SOPs: Why They Are Important But Overlooked In Business Operations
From small businesses to corporations, a common term that gets thrown around in the productivity and process space is: SOP. They say: “You must have SOPs in your business in order to be successful.” First of all, that is not exactly true. You can absolutely be successful without having SOPs in your business. In fact, there are many successful businesses that operate without structured SOPs in place, however, they are not operating efficiently.
Let’s start by talking about what an SOP is.
SOP stands for Standard Operating Procedure. Sometimes they can be called Process Guides, Operating Manuals, or probably a million other names. Essentially, an SOP is a document that is used with a company or a team to establish the structure and steps needed to execute a specific process.
This document serves as the baseline for all of the processes that you have in your business, especially the recurring ones, and is the key to successfully getting some of your operational tasks off your plate and delegated to a new team member!
Why are SOPs important in your business?
They establish the: Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How of a task or process
They create consistency in the execution of a process each time it needs to be done
They provide context to the way you want a process to be executed
They support different learning styles when you have multiple team members
They save time so you don’t have to stop and think about how you did it last time
So if they are so important, why don’t a lot of businesses have them?
It can feel overwhelming and time-consuming to actually get the SOPs set up. The idea of first establishing what makes up the process, then defining how that process can be executed can be more than a small business owner (or even a team leader of a larger company) can bear. A lot of times, people see SOPs as something that you set up because “someone told you you had to have them”, but they don’t understand their importance or how to use them as a tool, instead of just another thing they have to keep up with.
The other reason why businesses struggle to put SOPs in place is that their process is not ready for an SOP yet.
The key to a successful SOP is to have been able to execute that process more than 1 time in essentially the way. What this means is, you have built a 90% consistent process in the HOW that process is executed in your business. If you don’t have any consistency in the process, it is not ready to have an SOP yet.
One of the most important things to remember is that SOPs are living, breathing documents. You do not need to have everything 100% figured out in the process to get started. As your business grows and/or your processes change and optimize, SOPs should be adapted and updated to support them.
If you take a look at my free Stress-Free Delegation workbook, I will take you through the 5 steps I used to create the baseline of knowing when a process is ready for an SOP. You can get your copy here so you can get started!
In the coming weeks, I will share with you my SOP Template and how to build an SOP that supports all learning styles. To get a heads up when the Template and steps are available, make sure you sign up for my weekly Newsletter here.
