of the franchise agreement. The goodwill of a fran- chised shop is perceived to be a func- tion of the franchisor’s “good name”. A potential purchaser of an existing franchisee’s shop is not counting on the business acumen of the local franchisee – he is placing his trust in the business plan of the franchisor. No, it’s the rest of us – the
Independents who need to have an Operations Manual in place to explain “how I run my business”. The ATRA “What’s Working/What’s Not” survey has shown that successful shops are ones that “plan” and ones that “pull the trigger”. So,
1. “Plan”: includes a written description of how you run your shop which will enable your successor to take over from you. 2. “Pull the trigger”: means get- ting it done, not putting it off.
Steve and Marj Croyle have worked 25 years together developing Lake City
GEARS May/June 2010
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