Your store operations manual is more than a set of rules because it makes your job easier and makes your store more profitable as well.

It is easy to think of your store operations manual as something that you are required to keep in the building so it sits on a shelf gathering dust from week to week.  That would be one of the tragedies of all time if you missed out on the real value that is buried inside that dusty old franchise operating manual.

Your store operations manual not just a boring set of rules that the franchisee wants you to know. Hidden away in that volume are guidelines and procedures that can address just about any situation you might run into in running your retail outlet. To ignore the gold that is hidden in the store operations manual is literally like setting out to reinvent the wheel. That document represents the combined wisdom and experience of the franchisee and of many skilled and very successful retailers. So blow the dust off of that puppy and crack it open.  You will be glad you did.

It is important to see the store operations manual as more than just your guide to how to stay honest in dealing with the mother ship that sold you the franchise. That store operations manual represents the safety vest for your employees who are on the front line of dealing with customers, managing inventory and interacting with vendors.

You do not want to leave those folks out in the cold.  Arm them to the teeth with a resource of information so they know exactly what they should do if problems or opportunities come up.  Give each employee a copy of the store operations manual and then they will have no excuse for not becoming employee of the month if they live up to that document.

If it has to do with making your franchise work, it is covered in the store operations manual.

Once you get a cup of coffee and start spending some time in the franchise store operation manual, the experience can be quite eye opening. Right there in that one document, right along side all the franchise information you could ever hope for are tips on how to deal with every imaginable situation in your retail setting.

The variety of areas of store issues that are covered in the store operations manual will turn that book into your Bible for running your franchise. It will cover everything from dress code to management of inventory to how to balance a till to how to fire a bad employee or promote a good one.  Perhaps the most important area of retail life that will be covered in depth in your store operations manual will be customer relations and how to bring in more customers and make the ones you already have love you even more.

No franchise retail owner or manager should let very much time go by between readings of your store operations manual. If you never looked at it, do it now. If you read it a lot, do it more. That information can take a troubled franchise and fix what ails it or take a great franchise and make it ever greater.