Save time with SOPs

Hi folks!

Every week, I’m sharing a practical, hands-on guide on how to run your small business better.

Today’s topic: how to create Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that save your business time, money, and headaches.

Why do you need SOPs?

There are lots of reasons to standardize and document your business’s functions.

The most obvious one is the bus test.

Each person at a company is key to running a specific function or role. They develop specialized knowledge that makes them the best at what they do. 

So what if they get hit by a bus?

Can someone step in and fill the gap? If so, how much time, money, and disruption will it cost you? Probably a lot. And on a small team, that level of interruption can cause major problems for your business.

But SOPs are valuable beyond unscheduled employee–bus interactions. 

Standardizing your processes also saves time, highlights which parts could be automated/delegated/outsourced, and makes it easy to set measurable performance standards.

In short, SOPs are a necessary part of every healthy business. 

But where should you start?

How to make an SOP

1. Identify those process that you feel need an SOP.

It’s easy to jump off the deep end and say everything needs an SOP. But start slow. 

First, get the company together and build a list of tasks and processes that meet some or all of these criteria:

• critical to the business

• impact your bottom line

• error-prone or have a history of mistakes

• require a high degree of accuracy or precision

• repetitive

• difficult for new employees to learn

• governed by regulations or safety guidelines

Once you have your list, prioritize the ones that have the most benefit to your employees and the business’s bottom line.

2. Collect necessary information and documents.

Before you start writing your steps, make sure you have everything you need to hand.

Get input from anyone on your team who may be able to provide insights. Collect any existing policies, procedures, or documentation — especially any official regulations, if they apply to the process.

Then, critically, observe the task or process to better understand the steps involved, and any potential issues that may arise.

3. Write the SOP.

Here are some general rules to follow when writing your SOP:

Keep your audience in mind. If you’re writing the SOP for experts, you can use a shorter, less detailed SOP. If you’re writing for people totally unfamiliar with your work, you’ll need to be detailed and explicit.

Don’t go too deep. Experts agree that 5-7 steps per SOP is ideal. Adding too many steps or too many details per step makes your process too difficult to use. (If you’re finding you need way more than 7 steps, consider narrowing the scope of your SOP.)

Use actionable language. Each step should tell the reader what to do, and how to do it. If the reader could reasonably ask “How do I do that?”, then you need to be more specific.

Use diagrams, photos, or other visual aids where necessary. Don’t spend a thousand words describing how to wire a circuit when an image would work better.

Include the following elements, where appropriate:

• Title and numbering: Use a descriptive title that clearly identifies the process. For easy reference use a consistent numbering scheme.

• Introduction: Short overview. Explain the purpose and relevance of the SOP. Outline any key concepts or terminology.

• Objectives: State objectives and expected outcomes of the process.

• Materials and Equipment: List any required materials, equipment, or tools to perform or complete the process.

• Step-by-step Instructions: Break down the process into ordered steps, giving detailed instructions for each step. Use clear and concise language.

• Visual aids: Insert any flowcharts, diagrams, and images needed to clarify and explain the process.

• Safety Precautions: Identify potential hazards, the safety equipment to be used, and any other health and safety considerations or instructions.

• Troubleshooting: Identify any common issues that may arise during the process. Provide steps to troubleshoot and resolve them.

• Glossary: List all specialized terminology used throughout the SOP. Include acronyms, jargon, and technical terms.

4. Review, test and edit.

Ask someone on your team to test out the SOP. Get their feedback about the ease of use, clarity, etc.

• Does each step work as it was written?

• Is every step in the correct order?

• Can the task be performed as instructed?

• Is it complete? Anything missing? Anything incorrect?

Make any changes, amendments, and additions as required.

5. Implement, monitor, and update.

Now that you’ve got your company using an SOP, go back to the beginning and pick the next SOP in your priority list. 

Check in regularly with your team. Ask:

• Are the SOPs easy to use?

• Is anything incorrect or missing?

• Has the process changed?

Be vigilant about keeping your SOPs up to date, or they’ll quickly become useless and you’ll lose the benefit of them.

6. Build your SOP library.

As you create SOPs, you are also creating a library to access all your operating procedures.

While a single SOP is useful to the people directly involved in that task, an entire body of SOPs provides a high-level view and shows how tasks are interrelated.

A library of SOPs helps employees define and learn their role and responsibilities.

Wherever you store them, make sure your SOP library is easy to search and maintain. Use a central source that everyone can access, like a company-wide Google Sheet with hyperlinks to each document.

And that’s it! 

What do you think? Hit reply and let me know.

Michael

P.S. I wrote recently about how joining a peer group was the highest-impact career decision I ever made. If you’re a small business leader, you owe it to yourself to explore the options. If you decide we’re the best fit, we’re starting a new cohort of peer groups later this month — apply today!

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