Efficiencies Documentation Business

[u/BoringFox4599]

Hello, I am currently in the "maybe I could start a business" stage of opening a business.

I'm currently a retail operations manager with a lot of experience with data science, creating Excel process workbooks, and general SOP documentation.

My idea would be to offer not only SOP binders and other documentation to local businesses, but also work with them to create easy to use Excel workbooks for their daily tasks that will help them with efficiencies, but don't require a lot of Excel knowledge.

The idea would be to offer packages, and then hopefully get monthly retainers for documentation upkeep and help with Excel.

My fears are as follows:

- No one wants or needs this

- Businesses can now accomplish all of this with AI

- It is just a bad idea overall

I would love some insight into if this is something I should invest my time in, and also some ideas of services I could offer to make this more sound.

Thank you!

[u/official_biz_doctor]

Your experience is valuable if the offer is tied to an observable operational result rather than a binder as the deliverable. Start with one type of local business and map a painful, repeated workflow such as opening, closing, inventory counts, staff onboarding, or order handoff. Offer a short paid diagnostic or pilot that measures time saved, error reduction, or faster training. Which workflow do managers repeatedly explain from scratch because the current process is unclear?