This isn't a resume, so expect your operations manual to be more than a few pages. Don't try to cram it onto 20 pages; numbers like 300 or 500 are more realistic.

Document Your Business as it is Now

Try to stay focused while creating the manual. As an entrepreneur you naturally have a creative mind, so while documenting the business, you may come up with new ideas and procedures. Document your business as it is now, not how you envision it years from now. You can always revise the manual later to incorporate new operating procedures. If your company is in a state of change, wait until the internal business changes have been tested and made.

Franchise Operations Manual Tips

Your operations manual will become an important component of the franchise operation. Franchisees and their key executives will rely on it immensely. It will become one of the most important tools in running their new business. Franchisees are buying a system and a process, a proven method, and the operations manual is their "how to guide" to everything from establishing the business to marketing and managing departments. What will make your franchise network successful as a whole is the ability of everyone in it to adhere to a proven business model. Document what made you successful and this will help ensure the growth and success in your franchise network.

If you are here to create a franchise operations manual and would rather complete template, we can help.

Manual Formatting Tips

A procedures manual is also a quick reference, so make it easy to read by using a font like Arial or Times New Roman set on at least a 12 point font. It is also suggested that your sentence spacing be set to 1.5. Try to keep the pages scannable by using headers and a justified font. Bullet and numbered lists will also make items easy to find. Please see our quick formatting video tutorial. It will show you how to set the margins, spacing, font, and justification within Word.

We have one guide that can help no matter what type of manual you need or what type of industry you're in. Be on the look out for our "customization tips" on each page to point out how you can customize the information for your specific type of manual. A franchise operations manual will be different than an operations manual. Likewise, a retail manual differs slightly from a service manual.

It's Ugly How Much Paper They Require

Your procedures manual can be created as a PDF document and viewed electronically. If you don't have Adobe, you can create the document in Microsoft Word and then use a program such as EasyPDF to convert it into a PDF file.

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