Effective policies and procedures manuals are one of the most overlooked aspects for nearly all small to medium businesses. One of the key reasons that small to medium businesses never get to reach their full potential is they don't have the correct systems in place to allow the quality of work to be consistent across all areas. Your policies and procedures manuals allow you to effectively document the work your staff complete on a regular basis saving you the time and hassle of having to explain the same process over and over again.

Discover the power of working 'on your business' and not in it

Many small to medium businesses, with less than 20 staff, find great difficulty in keeping a constant eye on all their staff and as a business owner you should not have to do this. Instead your goal as an effective business manager is to spend as much time working 'on your business' as you can and less time working 'in the business'. The only time you should be working 'in the business', as an owner, is when you're first starting out and documenting all the policies and procedures that are required for each role.

Imagine hiring 10 new staff a week for 10 straight weeks

One of the strongest mindsets you can have is to imagine having to hire 10 new staff a week for 10 straight weeks. The only way to truly meet your long-term financial objectives is through growth and the only way to grow your business efficiently is by having the correct policies and procedures manuals in place. The only way a business can prosper and efficiently hire 10 new staff in a week, is by having an efficient set of policies and procedures manuals.

How would you like to run your business by Chinese whispers?

There is no doubt that your staff have asked the same questions over and over again and your new staff have also asked the same questions. Unfortunately for most organisations this is where the company growth actually comes down to Chinese whispers. The first person learns the policies and procedures passed down from their manager, then they put their interpretation and modifications on those policies and procedures and teach their new format to the staff under them. This is by far the most inefficient and ineffective way to grow as a company and if you are ever going to move to the next level as an organisation, you'll need to know how to implement effective policies and procedures manuals.

So what sorts of policies and procedures manuals are important?

Initially your goal is to document the most important impact areas of your business and create your policies and procedures manuals around those. These might relate more to how each department is run and of course how each of the staff members within the department conduct their jobs on a day-to-day basis.

Other extremely big picture policies and procedures manuals include but are not limited to:

• management policy

• OHS policy

• workplace policies

• travel policy

• HR policy

• Security policy

• financial policy

• recruitment policy

• child-care policy procedures; and

• IT policies

Clearly there are a number of important policies that you need to document within your current business that once completed will enable you to leverage your time and have the mindset of someone who is able to hire 10 new staff are week.

Irrespective of whether you are growing your business at 1 to 5 staff per week or 1 to 5 staff per year, the process of documenting the correct policies and procedures manuals for all areas of your business will be the best leverage of your time, effort and money.