Home Office Site

One of the work hats I wear is that of Business Manager for Food Works for Middle Way House. Food Works is a catering business that is ran as a social enterprise (there will be another post about that later). One of our rented kitchens provides the meals for the local Head Start Program, the Villages Child Care Program and the Senior Nutrition Sites operated by Area 10 Agency on Aging.




It had always been a challenge to deal with changing meal and supply orders from the senior nutrition sites. There is a very low percentage of profit possible on each meal, and to find that you have fixed 80 meals for one site only to find out they only needed 75 was a frustrating and common situation. Keeping track of each week’s meal order was also cumbersome……this is only one of two kitchens being managed (the other is for special events) and each contract has its separate wiggly details that can drive a person mad on a daily basis. Trust me on that. Keeping up with requested menu changes, complaints, shortages, compliments….well you get the idea. Invoicing correctly was definitely becoming a nightmare.

I lucked out, and Area 10 hired a great manager for the nutrition program (Hi Cheri!) who was comfortable with using the computer as a go-between. She already used Gmail, so getting her onto a shared blog with Blogger.com was not a problem, Blogger was a more comfortable route to go than a blog I would set up on a separate server. Once I was able to assure her that the blog was open only to us, she was on-board. We have our own individual user names and passwords.

Once a week Cheri posts the food order for each week. She then makes changes during the week as needed. We write her back on the blog if there are questions. She lets us know which sites are out of trays, what meals are a hit and which one’s don’t fly with the seniors (no un-cooked carrots because of dentures, limit the spiciness please, too many seniors can’t have grapefruit,etc.). We agree on meetings, post menus, etc. I have set up the sidebar with links to our web pages, a list of our important contact phone numbers, and our current menu download. This all may seem rather unremarkable, except that it lightened our work load considerably. For instance, Cheri and I are both people who are constantly receiving phone calls and this cut that down dramatically. I am no longer required to fill out and change paperwork constantly because of meal order changes. I just do the invoice once a month and pull the numbers straight off of the blog….no writing and re-writing. Jo, the kitchen manager, checks the blog every morning before meal prep and our costs are controlled more tightly because of the resulting improved ordering from our suppliers.

A blog like this is quick and easy to set up. I tried to convince the Head Start People to use this process, but they were more computer-phobic and worried about confidentiality. These concerns are groundless to a person once they really look at the process. No one sees our posts but ourselves and there is never any client data shared, regardless. I think people who have Gmail are more open to the idea because they have often been exposed to shared documents. The advantages of using Blogger is that it is quick and easy to set up, and it doesn’t take hardly any time at all to train a contributor in how to navigate the blog. We did have to agree not to use comments as communication on posts – just actual posts – because they were too easy to miss. We are on the run and need the information right in our face, not on a “to-be-clicked button” .




While I was at it, I set up a quick private blog where I keep track of personnel issues. Like most businesses we have a warning system including verbal and written warnings for tardiness and other work issues. This blog is open only to me, but I can quickly record details about employee incidents so that when I do type the incident up later it is correct, fair and not subject to the whims of my memory. I had been using email for this, but this is all in one place and requires no search. The chronological nature of the blog system is a definite benefit for this use because one can easily see an employee pattern developing.

I have also set up a blank document blog. I have uploaded all of my business forms to my server and I link to them on this blog. It is pretty much one long post of these links and that’s it. So when I am at one kitchen or another, or one office or another (I have two in addition to my office at home) I can download a PTO (personal time off) form for an employee when they request it. I have the blank time sheets available there, the personnel policies, all of the interview and new hire forms, W-4 forms, safety manuals…..you name it I’ve got it there. When your car is your mobile office as often as mine is, this is a real survival measure. I run in circles enough as it is to have to track back to another location to hand someone a form. This works better for me than Google Documents, because I can upload original formats (pdf files, jpegs, etc.) and land on them all in one simple page. Perhaps if I had already been using WordPress at that time I may have set it up on that, but I don’t think so. If I ever have to transfer my knowledge and resources to a replacement person crazy enough to take my job, the Blogger format is more convenient and transferable.

Please feel free to comment!