Tips for Your Next Business Manual Book Printing Project
One item every successful company incorporates into their business practices are printed business manuals. Manuals can be created for internal or external purposes, depending on what you are trying to convey.
What are the Different Types of Business Manuals?
Internal Business Manuals
Examples of internal manuals are training or instructional handbooks that your employees can refer to regarding the equipment and software your business uses internally. Training manuals can outline the different procedures by department, or you can create a handbook for each department within your organization. If you have a custom-built software that your company utilizes, you can also create an instructional handbook that outlines how to use your software.
These internal business manuals can help increase the effectiveness of each employee within your organization because it will become their go-to resource. Manuals can be the source for best practices regarding your day to day operations. Ideally, if your company is able to create an effective and encompassing manual it should reduce lag time for employees and increase productivity throughout the company.
External Business Manuals
External manuals can be instruction manuals for the products or services you provide to your customers. If you are providing instructions for a product you sell, you may want to translate those steps into multiple different languages, as most companies do. This helps grow your customer base and reduce the number of calls you receive in regard to using your product(s).
User manuals, product manuals or instruction manuals often have some legal requirement depending on the industry your business is in. There may be extensive safety guidelines that need to be placed in all manuals sent to customers in order to meet certain guidelines. There are guidelines the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission outlined to actually help manufacturers with their instructions manuals.
It’s vital your team knows who the end user is when it comes to external business manuals. Establishing who the audience receiving the manual is will make it easier to tailor the resources inside the manual.
Manual Provided by Precisionary
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Purchasing Tips
Design at Standard Sizes
If you’re on a budget, you’ll want to choose a more standard size when designing your manuals. Custom or uncommon sizes (for example, 6” x 9” or square sizes) tend to cost more than standard sizes (such as 8.5” x 11” or 5.5” x 8.5”). By selecting a standard size, you will lower the cost of your online manual printing.
Buy at Smaller Quantities
Since training procedures tend to change often, buying your training manuals at lower quantities will help you reduce the number of books that get thrown away. The same goes with instruction manuals for your products – if your company releases new versions or updates to your products regularly, a lower quantity will help you reduce waste.
Choosing Your Binding
The four most popular binding types for custom manual printing are saddle stitch, perfect, spiral and wire-o bound.
Saddle Stitch is our most affordable and popular binding option. If you have a page count under 28 pages, saddle stitch (stapled) is definitely the binding we recommend. This is also the best option if you’re working for a start-up business and are limited by budget. Expert advice: try using an uncoated paper finish on the inside for ease of writing!
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Perfect binding is the other popular binding option PrintingCenterUSA produces. If your handbook has over 28 pages, we highly recommend perfect bound to give your manual that high quality look and feel. It’s also much more durable than our other binding options, making it more resistible to regular wear and tear.
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Spiral and Wire-O binding tend to be the less popular binding choice among our customers due to the higher costs associated with them, but they are still great options. Many companies choose these bindings because they like how the wire loops or spiral coil look. They tend to be an excellent binding option for business manuals because they make it easy for your employees to take notes, this is especially useful for training manuals.
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Do you need help getting started on your next business manual printing order? Our knowledgeable customer service representatives are available from 7AM – 6PM MST, Monday through Friday. Give us a call at 800.995.1555 with any questions you may have!
