It never fails to amaze me how many entrepreneurs fail to put things in writing and I'm not just talking about contracts. The act of writing down your ideas, documenting processes, writing a business plan, template sales letters and everything else forces us to view things differently than if we just "think" about them. The process engages different cognitive skills and parts of the brain which will in turn bring about new perspectives, ideas and realizations about what we are doing which we may not come to as easily, if at all, when we don't write things down.

A few benefits of writing things down include:

1) Business continuity: Even if you are the business, it makes it easier to recall things, especially after an extended happy hour the night before.
2) Gaps in the business or process will be much more evident allowing you to fill them in. The single biggest "mystery" why your business is struggling may be right in front of you and documenting things may help you see it.
3) It gives you a chance to view your business from the top down from big picture to tactical details so it can become repeatable. How else will you improve your business and make it truly turn-key?
4) It shows investors and potential partners that you are serious about what you do.
5) You will develop new ideas in the process.

A few thing to make it easier:

1) Most of us hate watching someone thumb-tap away on their Blackberry at happy hour, but as an entrepreneur we have to be light on our feet and you never know when ideas will come to you so be prepared to tap them out in an email to yourself so you'll remember later.
2) Use diagrams. The ubiquitous PowerPoint can be annoying and overused but there is an art to taking your complex ideas and processes and distilling them down so they can be easily understood by anyone (including you). It takes time but is worth it and by doing so you will often be developing your own intellectual property (IP) which can add a tremendous amount of value to your business.
3) Do it but don't over-do it.
4) Leverage from others and learn from what they have done. Sometimes what you need is a variation on what someone else has done so look before you leap. You might just improve an existing process and give yourself a competitive edge with less effort to you.

There are a many other benefits and techniques but the point is to get the ball rolling. The biggest reasons we don't do better with documentation is because we are lazy, it isn't glamorous and it takes time. But if you are truly serious about your business you'll find the balance between documenting as needed without letting it consume you and becoming a distraction from running your business. Writing things up is an essential part of moving from working "in" your business to "on" your business.

Tools of the trade: I have taken to documenting everything I reasonably can in MindJet Mindmanager. It makes the brainstorming, organization and distribution of notes, documents and almost everything else not only easy but (believe it or not) kinda fun. Not inexpensive but it will save you loads of time and really help you capture a lot of information in an easy, intuitive manner.

Labels: 101, IP