How to: save time in the office: Work with templates

For most business  office  - documents, templates are available in the Internet, which are either free for download or for which one has to pay.
They can be a big time saver. Either one can use the templates as they are or one modifies them a bit.
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1. Free templates:
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• Here is a website with 50 links to other websites, from which free business templates can be downloaded.

       http://bestcourtreportingdegree.com/2009/50-free-sources-for-downloadable-legal-templates-documents/

• Business forms

       http://www.freeformsandtemplates.com/home.html

• Business templates

       http://rfptemplates.technologyevaluation.com/



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2. Templates, which cost some money:
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• Document generation software:  Bliz Doc ca. 60 US, with about 30 templates for many business acitivities.

       http://blitz-doc.com/

• Word Templates for a large area of business activities, about 10 US each, very large collection.

      http://www.businessnation.com/library/forms/

• Business agreement contracts. About 50 english pounds each http://www.contractstore.com/

• Business forms

        http://www.freeformsandtemplates.com/home.html

• information technology

        http://www.infotech.com/
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Even if one has to pay 50 US for a template, it may be cheap, if it is an excellent template, because it will save a lot of  time and money.

I have not checked in detail every of those templates of course; there are just too many  of them.

Therefore I would appreciate, to get some feedback from you, if you have tested some of  them or found some other good sources for them.

How to: save and structure informations

Nowadays we almost are overwhelmed by the amount of available informations, because it is relatively easy to find informations, using the internet.

But we should save these informations, so that we easily find it again and also can restructure it.

A good piece of software for that purpose is Whizfolders Organizer.

Originally it was only a two pane organizer. But over the years its developers added more and more useful features to it.

Now one can use it like an outliner, but also prepare reports with it, use hyperlinks, powerful search functions and the basic formatting features of a text program.

It is possible to install it on an USB-stick and also a Whizfolders Viewer is available, so that one can share the informations with others.

I use this program for many years now and it is one of my favorite programs.

The Whizfolder Pro version costs 25 US and the Whizfolder Deluxe Version 50 US

The license is for one user, but he can use it on two computers.

Have a look at their website:

http://whizfolders.com/

How to: structure a partnership agreement

1.     Give the business partnership a name and  let register  it.

2      State each partner’s required contribution to or investment in the partnership, and each partner’s percentage of ownership.

     Contributions may include

•    capital
•    assets
•    time or services

3      State each partner’s ability to control the partnership in terms of authority and decision-making power.

4     Create guidelines , that establish  the  roles for each partner.

5.    State the procedure for admitting new partners.

6    Write a section,  that provides details about handling disputes between or among the partners.

7   Write the rules,  that apply,  when a partner withdraws from the partnership in a buy-out plan.

How to: write a business report

Use graphs and charts to give your reports  a visual appeal, because a  good design of  routine business documents helps readers to easily

• access
• navigate
• remember

the information, given in the report.


Objectives

• What information do you want to communicate ?
• What decisions are needed ?

Research

• facts must be based on reliable information sources.
• Include information sources in detail

Format

Use a generally accepted format for the report like:

• title page
• executive summary
• methodology  (how conclusions were reached)
• introduction
• main text
• conclusions

recommendations and references

• use headings in the main text of the report

Outline and Draft

• Use a mind mapping program, to develop a clear Outline
• write all text in the mind mapping software ( in the notes )
• transfer the mind map to a text program
• add diagrams, tables and photos to the report and format it
• use a spell checker and a grammar checker
• carefully read the report twice
• use a text to voice program, to hear your text
• discuss your report with others

final design of the report

• Leave plenty of white space, with one-inch margins all around.
• leave space around visuals
• break up the report with headings, charts, graphs and photos

How to: make optimal decisions

An optimal decision is characterized by following points:

• decision is done at the right time
• decision improves the situation
• only a reasonable amounts of resources are  needed, to prepare and realize the decision.

In larger companies or organizations, the decision process is not done by one person only, but by a team and the final decision has to get approved by several levels in the hierarchical organization.

That process is not only time consuming, but also in danger, that important information gets lost or is not well understood by all involved people.

Therefore it is very important, to describe the goals and the path to reach them, in clear terms.

At the beginning of the decision process, one faces as a typical situation:

• the team and the involved decision makers are poorly organized
• the goals are ambiguously defined
• there can be even conflicting goals
• the problem itself is not well defined and oftenly poorly structured

To overcome these starting conditions, following procedure should be used:

• form a core team of 3 to 5 people. This team structures and finally defines the problem
• The team should have members with diverse skills, if a technical problem must be solved:
• 
  
  domain expertise,
• 
  
  scientific expertise
• 
  
  applied science
• 
  
  engineering skills.

This core team defines possible goals and concepts, how to realize them and writes a report, which covers:

• goals and objectives
• alternatives
• Identification of key variables
• relationships among variables

The core team works together with an advisory team. The advisory team should have senior engineers and commercially minded people as members.

The advisory team discusses this report in detail with the core team and makes proposals, how to clarify some points further and how to prepare a decision about the final goal.

After the core team has done the suggested corrections and the advisory team has reviewed the final report, it is given to the next level in the hierarchy for approval.

This process may need some further reviews, before a general meeting with all involved people in the decision process can be made, in which hopefully it is also decided, what shall be done and what resources will be available and what the time schedule shall be, to realize the goals.