In my early entrepreneur days, I founded an event video production company. And like any small business, things occasionally went wrong. People would quit, crew members would get sick, and I would have to step back into the day-to-day. 

Why? Because at the end of the day, I was the one who had our processes, how to train employees, and the company’s best practices filed away in my head. 

And I still clearly remember the day when all of that changed. It was the holiday season, and we had a gig in Los Angeles. Since I lived in Phoenix, we had hired an LA-based crew to work the event. That way, I could finally take some time off to relax with my family in Arizona. 

The night before the gig, my entire LA crew canceled. All of them. I had to drop everything to head to California, figure out how to rent the equipment needed, and find a replacement crew with zero time to spare.

And when all the craziness of that night (and filming the next day) was over, one thing became clear: Something had to change. 

At that moment, I made the commitment to build what was (unknowingly at the time) the early version of Trainual. I wanted to prevent a repeat of my last-minute LA “adventure.” And I realized I had to document my processes so that anyone on my team could jump in quickly and hit the ground running. But what I really needed was a business playbook.

That brings us to today

Fast forward a few years, and this idea became Trainual. Our customer base grew as the software evolved. And I began to realize something else. To really help businesses scale and grow, our product needed to match how small businesses operate daily. Especially when it comes to documenting their processes and onboarding new hires. 

Today, we’re unveiling a new generation of Trainual: The world’s first business playbook software. One that truly reflects how small businesses accomplish their goals.

We (literally) wrote the book on playbooks

During all this, I began writing down the basics of how small businesses operate daily. Plus, what that might look like inside Trainual. What started out as scribbles in a notepad eventually took on a life of its own and morphed into my latest book, The Business Playbook.

👉 Get your copy of The Business Playbook. The book officially hits the shelves next week. But you can pre-order your copy now.  

The principles within this book are simple: Every business should have its own business playbook. AKA something that outlines exactly how your business does what it does - down to roles and responsibilities, business strategies, and differentiators. 

And that playbook should consist of 4 key elements: 

1. Company Profile (who the company is and how it got there)
2. People (the who’s who and who does what)
3. Policies (the need-to-knows)
4. Processes (the how-tos)

But more importantly, I’m beyond thrilled to announce that Trainual now perfectly reflects this framework for how small businesses actually get work done. 

Rest assured that this latest version of Trainual was created specifically with your goals in mind. We poured ourselves into creating the easiest and most intuitive platform out there when it comes to building your playbook, training your team, and scaling your company. 

And it all starts with these new features.

What’s new with Trainual?

The latest and greatest version of Trainual has several new features, built especially for small businesses like yours - and it's all available starting today! These updates include a reimagined navigation experience, an org chart, roles and responsibility capabilities, and more!

👉 Experience the new Trainual for yourself. Sign in now.

New navigation

Inside Trainual, you’ll now notice a brand new experience as soon as you log in. In the left-side navigation bar, you’ll find the 4 elements of a playbook (company, people, policies, and processes), along with your tried-and-true MyDesk and Reports tabs.

Your Company tab houses all of the general information your team needs to know about who your company is and what it does. Then, your People tab breaks down where each employee fits into this larger company picture by giving a snapshot of individual roles and easy access to team members’ profiles. 

Right now, all of your existing Trainual subjects are filed under the Processes tab. But you can move your documented policies to the Policy tab at any time and leave processes under the Process tab to make things easier to find. 

With this new nav flow, you and your team can move through the Trainual app the same way your small business actually operates in real life. This means moving naturally from a larger picture of your company to how individuals fit in and, finally, to exactly what your team needs to know. All while saving time and ensuring a more organized experience!  

A new org charts feature

Growing businesses, like yours, want to know who’s who within their organizations, especially as they scale. So, manage your company’s organizational structure quickly and efficiently, right inside Trainual, using the new org chart feature.

With this feature, admins can easily map out who reports to whom by simply assigning each team member a manager. Each person will then automatically get plugged into the chart, so you can view your entire organization at a glance. That way, you can plan for future growth!

Revamped roles and responsibilities

Small business owners are always trying to identify who does what and how their jobs can (potentially) affect the organization's growth. With that in mind, we made getting to your team's roles easier than ever. And these roles now include descriptions to transparently give you and your team context into what each role actually means. 

But roles would be nothing without the responsibilities that go along with them. So, now, you can document and manage exactly who does what, quickly and easily. 

Why? For one, this helps to assign accountability to everyone on your team. But it also helps to eliminate duplicate efforts. That way, tasks don't fall through the cracks. 

Want to add more context to a responsibility (such as step-by-step directions for getting it done)? Then, link each responsibility to the correlating Trainual content or any other web page. This is extra helpful when onboarding new people or if a team member needs to fill in for someone who’s out.

You can manage each team member's unique responsibilities from their individual profiles or manage multiple team members directly through the Roles section on the People page. 

Collections for processes

We heard your feedback, and now it’s here! Trainual now includes the much anticipated "collections” feature! That way, you can segment your subjects in whatever way works best for your business. Such as by team, department, topic, and more. 

Now, all of your “how-tos” (like SOPs and role-specific training) can live in their own designated spots. That way, they're organized and easy to recall. 

With collections, your team will find what they need faster and can focus on the subjects that are most relevant to them.

Consolidated email notifications

As a small business, teams value staying "in the know." Before, Trainual would send out multiple emails a day to ensure that people stayed up to date. But these emails often got overwhelming, and some people even started overlooking them completely. 

So, we wanted a more effective way of communication. And that meant consolidating everything teams needed to know about their Trainual assignments into one daily digest email. 

This digest goes out every morning. But you'll only receive this email when you have new content assigned or if your assigned content gets updated. That way, we won't bug you if you're already up-to-date. 

👉 Looking for even more info on using our new features? Sign up for one of our webinars to learn all the details. Sign up now. 

For me, it’s amazing to look back at how we got to this point: A brand new Trainual, with features that were created from the feedback of our amazing customers. And I can’t help but be proud of where we came from and where we are now. 

I can finally rest easy knowing that I have my own business playbook. One that will keep me from ever having to bail on holiday plans again. Now, so can you! 

We hope that these new features will help small businesses grow in ways that were never possible before. And we’re so excited for this new generation of Trainual. 

We want to continue building a product that makes it simple to keep everyone to stay in the loop on who your company is and what you’re all about. Both for your existing team, and your future new hires. 

With these updates, we’re proud to be setting the foundation for years and years of amazing things to come. And this is only the beginning. 

We can’t wait for you to take a look, and to hear your feedback as we continue building the best business playbook software in the world.