Creating Outstanding SOPs for your clients
An SOP stands for Standard Operating Procedure. Rarely will you hear people actually call it that, so let’s just stick to SOPs because it’s easier to say.
Now what does that really mean?
Put simply, it means the way that you do, what you do, how you do it and when. It’s the process of documenting a complete action, task, objective within a business.
You can understand why SOPs are needed if you want to scale. But there’s something I’ve been thinking about lately and that is that there’s scalable SOPs and there’s standard SOPs. A lot of people who will default to standard SOPs just detail how to do the functional aspects of a task, which is okay.
But that kind of SOP isn’t scalable as your business grows and grows. And the reason for that is it hasn’t been included in any systems thinking. It’s not a systems approach, it’s an isolated incident, so it doesn’t actually take into account what might happen when the business expands. How does it impact everything else?
This episode shares:
- The difference between “scalable” and “standard” SOPs.
- The essential elements of an outstanding SOP.
- How to avoid jargon nightmares and write in plain English. (Think: instructions, not IKEA manuals!)
- The power of targeted, media-rich SOPs.
- Accessibility matters! Don’t hide your SOPs in a dusty drawer – integrate them into your workflow.
- Make it flexible and future-proof
Scalable SOPs vs Standard SOPs
What is a Scalable SOP, and what do they have?
Scalable SOPs are clear. With an SOP, we want to be clear in what it is it’s going to include, who it’s for, when are we going to use it, how is this thing done.
Having an unclear SOP means that the person picking up that SOP and trying to understand the context, let alone how to do the task, is going to be very confused. With confusion comes poor quality execution. This is why SOPs need to be clear and concise. We want them to be specific. We want them to be understandable.
Because they have a purpose. We’re not just doing it to have something in there so that potentially one day we can sell the business. We want these SOPs to work for us.
Tip💡: Engage in frequent reviews of your existing SOPs with a diverse team to ensure they reflect current practices and incorporate systemic thinking. Always ask, “How does this SOP fit within our broader goals and operations?”
The Essential Elements of an Outstanding SOP
Great SOPs are structured.
If we go back to our systems thinking principle, we’re going to have more than one SOP in our business, aren’t we? We’re going to have an SOP for all the different things that have to happen. Something that I know about the human brain is that we are creatures of habit.
When we see things that feel the same, look the same, sound the same, we feel at ease. We consume information better. We want our SOPs all to have the same structure so that when somebody picks it up, it feels familiar. All of a sudden, their brain goes into, oh yeah, I know how to do this and what you’ll see is that the output is better.
Usually you will create a template, and that template will be used across all SOPs. I know when we’re working with clients, and if they ask us to update their SOPs or to implement SOPs because they’ve got none, we will always create the template first, or we’ll review theirs. Because consistency is important. Structure is important.
If you don’t have the right things included, well, all of them aren’t going to be very good, are they? Generally, SOPs will have the purpose, the scope, who the user is, so who is it that’s going to pick this up and use this SOP, when it was created, and a version number of some kind.
Plus, then it’ll have the actual process, just in case you missed that bit out.
Tip💡: Design your SOPs with future growth in mind. This means regularly revisiting and updating them as your business evolves. Consider scalability from the get-go to ensure SOPs can easily adapt to changes.
How to avoid Jargon Nightmares and write in Plain English
Scalable SOPs are written in plain English. We want to write SOPs in a way that anybody can understand, specifically the person who’s going to be using it.
They include minimal jargon.
There is nothing worse when you’re trying to learn something new or do something you don’t normally do and you can’t even understand the instructions. It’s like when you open up a new toy and you have to build it for your kid and it’s in another language. All of a sudden this task went from real easy to stressful.
Plain English people, and we want to have clear sentences. We don’t want fancy, we don’t want anything that isn’t necessary included in this process.
Tip💡: Less is More. Aim for simplicity and specificity in your SOPs. Use bullet points, numbered steps, and clear, concise language to make them easy to follow. Complicated SOPs are more likely to be misunderstood or ignored.
