A Post on A Fitness Marketing Timesaver Tip By Nick Berry
Jim spoke last week about Operations Manuals and the importance and value of having one in place.
In a sense, it’s your fitness business in a book.
It may not be be loaded with fitness marketing techniques but it’s command central, if you will, a resource for you or anyone else to understand the inner workings of your business.
When creating your Ops Manual you’re documenting your policies and procedures.
Policies regarding what you offer, customer service, cancellation, returns, billing, contract or agreements, package terms, etc.
Your procedures are your completion plans – which I KNOW you’ve heard us talk about.
Completion plans are simply step by step plans to execute anything that must be done in your fitness business.
If you’re like the average new business owner, trying to get things organized and up and running, you’ve probably got a couple of vague policies in your head, and a few completion plans on paper.
You’ve gotten started, but you don’t really know how to proceed further because actually creating completion plans for everything that goes on in your business seems a bit too daunting.
It could be daunting, but you’re closer than you think.
What you’ve got is a good start.
If you expect to write a complete Ops Manual in a day or two and never have to update it you’re not approaching this properly.
First of all, it’s a constant work in progress.
It’s always going to evolve because you’re always going to be improving and updating the processes in your business.
So take what you’ve got and compile it. Then add to it.
Make it a goal to create a completion plan a day, or two a week, until you think you have them all.
And then, when you realize you missed one, write it and add it to your Manual!
It really is that simple to get this started.
The same process should go towards writing your policies.
Write out all of the policies you know you want in place, and then update and add to them as you see fit.
Your Ops Manual is the key to running your business.
That includes training your employees, treating your customers fairly, and delivering your service consistently.
That’s it in the most basic form, and that’s what you need to keep in mind as you create your first draft of your Ops Manual for your business.
Remember, everyone who attends the Fast Track to Fitness Millions event May 29-31 in New Jersey will get a copy of our Operations Manual.
We look forward to seeing you there, and of course will be happy to answer anything about fitness marketing and questions about customizing the information to fit your business.
Have a great week!
Nick Berry
Nick Berry has spent his entire career as an entrepreneur, consultant, and business coach. Nick is a co-owner of the Athletic Revolution franchise and The International Youth Conditioning Association (which focus on the health and wellness of the youth market), as well as Ultimate Business Systems, which provides business coaching services to fitness professionals. His focus is on the areas of Operations and Finance. You can read more about Nick here or be his Facebook friend here.
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Thanks for putting this daunting task into better perspective.
Thanks, Nick! I started this in March and did about 15 different things so far. The ones I’ve done so far have really helped in getting more done, but they constantly need to be updated, plus I’m not even close to getting them all done. Can’t wait to see the operations manual in NJ!
Great points, this is an ongoing task that adapts as your business adapts! How do follow procedure in your day to day business if you aren’t fully aware what your procedures and policies are. It is the lack of thinking it through that results in inconsistent responses. Which in turn will create confusion in your clients. Don’t confuse your clients, be consistent, people like to know what to expect. See you in NJ!
Great article Nick – I have been a business consultant for over 10 years and I can tell you that all companies are lacking when it comes to their operations manuals. Even covering the basics of your business will put you a step ahead of most companies out there.
In the book “The E-myth” by Michael Gerber, he talks of working on your business and not in your business. Most entrepreneurs get stuck working in your business whereas you would want to set up the manuals and systems so that you could give the manuals to a new employee/trainer and go on vacation and when you returned, have the business growing and improving since you left.
This might seem overwhelming but break it down into chunks and complete them individually. One other thing to consider is to use a transcription service to type out a recording of you saying what the policy should be. You would need to do some final editing but if you don’t like to either type or write, this might be a good solution.
Best of luck!
Nick
http://www.twitter.com/nicktako
Having both policies and completion plans written down has made my life so much easier. Now, instead of being the only person who knows how to x, y, and z, anyone who works in our facility could open our Operations Manual and figure out how to complete any process or answer any question we’ve encountered.
Without an operations manual, your business cannot function well without you.
And Nick is right, as always, just complete one a day and before you know it, the entire manual is written.
Thanks Nick,
It seems that much easier now.
Craig
http://www.reclaimyourbody.com.au
Hey Nick,
Solid points mate… Thank you for the clarity and I’m super psyched for Fast Track and get my hands on that bad boy (Op Manual)
Great stuff
Adam Toohey