How to Create a Procedure Manual for Your Commercial Cleaning Company
Have you ever wondered what would happen to your cleaning business should you suddenly become unavailable? What if you or a family member suddenly became ill which requires your extensive absence? What if you and your spouse want to take that extended vacation in order to unwind and reconnect? Would your business thrive, survive, or tumble into tribulation?
Sure, you could pack your cell phone, tablet, laptop, and important business papers and work off-site, but is this how you want to deal with your company's everyday operations upon your absence? I'm guessing not. So what is the answer?
Creating a procedure manual for your business can act as a road map for your employees to follow upon your extended leave. It can also improve the way everyday business operations are currently being done. It allows you to systematize your day to day business activities so that things run efficiently and with consistency. It just makes good business sense.
Creating your cleaning company's procedure manual
Having written and standardized operating procedures manual for your commercial cleaning business means your business can keep moving along with or without you. A standard operating procedure (SOP) is an instructional guide specific to your company's operations. Your staff can refer to the SOP in order to execute your company's daily functions and complete tasks in accordance with your specific SOP procedures.
So how do you go about writing down the procedures to keep the business running? Begin by breaking down your business operations into separate parts. You could have folders that contain, for example, quality systems, service delivery, human resources, health and safety, and financial.
Quality Systems could include such things as quality control inspections, feedback surveys, communication log and complaints, damage breakage report, and service change orders.
Service Delivery could include cleaning training programs, staffing plans, customer service log, supply and equipment inventory sheets, and welcome packets.
Human Resources could include your company policy manual, interview and evaluations procedures, drug testing, orientation checklist, and key logs.
Health and Safety could include safety training programs, hazard communication, and vehicle accident reporting.
Financial could include banking, bookkeeping, invoicing procedures, accounts payable/receivable, cash management, and budgeting information.
Following are a few tips to help you create a procedure manual for your cleaning business:
- Don't try to sit down and write out your manual in one sitting. You will get discouraged and most likely set the document aside and never get back to it. You do not have to tackle this project all at once. Instead, set aside a block of time every day or once a week to work on your manual.
- Create a uniformed looking SOP. Use the same font, text size, headings, line spacing, etc. when setting up your procedures manual. Microsoft Word is a commonly used and easy program to work with. It allows you to easily update and make changes to the SOP. By password protecting the document it will not be accessible to anyone else. Just make sure you share the password with a spouse, partner or trusted assistant in case something happens to you.
- Start by putting basic information into your manual. Some of the information you'll want to document include: your business address, e-mail, phone number, fax number, your attorney's name and address, accountant's name and address, bank account information, Employee Identification Number (EIN), sales tax number and credit card information.
- When you are working on specific tasks for your business, whether that is sending out billings, making sales calls, etc., write down your procedures. If there are particular tasks that have to be done regularly, or other tasks you feel are important to the business, make sure you document the procedures, step-by-step. You can even video tape a specific procedure and have a staff member translate it into your SOP.
- If you have other people helping you, such as an assistant, bookkeeper, or salesperson, have them document what they do. For instance, if your bookkeeper is responsible for paying sales tax she should write down all relevant information including when to send in the taxes, where it goes, who she or he calls if there are questions.
Keep your manual consistent by creating a simple template that you use for all of your procedures. Following is an example for the format of a section:
1. Date Updated: _________________
2. Updated by: ___________________
3. Procedures Required to ____________________________________
4. List step-by-step procedures
A filled out page might look something like this:
Date Updated: 3/15/18
Updated by: Bob Jones
Procedures for checking a voice mail.
- Call 555-555-5555
- Press the # key to stop the message
- Enter code: 9156
- Listen to messages
- Press 7 to delete message, press 3 to save message
Listed below are additional items that you may want to include in your residential cleaning business' procedures manual. This is just a general list. One of your first steps in putting together your own manual will be to decide what information you need to include.
- Important contact information.
- Customer contact information and contract/service information.
- Account numbers and login information.
- Vendor lists.
- Legal information - Type of business entity, important account numbers.
- Computer procedures, software/support and product ID's, cloud and back-up systems.
- Website designer, website host and registrar for domain names.
- Procedures for paying business taxes.
- Employee evaluation review procedures.
- Where to find equipment warranties and service manuals.
- Information on safety programs, where to find SDS sheets, and who is responsible for keeping the SDS sheets up to date.
The easiest way to begin putting together your manual is to make a list of all the things that you and others do for your cleaning company that need to be documented. If you can delegate some of these items to others then do so! That will make your job all that much easier. Put together a template that works for your cleaning business and then start filling in the blanks.
An alternative to putting pencil to paper when creating your company's business processes is to utilize task software. It is available to assist in creating, editing, and managing your company's procedures. Process Street and SweetProcess are a few common software systems that will help you to speed up the process and electronically create and manage SOP documents. Task software systems also allow you or your staff to quickly search the database for the documents they need.
Company SOP's need to be updated on a regular basis. As your business and its operations change, the changes to your procedures should be revised as well. A well thought out and detailed SOP will become the main resource for you and your staff to go to for clarity. No more phone calls, emails, or waiting to hear back from company employees or co-workers on how to perform a particular task or find business and customer information. It should be easily accessible to those who need to use it. We recommend securely storing in in the “cloud” so you and your staff can access it quickly.
If for some reason you cannot work or decide to finally take that vacation, your road map of procedures will be in place. You can rest assured that your residential cleaning business will run effectively and efficiently in your absence.
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Need Help Creating Your Procedure Manual?
Steve Hanson, Co-founder, coaches cleaning business owners on developing their “Master Business System” with the Business Development coaching program.
Every business is built on 5 core business pillars - sales/marketing, operations, finance, team and leadership. Steve will coach you to develop your Master Business System with each of those 5 pillars. Implementing what you learn will develop a systems reliant business, not an owner reliant business.
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