Targeted, Media-Rich SOPs
Scalable SOPs are targeted.
They are written in a way that is for a specific purpose, a specific reason. They’re for a narrowed-down task.
You don’t write SOPs for big conceptual thinking or broad functions.
The SOP for, “how our business operates”, would just be like a thousand page document that still doesn’t cover everything. That’s it. So they need to be targeted. They don’t have to be so targeted that it’s ridiculous, and this is how you pick up the pen to write the note to send to the client. But we want them to be targeted to a specific task.
Scalable SOPs are presented with relevant media.
I get asked a lot what’s the right thing to use to create an SOP and there’s no answer to that. This takes a little bit of thinking on your part. Look at what the task is and think about the different resources that you have available to you. What makes the most sense to document this process?
It might be a combination of a written SOP and a video. It might be a written SOP, a video, and it might also have screen grabs. It really depends on what the task is. It might be diagrams and flowcharts. There’s all different ways and what we want to do is take into consideration all the different elements, all the different tools at our disposal.
The other thing that we want to do is when we’re creating SOPs, if we are using external media, if we are using videos, if we are using pictures, we want to make sure that we reference them properly within the written SOP so that people know what it applies to.
Go and look at this video, the diagram below, explaining the purpose of that different media.
Tip💡: Review a current process you have and identify who is needed for this process (think people), what type of media is needed to support the SOP and big picture, what happens before this task or action must take place and what happens after
Accessibility Matters!
Scalable SOPs are also accessible. This one is hilarious because we spend all this time creating these SOPs and then sometimes we forget to share them with people.
SOPs are no good if they’re hidden in a cupboard that nobody can open or even knows that that cupboard exists.
We need to build SOPs into our day-to-day processes. It needs to be how we train people. It needs to be something we talk about. It needs to be, hey, there’s a new one available, go check it out.
For the people it’s relevant to, I understand that there might be some confidentiality issues. Maybe you don’t want anyone not in the finance team reviewing finance SOPs. Totally okay. But think about that and think about the permissions and think about how to give people access to what they need.
Tip💡: Standardise Your SOP Format. Create or adopt a template that will be used for all SOPs in your organization. Consistency in format helps users familiarize themselves quickly, reducing the learning curve and increasing compliance.
Make it Flexible and Future-Proof
Scalable SOPs are researched.
I don’t mean sitting on Google for hours and hours or going through journals or, doing extensive university scale research. No, I’m talking about contextually doing the research.
If you’re writing an SOP and there’s six different job roles within a business that this might impact, make sure you run that SOP by those people. Make sure you consider each of their perspectives as you’re creating this SOP. Otherwise, your SOP is not scalable. It’s from one perspective in a certain way that works in a certain circumstance and isn’t very flexible and that’s not what we want. We want one that’s going to consider all the parties involved and for them to be consulted so that the SOP meets all of the criteria and is then tested and reviewed. Because that SOP is going to last so much longer than one that is just done from one person’s perspective with a whole bunch of tasks
Tip💡: Collaborate for Coverage. Before finalising an SOP, consult with individuals across different roles that the SOP impacts. This collaborative approach ensures your SOP addresses all necessary perspectives and is as comprehensive and effective as possible.
And… that’s a wrap!
That’s all there is to creating outstanding SOPs. It is more about the way you go about putting together, rather than it needs to be, Times New Romans font size 11 with 1. 15 spacing and left aligned. No. It’s all about the things that go in it and how you pull that together. But the biggest thing that I want to talk to you about is context.
Scalable SOPs nail context. Who’s using it? Why are they using it? For what scenario? And for what scenario would this not be appropriate? And communicating that. That’s the bit that gets missed so much and it causes problems. Whereas if you can write and you can show what the context is, your SOP is gonna have longer legs.
It’ll have a longer life, lifespan. It’ll be easier to use. It’ll be higher quality. And that’s it. If this seems a little bit intimidating or you haven’t done it this way before, then just give it a go. It’s all about practice. Like any other skill in business, anything else that you’re learning, practice, practice, practice, and then it will make sense.
