Starting a business is overwhelming. You’re doing whatever the thing is that you’re good at plus operating a business which are really two separate skills. You quickly start to see acronyms and terms all over. The internet tells you that you need an LLC, your own domain email address, terms and conditions if you have a website, SOPs, the list goes on! 

SOPs or Standard Operating Procedures might be one of the things you hear and think “I don’t need to think about those right now”. But the sooner you think about them and start to document them, the better. 

Even if you work alone or don’t plan to hire anyone (yet), it’s a good idea to start documenting your frequent processes so that when you ARE ready to hire someone (even if it’s short term), you have SOPs ready to hand over rather than having to document them from scratch.

If you’re new to SOPs for your business, this blog post will break down what they are, who needs them, how to write them, and how to train team members to use them!

What are SOPs?

First things first, let’s start with what SOPs even are!

SOPs or Standard Operating Procedures are processes in your business broken down into documented steps so that a task could be handed off to someone else, and still be completed in the same way. 

This ensures that clients or whoever your business serves are still getting the same level of service if someone else in the business takes on a task. This also ensures that processes in the business are always executed in the same way.

You can think of it like a recipe – just like a recipe tells you what ingredients you need and what order to do things, SOPs work the same! They tell you exactly what you need for the task, what to do, and what order to do it in. 

Standard Operating Procedures should include:

• Title and purpose of the SOP
• Roles and responsibilities of who should complete the SOP tasks
• A list of resources the person will need to complete the task (software, websites, links)
• Steps to complete the task written out with exact directions
• Notes about any kind of possible issues or common mistakes

They can include a video tutorial, screenshots or examples to support the written instructions.

If you Google SOP, you’ll see a lot of fancy templates, but that’s really not necessary. A Google Doc that’s well organized can be the perfect SOP.

Who needs SOPs?

Simply put, if you’re a business owner, you need SOPs. 

“But Robyn, I’m a solo entrepreneur, I don’t need SOPs!”

I hear you! But you truly never know when you will want to hire help for your business. Just because you’re flying solo now, doesn’t mean you’ll want to forever. 

It’s always better to document SOPs now so that even if it’s 5 or 10 years down the line, you have something to pull from instead of having to document every single thing in your business from scratch.

And just so we’re clear – SOPs aren’t just something full time employees will use! If you hire a VA or another type of service provider, you can provide them with your SOPs to help them do their job more efficiently as well!

At the end of the day, SOPs are the kind of thing you want to start before you need them. 

If you aren’t sure which SOPs to start them, I typically encourage business owners to at least start with: 

• Inbox organization/management
• How to reply to common client communication 
• Google Drive file organization
• Client onboarding
• Client offboarding 
• Calendar management
• How to insert common task in your business 

How do you write an SOP?

When it comes to actually writing the SOP, this is where I see a lot of business owners overcomplicate things. 

But when you’re just getting started, something is better than nothing!

Start by recording yourself completing a process like going through your inbox. You can talk through what you’re doing or just do it. Then, watch the video back, pause as you’re watching and write out the steps. 

You can use a checklist format, numbered list with or without bullets to help keep the directions organized and easy to follow. 

The key with SOPs, however, is that you make the steps  SOOOO specific so that  someone who has never touched the program or software could follow them. Anything that can be linked (Google Drive folders, Canva docs, etc.) should be linked. 

Example:
1. Log in to LinkedIn
2. At the top, posting area, click “write an article”
3. Upload LinkedIn header
4. Copy and paste H1

Another place where business owners go wrong is creating an SOP and never touching it again. An SOP should be a living document, meaning  you should reexamine the SOP every 3-6 months depending on the process it documents. You can update any outdated directions as platforms change, update screenshots and steps as your business evolves. 

Training Team Members or Contractors to Use SOPs

Once you have well documented SOPs, you then have something that future team members or contractors can use for their specific role!

Training your team to actually use the SOPs is all about consistency. When you introduce an SOP, go over it with the team or contractor and provide them with a way to ask any clarifying questions.

Create a way for team members or contractors to easily find and access SOPs. This can look like one Google Doc with links to each SOP, a dashboard with the SOPs linked within your project management system or a shared folder for SOPs. 

Whenever a team member or contractor asks a question that can be answered by an SOP, send them the link and say something like “let’s look at the SOP and see if the answer is there or where we should add it”. 

This is another thing that can be tricky for business owners because sometimes it’s easier to just answer the question, but it’s really important to support your team in finding answers themselves and relying on the documentation. This ensures your client experience and business standards don’t suffer as you scale. 

Your goal as a business owner is to empower your team members. It doesn’t help your work load if you hire team members or contractors who are constantly blowing up your Slack messages to ask how to do something or where to get information. 

This is also why it’s so important that SOPs are kept up to date. If your team has what they need readily accessible and clear to understand, they will not need to ask you the business owner as much (or any!) questions. 

How to Get Started with SOPs for Your Small Business 

If you’re ready to get started with SOPs for your small business, I made a very basic template outline you can make a copy of to go write your first SOP! Start with the first thing you’d consider handing off to someone (usually calendar management or inbox management). 

Even if you don’t need it right now, this is a great thing to start as you think about pieces of your business you’d like to consider outsourcing. If you need help thinking about what SOPs your business needs or the order you should write them in, you can set up a Strategy Call with me and we can make you a prioritized list of SOPs.  

But if you don’t want to do this yourself, I can actually write your SOPs for you as a System Set-up or one time project. Contact me so we can talk about what would be the next best step for you.