NFIB

Creating Forms Can Simplify Your Business
02/ 20/ 2003

by Vicki Gerson

Is your workspace littered with Post-it notes and scraps of papers containing employee vacation requests and other important information? Have you ever spent half the morning trying to track down some tiny piece of paper detailing a special order you were supposed to place for a customer? If so, creating a few different types of forms may help.

You can buy most types of forms--anything from vacation requests to customer comment cards--from office supply stores. You can also create your own forms at your computer. If you choose to do so, clarity is extremely important. Instructions should be printed across the top. Make the form easy to read. Make sure columns line up with the correct titles. Use horizontal lines to break up the page if you are requesting a lot of information.

Do a review of all the forms you currently use. If you have changed area codes, added another location or have recently set up a Web site, be sure to update your forms to reflect this information.

All business owners at one time or another feel that they are drowning in paperwork. Therefore, it's important that you don't make more work for yourself by creating forms you don't need. Get rid of forms that you don't use because they just take up valuable space or may cause an employee to accidentally send out the wrong form.

Once you have the forms your business needs, make sure all of your employees know where they are located and the procedure for turning them in to you. File these forms as you do any other important paperwork. Stress that the forms aren’t designed to burden employees with extra paperwork, but to improve communication and office procedures.

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