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The Organic Business Manual
Systems.
Everyone says you need them. But maybe you’re not so sure what that means or how it applies to you and your business.
Maybe the just hearing the word “systems” makes you cringe and brings out your inner rebel, sending you running as far as you can get from any sort of structure that might feel restricting.
Maybe you are persuaded that systems can actually support you, but have no idea how to begin the overwhelming chore of creating and organizing your systems, even if you felt you had time for such a project.
Maybe you’ve made a start, but keep getting bogged down in decisions about what goes where and how it should all look.
And even when you do make some headway organizing this stuff, sooner or later it comes to feel so tedious and irrelevant, you can never seem to stick with it.
So you ignore your systems.
Which is fine much of the time. You’re fairly organized and have a decent memory, you get your work done – and things go pretty well most days.
It’s not that often you have to reinvent the wheel, or waste time looking for a lost password, or cope with an emergency, or lose money…
… or is it?
You can’t build momentum if you ignore your systems.
Even if you are pretty much okay where you are, you can’t move forward. You’re stuck. Because when you do try to do more, everything starts to fall apart (including you). With nothing to support what you are adding, you and your business cannot bear the weight of its growth. Cue the chaos and overwhelm.
Which of course is no fun at all. For a whole bunch of reasons.
Funny thing is, this systems stuff that seems so boring is the very stuff that would tame the chaos and overwhelm and make your work way more fun to do.
It’s crucial to your success – and joy in your work – that you find a way to give your systems the attention they deserve and allow them to play their very necessary role in your business.
Enter the Organic Business Manual.
I know – “business manual” – it sounds corporate and bureaucratic and, well, everything you’re not. But every business needs operating instructions. And creating a business manual is the best tool I know of to figure out just what your systems should be and how to organize them in ways that are genuinely useful to you.
When organically generated from your day-to-day work, building such a handbook is a manageable process – and one with big benefits (I’m talking money here – not to mention sanity).
I know from my own experience and from supporting creative entrepreneurs in one way or another for more than twenty years how neglecting systems can erode a business – how it can crumble, unable to support someone’s creative pursuits. It’s heartbreaking. And maddening – because it doesn’t have to be that way.
Your relationship with the day-to-day operation of your business does not have to be an adversarial one. You can create simple and effective systems that are not only compatible with, but truly support your creative work.
And over the course of ten weeks this fall, you can learn exactly how.
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Class Content
Class Format
Is this course for you? How to know if you are in the right place.
Tuition and Registration
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Class Content
The class will take place over the course of ten weeks. In the first two weeks, we’ll prepare our approach to creating our manuals. That will be followed by six hands-on sessions in which we will focus on documenting the systems we use in specific areas of our businesses. In the final week, we’ll develop strategies for maintaining our manuals in ways that keep it up-to-date and relevant to our businesses.
LESSON 1: Introduction
- What is a Business Manual?
Understanding what you are actually documenting so you can heal the disconnect, make peace with maintenance and restore administration to its proper place in your business. - Exercise: Preparing Your Containers
Every activity needs two containers: space to hold the information and a corresponding space on your calendar.
- First, we’ll explore how to select and prepare the container that will serve as your manual so it functions easily and effectively, and remains a tool you will want to use.
- Second, we’ll explore ways to prepare space in your schedule and properly pace your work on your manual.
LESSON 2: Developing Content
- Bottom-Up and Top-Down Approaches to Creating Content
And why you want to come at it from both directions. - Respecting Your Inner Logic
Right-brain strategies for doing the left-brained job of compiling a big book of lists and step-by-step instructions without going crazy or dying of boredom. - Exercise: Knowing & Acting on Your Standards
An exploration of the fundamental values you want your systems to support and the mechanisms that make fulfilling your intent easy and automatic.
HANDS-ON DOCUMENTATION SESSIONS
For each of these six areas we will:
- prepare a space in our containers
- explore our standards for this specific area of our business
- determine which systems we need to create and/or document
- decide the order and level of detail of that documentation
- plan on our approach
These six areas of business are very much interconnected. Noticing where there is overlap and choosing how to handle that will be a part of preparing our approach to each one.
