What are Standard Operating Procedure Documents and Why Should I Create Them?
The term Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) can sound intense, but simply put, it’s the how-to list of tasks for how you do any specific process within your business. Great. But why are they important.
Let’s dig into it.
These can simplify training your team when the time comes or just make your own routine tasks easier. Consider the many steps of an open call for new writers – you do the same process each time, so when you put those steps into a SOP, you now have a “how to” in place for the next time you need new writers. No more searching for the emails you sent last year because you’ve already saved each step within your SOP document for an Open Call.
Whether or not you have a team already, you can start building SOPs TODAY that will help your business ongoing.
When you’ll use them:
For team training: When you ask a team member to take on a new-to-them task, having these on hand will give them a reference point and eliminate some of the back and forth as you teach them how to take on this work.
For yourself: Don’t underestimate the power these can hold for you too. Whether it’s the process for reaching out to new clients, how to complete a contract process or hiring a new team member, SOPs hold a lot of value for each business owner and can simplify processes you repeat, but on a less regular basis.
Most especially, for consistency and improvement: Whether you use these for your own work or with your team, you’ll know that you have a way of going about things within your business. These do provide consistency, but they also allow you a birds eye view of what it is you are doing for each part of your business. That view can allow you the chance to consider if there is room for improvement or necessary changes to make if things aren’t working.
How to create them:
Building an SOP can be pretty simple, so don’t overthink it. The way they look can range anywhere from a formal document that houses all of the SOPs for an entire area of your business all the way down to a bullet pointed list that walks through each step of a process in simple list form.
The easiest way to build each SOP is to create is as you are in the middle of doing any specific process. That way you’re sure not to miss a step. The best part is that the next time you tackle the same process, you’ll be ahead of the game, using this new SOP as your how-to. You gain efficiency and consistency by creating SOPs.