For an owner to step away from the day-to-day running of their own business they need to find a way to continue to communicate to all employees their vision. A way to maintain the high level of quality of service and delivery the business was founded on and ideally improve on it.
If everything is written down it is easy for everyone to access. For new employees in particular having something written down they can refer to makes it easier and quicker to get up to speed with what is required.
In the modern age written down does not necessarily mean on paper - it just means accessible. So an intranet can be very useful in this regard. Using electronic media also makes it easier to add in demonstration video and other resources such as questionnaires to check understanding.
In the business-to-business world it is re-assuring to deal with a company that has everything documented as it indicates a commitment to consistency. It also shows that the management is not micro-managing everything and that a framework exists for continual improvement.
The rate of early business failure in the UK is quite high with around 50% failing in the first 3 years and around 60% not lasting longer than 5. In the ones that continue it is almost always the case that the owner(s) / founder(s) has a clear vision of what the business is about and how it should deliver that vision.
For an owner to step away from the day-to-day running of operations, they need to find a way to continue to communicate to all employees their vision, to maintain the high level of quality of delivery and ideally improve on it.
Having clearly defined policies and procedures is one very good way of defining exactly how the business should work. Better still, having business processes defined is a great way of examining weaknesses and identifying areas for improvement.
For many this sounds like a unproductive bureaucratic waste of time and if you are not careful it can be. It depends very much on how you approach it.
ISO 9000 is the core management system standard in Europe. It sets out in very broad terms how to set out the policies and procedures for the business to ensure a consistent quality of delivery of production and/or service.
The key point here is 'broad terms'. The standard tries very hard to not be too prescriptive on how you approach this task. This has led to problems in the past with many companies gritting their teeth and going through a paperwork exercise just to get the ISO 9000 badge. This is not just wasteful, it is dangerous.
It is the consistent quality element you should focus on - this is where the main benefit is.
You need to get to a situation where a consistently good or excellent product or service can be delivered even if the personnel change. As far as the ownership is concerned you need to take this to a point where important decisions can be made within the policy framework without the owner being present.
The paperwork / procedural (it doesn't need to be on physical paper these days) exercise needs be achieving that for you. The target is not just consistency, but a framework for continuous improvement.
This is a core component in creating an automated engine that can operate without the owner's constant intervention. This is the lever that frees up time for strategic planning and makes it easy for the owner to sell the business when the time comes.
One final point on this, the documentation should also incorporate legal related issues. For example contracts of employment and General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). GDPR is complex and a separate subject really, but the more complex the problem is, the more important it is to define the rules on how it is to be dealt with in the business.