If you’re looking for a filler SOP template, hop on over here and grab out SOP template, including a tutorial video that you can purchase that will get you all over it so that you can be confident when creating outstanding SOPs.
Thanks everybody. Have a great day.
We’ve got just the resource for you.
Embark on your path to becoming a six-figure Online Business Manager with our comprehensive FREE roadmap. Gain insights into key strategies, and build the confidence needed to align your service with the value you bring. Don’t wait.
Follow along with the transcript
E35 Creating Outstanding SOPs for your clients
Leanne Woff: Hey, welcome to this week’s episode of The Audacious OBM. Today I want to talk to you [00:01:00] about SOPs. How do we create SOPs? How do we get them right? What do they look like? What do we include? Good SOP versus bad SOP. Today’s episode is all about creating outstanding SOPs for your clients. Let’s get into the basics.
An SOP stands for Standard Operating Procedure. Rarely will you hear people actually call it that, so let’s just stick to SOPs because it’s easier to say. Now what does that really mean? Put simply, it means the way that you do, what you do, how you do it and when. It’s the process of documenting a complete action, task, objective within a business.
You can understand why SOPs are needed if you want to scale.[00:02:00] But there’s something I’ve been thinking about lately and that is that there’s scalable SOPs and there’s standard SOPs. A lot of people who will default to standard SOPs just detail how to do the functional aspects of a task, which is okay.
But that kind of SOP isn’t scalable as your business grows and grows. And the reason for that is it hasn’t been included in any systems thinking. It’s not a systems approach, it’s an isolated incident, so it doesn’t actually take into account what might happen when the business expands. How does it impact everything else?
It’s just, here’s the task, here’s how to do it. Off you go. In this episode, I’m gonna be talking about creating scalable SOPs.
What is a Scalable SOP, and. What do they have? Scalable [00:03:00] lalalable, jeez, I am going to Why did I include that word?
Scalable SOPs are clear. With an SOP, we want to be clear in what it is it’s going to include, who it’s for, when are we going to use it, how is this thing done.
Having an unclear SOP means that the person picking up that SOP and trying to understand the context, let alone how to do the task, Is going to be very confused. And with confusion comes poor quality execution. This is why SOPs need to be clear and concise. We want them to be specific. We want them to be understandable.
Because they have a purpose. We’re not just doing it to have something in there so that potentially one day we can sell the business. We want these SOPs to work for us.
Great SOPs also [00:04:00] are structured. If we go back to our systems thinking principle, we’re going to have more than one SOP in our business, aren’t we? We’re going to have an SOP for all the different things that have to happen. Something that I know about the human brain is that we are creatures of habit.
When we see things that feel the same, look the same, sound the same, we feel at ease. We consume information better. We want our SOPs all to have the same structure so that when somebody picks it up, it feels familiar. All of a sudden, their brain goes into, oh yeah, I know how to do this. And what you’ll see is that the output is better.
SOPs, usually you will create a template, and that template will be used across all SOPs. I know when we’re working with clients, and if they ask us to update their SOPs or to implement SOPs because they’ve got none, we will always create the template first, or we’ll review theirs. Because consistency is important.
[00:05:00] That structure is important. And if you don’t have the right things included, well, all of them aren’t going to be very good, are they? Generally, SOPs will have the purpose, the scope, who the user is, so who is it that’s going to pick this up and use this SOP, when it was created, and a version number of some kind.
Plus, then it’ll have the actual process, just in case you missed that bit out.
Scalable SOPs are written in plain English. We want to write SOPs in a way that anybody can understand, specifically the person who’s going to be using it. So that person that this is designed for.
They include minimal jargon. There is nothing worse when you’re trying to learn something new or do something you don’t normally do and you can’t even understand the instructions. It’s like when you open up a new toy and you have to build it for your kid and it’s in another language. And all of a sudden this task went from real easy [00:06:00] to stressful.
