May you have a safe, enjoyable and relaxing festive season.

The theme for this final issue of The BeeZine for 2006 is writing business documents.

Chris's article - What's Up Doc - highlights the importance of one type of business documentation.

The resources we've collected focus on assisting you with another.

Do you ever find yourself staring blankly at the computer screen when trying to write a letter to a customer, supplier or staff member?

Starting from scratch with this process can take time and energy away from other areas of your business. So we've looked for useful tips, as well as no-cost or low-cost business letter samples and templates.

We hope you will find some of these resources helpful.

Do you document your policies and procedures for your business?

If not, then 'what's up doc?' (Apologies to Bugs Bunny.)

You haven't got the time?

It's not necessary?

Well, this is what happened to someone who did not bother to document his policies and procedures...

We will call him Tom.

Tom was the owner of Widgets Are Us whose policy and procedures were 'she'll be right, mate.'

In other words, he didn't have any.

One day Tom's receptionist, Sally, rang and said, 'I've got the flu and the doctor said I have to rest for a week.'

So Tom called the temp agency, Have we Got a Body For You and hired a temporary receptionist, Peter.

Guess what happened?

Tom lost a client that was worth 20% of his business because Peter made a mistake.

Why?

Well, it wasn't because Peter was incompetent. He was a professional receptionist. But he still needed information at hand to deal effectively with the widget clients (they're a funny lot).

Tom suffered those losses because he did not have any documentation of his policies and procedures. He assumed Peter would know what to do. Well, Peter did not know and made a mistake that cost Widgets Are Us a lot of money.

What Tom should have had in place was documented policies and procedures for every employee. If he had, Peter would have known what to do.

Ah well, 'she'll be right, mate'

Noticing the previous bill hadn't been paid, the distributor left a voicemail for the customer saying, "We will be able to deliver your order by Christmas, but we can not ship it until we receive payment for your last order."

Are you looking for a really fast but effective way to do it?

Our strategic planning services can help you.

Available in workshop or 1:1 coaching formats.

For more information contact us on (03) 9758 2528 or by email