The moments when you launch a new business are thrilling – finally, you’re making your dreams come true, working to help others achieve their own goals. Your passion and your enthusiasm have helped kick-start this enterprise, but the other key ingredient is organization.
The words ‘Standard Operating Procedure’ might not flood you with joy, but SOPs are vital to help a company run smoothly. You might think that as you’re working for yourself, with yourself, there’s no need to have step-by-step guides to correctly performing a specific task. You created the process, so why do you need instructions on how to do it?
But SOPs are not only for large corporations; they can be used at any level of business to ensure quality control over our processes and vital business functions, even as solopreneurs. This is particularly important if you intend to grow your business – training new staff and ensuring efficient working practices is a million times easier if you have a clear Standard Operating Procedures manual.
As well as saving yourself time and money in the future, Standard Operating Procedures improve consistency and quality. Even if you’re still bossing it alone, you can’t guarantee you’ll do something the same way every time (we all have off days, it’s OK!) and if you don’t get something on paper, it’s difficult to review it. Quality improves through reflection and subsequent enhancement; an SOP for your processes will help with this.
So where do you even start? Do you have to write down every single thing you do? In a word: no. However, you do want SOPs that are detailed and that show what needs to be done to achieve a particular outcome. Here are our short steps to creating a simple yet effective Standard Operating Procedures manual:
#1 – Pinpoint Business Processes
Go through a list of what you do to keep the business running regularly. What duties do you fulfill daily or weekly? Then go through the list and decide which things should be standardized to optimize them.
#2 – Begin at the End
Don’t worry; this isn’t a riddle! We mean that to write a defined SOP, it’s important to know what the end goal is. For example, if you are describing the process of posting on social media marketing channels, the end goal is to publish quality content consistently.
#3 – Choose a format
If you are new at this then this is the stage where you’re establishing templates for SOPs that your growing company will likely use in the future, so don’t choose at random! Some procedures suit a flowchart format; other, more complex, ones will require a step-by-step guide.
#4 – Review, test, improve
As you know from your experience coaching and developing yourself, very few things are right the first time. The same goes for your SOPs. If you have team members then get their input and feedback; if you’re still going solo then perhaps you have a peer in your industry that can help. Getting a second pair of eyes helps ensure the language is accessible and transparent, as well as making sure the process itself is simple to follow.
Once you test it out a couple of times, you start to see where things are working and where further streamlining is needed. Of course it’s like SOPs that they don’t change all the time, but initially, don’t be afraid to make those improvements if required.
#5 – Keep it going!
Honestly, why do all this work to create a Standard Operating Procedures manual and then let it gather dust in a drawer? Whether you keep working on your own for a while or whether you start to build your team, make sure you maintain your SOPs by regularly reviewing and updating – we’d recommend doing this on an annual basis.
It’s a time-consuming job but trust us; well-written SOPs are essential for an effective, valuable and scalable business. Your future self will thank you for them!
