A Business Procedures Manual Reduces Stress and Confusion for Home Business Start Up Operators

On of the procedures home business start up operators need in their business procedure manual relates to answering the phone. All home business start up owners need to have a phone log beside the phone. The pages can alternate for incoming calls and outgoing calls. This log can save you so much time and stress. Not only can you see at a glance who has called and what the outcome was, it also provides you with evidence if there is any dispute regarding an important call.

The original designed Phone Log would be formatted in your business procedure manual and then copies of it (daily or weekly) can be used. By you being able to say ‘according to my log on 2/2/05 at 4.30pm I spoke to Joe Blog and we agreed to......’ – sounds professional doesn’t it? Compare that to having to say ‘well I know I rang early in Jan – I’m not sure who I spoke to, but he said..............’ A home business start up operator must appear professional at all times.

As well as your Phone Log, you need to have an enquiry form in your business procedure manual. Place copies on a clip board. Have spaces on it for you to write responses when you are answering an enquiry by phone. Not only do you need information to follow up on, this is how a home business start up grows their data base.

There is nothing worse than knowing someone was interested on your product or service, but you have lost the scrap of paper you wrote their name and number on. And if you do not have what the customer wants, ask would they like you to keep them informed as to new products/services as they become available; or if they would like you to send out your newsletter which has up to date info on the type of product they are interested in – anything to offer ‘something for nothing’ and to keep them as active participants of your data base.

In your Business Procedures Manual you will want to have a number of Logs for the day to day activities that you undertake. You will also need a Log for your training (what you did, how helpful was it, what you put into action and when etc). You have no idea how easy it is to forget what you have done. People buy the same piece of software again as they forget what they purchased over time. A log is an all important part of your business procedure manual.