- Services and Products
Your packaging and presentation, timing, cost, means of delivery, etc. – in short: what you offer and how you get it to the people who want it. - Legal and Finance
Your contracts, insurance policies, accounting procedures, taxes – you know, the fine print. - Technology
Your hardware and software, backing up your data, those pesky passwords, and other forms of digital maintenance and security. - Connecting
Email, telephone, website, blog, newsletter, social media, networking, etc. – how you keep in touch with people and care for your customer/client relationships. - Marketing
From your logo, letterhead, biz cards, online presence, etc., to your resume and portfolio, to big picture strategy stuff. - Continuing Education
Business training and/or personal development, membership in trade organizations, and any necessary maintenance of professional credentials or licenses.
LESSON 3: A Living Document
- Keeping your manual relevant to your business.
How to continuing building, updating and using your manual beyond the class and use your manual as a big picture planning tool. - Exercise: Maintaining Your Manual
Determining the ways you want to use this tool in your business, and developing a personal plan for the ongoing upkeep of your manual.
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Class Format
Course material will be presented in a variety of ways from which you may choose what best suits your needs, learning style, and schedule.
Lessons will be presented in an online classroom in the form of a private blog. Lessons will be posted Monday mornings, and will include both a text and an audio version, along with related worksheets and examples. Just log in whenever you’re ready to work on the lesson for the week. There are no scheduled meeting times.
You can share homework, ask questions, and get guidance and support from me and your fellow students via comments on the blog – again, whenever it suits you.
Because maybe you’re more of a talker than a writer or sometimes the best help is to connect with real live voices, the online classroom will be supplemented by optional weekly Q&A calls during which we will review the week’s lesson, maybe do an exercise or two together, and discuss the specific challenges of individual situations. (Don’t worry, these will be recorded if you cannot attend or want to review material.)
And because you may want a little more structure or guidance to work through the material, additional encouragement and accountability will also be available in the form of twice-weekly prompts/check-ins via email to help you stay focused and moving forward.
Lastly, for those who would like personal attention during the course, there is an option to add private coaching sessions (see Tuition & Registration).
You should plan on investing a few moments throughout each work day to make notes about activities, as well as 2-4 hours over the course of the week to review lessons, complete related assignments, and participate in discussion of the material. Lesson assignments will be offered at different levels from which you may choose depending on need, interest or available time to pursue depth or detail in different areas.
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Is this course for you? How to know if you are in the right place.
First, listen to the free introductory teleclass. If that inspires and excites you and you’d like to learn more, then come on down!
If your are having a lot of anxiety about finding the time to do this thing, you may want to take the True Discipline of Time Management course first. Learning how to structure your time in ways you love will help prepare you to structure your work in ways you love.
This is not a business planning or marketing course. This is about doing what you already know how (or are learning elsewhere) to do in more consistent and streamlined ways that foster the growth of your business. If you are a very new entrepreneur and just starting out, let’s chat before you register to make sure this course is a good fit.
This course is designed for soloprenuers, that is: businesses of one (maybe two). If you have a VA or other contracted professionals supporting you, cool. This course will help facilitate your work with them. But the class is not intended to help you create any sort of employee handbook for a larger organization. The legalities and requirements of such documents are outside my expertise and will not be covered.
In the right place? Stoked? Then let’s do this thing!
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Tuition and Registration
Registration for the Fall 2009 session is closed.
Please sign-up for the newsletter to receive announcements of future sessions.
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Stop making it all up as you go along.
Free. Your. Mind.
Sign up today.
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Class Guarantee
Keeping in mind that we generally get out of things what we put into them – if you consistently show up, participate, and do the work, I guarantee you will see results. If you have put in the required time and effort, but you still do not feel you came away from a course with the promised outcomes, I will refund 100% of your tuition. If you are unsure whether a class is right for you, please contact me before registering.
Cancellation/Refund Policy
If you need to cancel, tuition is refundable up to 7 days prior to the start date. Tuition is non-refundable if you cancel less than one week prior to the beginning of a class.