Plain English people, and we want to have clear sentences. We don’t want fancy, we don’t want anything that isn’t necessary included in this process. Scalable SOPs are targeted. So they are written in a way that is for a specific purpose, a specific reason. It’s for a, a narrowed down task. You don’t write SOPs for big conceptual thinking or broad functions.
The SOP for how our business operates. That would just be like a thousand page document that still doesn’t cover everything. That’s it. So they need to be targeted. They don’t have to be so target targeted that it’s ridiculous, and this is how you pick up the pen to write the note to send to the client.
But we want them to be targeted to a specific [00:07:00] task. Scalable SOPs are presented with relevant media. I get asked a lot what’s the right thing to use to create an SOP? And there’s no answer to that. This takes a little bit of thinking on your part. Look at what the task is and think about the different resources that you have available to you.
What makes the most sense to document this process? It might be a combination of a written SOP and a video. It might be a written SOP, a video, and it might also have screen grabs. It really depends on what the task is. It might be diagrams and flowcharts. There’s all different ways and what we want to do is take into consideration all the different elements, all the different tools at our disposal.
And make an SOP that is clear, concise, and [00:08:00] easy to pick up and use. The other thing that we want to do is when we’re creating SOPs, if we are using external media, if we are using videos, if we are using pictures, we want to make sure that we reference them properly within the written SOP so that people know what it applies to.
Go and look at this video, the diagram below, explaining the purpose of that different media. Scalable SOPs are also accessible. This one is hilarious because we spend all this time creating these SOPs and then sometimes we forget to share them with people. SOPs are no good if they’re hidden in a cupboard that nobody can open or even knows that that cupboard exists.
So we need to build SOPs into our day to day processes. It needs to be how we train people. It needs to be something we talk about. It needs to be, hey, there’s a new one available, go check it out.[00:09:00] For the people it’s relevant to, I understand that there might be some confidentiality issues. Maybe you don’t want anyone not in the finance team reviewing finance SOPs.
Totally okay. But think about that and think about the permissions and think about how to give people access to what they need. And the final thing is that scalable SOPs are researched. And I don’t mean sitting on Google for hours and hours or going through journals or, doing extensive university scale research. No, I’m talking about contextually doing the research. So if you’re writing an SOP and there’s, six different job roles within a business that this might impact, make sure you run that SOP by those people. Make sure that you consider each of their perspectives as you’re creating this SOP.
Otherwise, your SOP is not scalable. [00:10:00] It’s from one perspective in a certain way that works in a certain circumstance and isn’t very flexible and that’s not what we want. We want one that’s going to consider all the parties involved and for them to be consulted so that the SOP meets all of the criteria and is then tested and reviewed.
Because that SOP is going to last so much longer than one that is just done from one person’s perspective with a whole bunch of tasks.
So that’s it. That’s all there is to creating outstanding SOPs. It is more about the way you go about putting together, rather than it needs to be, Times New Romans font size 11 with 1. 15 spacing and left aligned. No. It’s all about the things that go in it and how you pull that together. But the biggest thing that I want to talk to you about Is [00:11:00] context.
Scalable SOPs nail context. Who’s using it? Why are they using it? For what scenario? And for what scenario would this not be appropriate? And communicating that. That’s the bit that gets missed so much and it causes problems. Whereas if you can write and you can show what the context is, your SOP is gonna have longer legs.
It’ll have a longer life, lifespan. It’ll be easier to use. It’ll be higher quality. And that’s it. If this seems a little bit intimidating or you haven’t done it this way before, then just give it a go. It’s all about practice. Like any other skill in business, anything else that you’re learning, practice, practice, practice, and then it will make sense.
And if you’re looking for a filler SOP template, Hop on over to [00:12:00] the Audacious Empires website audaciousempires. com or check out the show notes as I have an SOP template, including a tutorial video that you can purchase that will get you all over it so that you can be confident when creating outstanding SOPs.
Thanks everybody. Have a great day. [00:13:00]