The entire month’s information has been about paperwork. It sounds boring but is important! Fortunately, we can create the paperwork we need and keep them as digital files to share with current and potential clients and customers. This was mentioned as we talked about How I Work last week, and today we will look at policies and procedures.
Policies and Procedures
Hopefully, you have something in place, but if not, there is no time like the present! I have a way of simplifying this process. On my website, in the store, you’ll find a jumpstart kit with a downloadable and affordable outline for policies and procedures. I have an operations manual that is printed and in my Google Drive just in case I may need someone to step in for me in my business. I will go over the main areas included in mine and what they contain.
What are the policies and procedures you will need for an operations manual?
First, you need the basic company info which would consist of such things as name, EIN, phone number, address, etc. I have an LLC and go over what I offer.
Next is your company description that outlines your ideal client, service policies, monthly and other expenses, client procedures, etc. The things you want to cover in this service are bulleted below.
- Bulleted list of services
- Different policies which could include payments, invoicing, monthly retainer or hours, prices, rush jobs, refunds, email, and correspondence
- Highlight where inquiries go (This goes into your leads system, and we will cover this further at another time)
- Monthly expenses
- Tasks and procedures (My list contains a standard operating procedure that covers how I schedule social media, create content, create new sites, and my blog procedures.)
- Client relation procedures for leads and new clients (How do you get a lead and what are the steps you walk them through? HoneyBook has helped me with this, and you can get 50% off by using my link.)
- How will you onboard your clients?
I have a list of monthly, weekly, and daily tasks. Monthly I track expenses. Weekly I do stats which I will cover in another episode. Daily I have tasks Tuesday through Friday. I don’t do personal business tasks on Monday because that day is busy with client work.
Lastly are the marketing strategies. Where are you marketing? Are you in Facebook groups, job boards, LinkedIn, or Instagram? Are you doing cold calls?
In Conclusion
The above are some things in my paperwork and it is about 10 pages long. As a reminder, the template is in the jumpstart kit on my website. We have one more episode which covers the important pieces of a contract.
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