Every business needs some type of Standard Operating Procedures, and a home-based business needs a control journal where you can write yours down.
My Control Journal is a notebook that I put together and update periodically so that someone can pick it up and know what to do in the event that something happens to me to prevent me from doing it.
Here’s my reasoning behind it, and a free printable that you can download and use for your own business, or as a model for one that you design for yourself.
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Put it together “just in case.”
I put this together for myself so that if something happens to me and someone else has to start running my business (or closing it) they’ll be able to do it.
It has pages for how to get into my various websites, with passwords, and lists of all of the services that i use online.
That way, if you end up in the hospital and can’t do it, you’ll be able to hand it off to someone else to take care of.
I refer to my journal as my “If I Drop Dead Notebook.”
Yes, it’s morbid, but it’s also REALLY important.
My husband would have no idea how to handle things if I was suddenly out of the picture, so it’s something that I do to make it easier on him.
And I’m not going to lie, it’s also handy to have lists of all of my passwords because I forget the ones that I don’t use all the time!
It’s a good reference for myself, too. I’ve added in all of my suppliers, subscriptions, and places where my credit card is stored in case they need to be changed or updated at any point.
It’s not only for a life-or-death situation, it’s very handy for daily use.
You can also use it to keep your business license and other paperwork to have it all in one place if you’re using it for your own reference and not handing it out to employees.
How often to update the book.
I update my Control Journal a couple of times a year so that everything is up-to-date. The first of the year and in June are good times to put on your schedule, but you can do it once a month if things change for you a lot.
Since the pages are printable, you can do this as often as you want to in order to keep it neat. Or just cross things out and write new ones in, whatever works for you.
I keep mine in a three-ring notebook so that I can take pages in and out as often as I need to.
If you have things that you want to include that aren’t in the book, definitely put them in your own notebook.
The best thing is to write everything out in a step-by-step way so that anyone can follow the directions. Don’t leave anything out, write it like you’re writing for someone who’s never seen a computer before so that they won’t have any trouble following the process.
I’ve included the steps to close an Etsy shop, or put it on vacation mode, so that’s part of the printout.
See all of my home-bakery business supplies on Zazzle.
File download.
Download a copy here:
This is a free download but if you’d like to thank me for it (or for making you think about redoing your own) you can give a donation to a local animal shelter or animal rescue organization. They need the support because people usually donate to the large national organizations instead!
