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Writing Your Company’s History Can Enlighten,
Entertain
Depending
on how long your business has been in operation, you may have built a rich
history to share with younger generations or you may still be gathering
material for some future storyteller. Either way, recording your business
history will allow you to see where the business has been and help you chart
the course ahead.
A business history will explain the mission behind establishment of the
business and the challenge of building it. Also, it will record stumbles
along the way to help future leadership benefit from lessons learned by the
company’s early leaders.
Aside from its practical uses, a business history project is likely to
provide an interesting diversion from everyday concerns and renew motivation
for meeting business challenges.
Getting Started
Where to begin? It depends on how long the business has been in operation and
the kind of records that may be available.
Start by assembling whatever documents you can find — such as old ledgers,
receipt books, and statements. It can be both entertaining and enlightening
to look back through a dusty ledger from decades ago and reflect on the
changes in costs, quantities, and schedules of operation.
Along with written records, collect old photos that can show the physical
changes in facilities and help humanize the business record. Veteran
employees and retired staff can help flesh out the story in interviews or
written accounts documenting how previous generations lived and worked.
Once you’ve collected all the material, your budget and your schedule will
determine the next step. You might choose one of the following approaches:
- Hire a writer and contract with a publisher
specializing in business histories to professionally produce the book.
The finished piece can be given as gifts to family members, employees,
customers, suppliers, and others with an interest in the business. It
can even serve as an effective marketing tool.
- Recruit volunteers — perhaps recent retirees —
to assemble the information into story form. You may want to hire an
editor to polish or at least proofread the manuscript before turning it
over to a publisher specializing in self-published works. Selecting a
simple softcover format can help keep costs down.
- Bypass a formal publishing
effort and take your finished manuscript to a quick-print shop for
reproduction and binding into booklet form or assembly in folders or
loose-leaf notebooks.
Distributing Copies
Generally, the more polished the finished piece, the more widely you will
distribute it. Books reflecting a high degree of effort deserve a big enough
press run to serve as business gifts for the next few years. Less polished
products may be retained within the company for staff use and enjoyment.
No matter how good your effort, it is unlikely that you will be able to sell
copies. Generally, the history will be valuable and beneficial to those in
the inside circle, and casually interesting to outsiders.
The publisher is likely to offer more attractive unit prices for larger
orders, but be careful not to order too many. In a few years, the book will
be out of date, and it will be time to compile a new record of
accomplishments.
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