When was the last time you thought about documentation for your small business?

You may have a small, intimate team that is very familiar with the everyday going ons and where everything is -- but what happens when you need to expand and grow your team? Or worse, what happens when someone who was critical to your business leaves or has to be let go?

Granted documentation is not in any way sexy(nor is it remotely approaching any level of fun) in the context of the business world; and the IT realm is notorious for not documenting their processes and critical information. Some workers are intimidated by forms and 'business speak', while some are afraid that if things are written down it jeopardizes their job security. Some just don't like writing.

A few years back I was working with a very large pharmaceudical company on decomissioning a mainframe, and the hired Data Warehouse expert flat out refused to do documentation. This resulted in not only causing a rift in the team, a loss of respect for that worker, but ultimately got him fired. If a large corporation expects all workers to be able to document their work, so should smaller businesses.

It is critical to your business and its growth that how you do your business (from steps A to Z) and how information is used and manipulated is written down.

Here are some steps to ease the process:

1. Use a template: Create a simple, yet professional template with your company title or logo so that the reader can easily tell what the subject is about, who wrote it, and when it was last changed. MS Word has many great templates you can modify to suit your needs. And make sure your employees use them.
2. Think like a new hire: If you were just hired for your company, what information do you need? Do you need an email account? Remote access / VPN? Who are my contacts? For every type, a structured instructional should exist for who requests for what (in old change management speak it was who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) and who should be informed. A graphical chart also helps.
3. Draw up an organization chart: It doesn't matter if your company only has five people or 50. Make sure everyone understands how your business is organized and who reports to whom.
4. Collect technical resources in one place: For all of your IT resources (software and hardware) any piece of documentation (manual, instructions, even README text files) should be collected and stored in a shareable structured repository (broken out into logical directories and subdirectories that make sense), so others may refer to them as resources.

A good example is LeTip International who has a secure online repository of documentation to be used by their distributed members for their local chapters and regions.

You may start on this journey and it may be painful, especially if you're the only responsible person doing this work, but believe me -- it will be worth it as your business grows. If your organization is larger and have a great number of documents, you may want to investigate document repository systems to manage them. If there is interest in learning about some open source repository systems, let me know and I will write on them.

Hope this helps!

Lately I've seen a bunch of articles in which the author explains his favorite few tools and why. Rather than duplicate what has already been done well, I thought I'd cover an area that has been my biggest small business hassle as of late, getting a hold of finances and money.

It seems like banking and financial services are either designed for individuals or giant corporations, with very few options for those small business owners in between. Thankfully there are a few good new and old tools and tricks that work especially for the small business owner. I rely pretty heavily on these 10.

1. Mint.com

   Mint is an extremely new online program that quickly integrates your bank accounts and breaks them down in order to show you where you’re spending your money. I’ve only been using this for a couple of weeks and already found myself relying on it heavily to plan out my personal and business savings. As an aside, this service is ridiculously easy to setup, so even if you don’t have a lot of extra time, this one may be worthwhile.

2. The Perfect Calculators

   I’m in love with the CCH Calculators. They’re the small businessman’s version of an actuary. I use them to plan out the feasibility of taking on a new loan, the long-term expected ROI on a short term project, or just to play around with things like my retirement plan. Literally everyone I’ve shared my enthusiasm for these things hasn’t felt the same, so I don’t blame you if you disagree. But I would encourage you to go ahead and spend a few hours with these calculators just because putting hard and fast numbers to your ideas is a good way to weed out the really crummy ones.

3. Quickbooks OE

   This is the mother of all small business finance tools. The online edition is frequently updated and will pull in all of your various business accounts (with the notable exception of PayPal). I use this tool to constantly have great documentation of all our company’s activities and it saves me a lot in year end accounting fees, b/c everything is done for me.

4. Wells Fargo Payroll Services

   Not so much an online tool as an online service, Wells Fargo payroll service is the cheapest on the market (at least among the 5 different services I quoted). Having checks made out and sent through them is not only a lot more professional than signing your own checks, it also saves a ton in end of the year accounting fees because they keep track of all of your withholdings and prepare your quarterly tax returns for you.

5. Continental's Frequent Flyer Program

   I live and work out of Houston (which is Continental Airlines hub) so that program works really well for me, but you can basically find an airline rewards program for whatever company is biggest in your city. I only fly about twice a month, but since I always do it with the same airline that’s enough to get me free first class upgrades almost every time I fly, and I get to bring a free guest on some of my flights. I know that a airline rewards plan isn’t specifically a finance tool, but it is a means that I rely pretty heavily on to make my business’ travel dollars go a lot farther.

6. Basecamp

   I realize that its trite to rely on Basecamp, and I sort of hate the fact that I give them $20 something dollars a month to use their software, but using Basecamp has literally saved our business thousands by keeping us organized. I’d suggest that you setup a number of different projects and different to-do lists for each site rather than trying, as most users do, to utilize just a single to-do list.

7. Freshbooks

   Again, it isn’t original, but it is vital. I used to rely heavily on freshbooks for invoicing and time tracking. While I use the service less now that the company has grown, it remains one of the only tools designed for small business owners that actually works the way its supposed to.

8. Google Docs & Spreadsheets

   Why are you still using MS Word and Excel. If you’re a small business, especially an online business, there’s usually tons of collaboration taking place between people in different offices. I use Google Docs and Spreadsheets on a daily basis to collaborate when researching new domains or website niches, as well as to collectively draw up specs on a new project.

9. My Small Business AMEX Card

   I originally thought that only millionaires had AMEX platinum business cards. Not true. Basically if you have good credit you can get one no matter how small your company is. The benefits are a lot better than any other comparable card in terms of the travel rewards as well as the fact that you get into the executive lounges in all major airports for free (many have free liquor BTW). From a finance perspective, AMEX also prepares a complete end-of-year rundown for you for free which provides you with a good foundation if you plan on doing your own taxes.

10. Top Blogs

    There are a number of really bad small business finance blogs on the internet. Thankfully there are also a few really good ones.

Obviously there are different tools that work for different people and different companies. So take the 10 recommendations I've made with a grain of salt. They've worked for me, but all I can really say is that you should consider giving these a try because I can attest that they're proven techniques for getting a handle on your small business finances.