SOP Frameworks for Scalable Business Operations

[00:00:00]Most entrepreneurs don't have a real business. They have a job disguised as a business. If they stop working, everything stops working. Revenue, growth, momentum. But the entrepreneurs who actually scale without their business relying on them working 24/7 do one thing differently. They build bulletproof standard operating procedures that let their business run without them. So, in this video, I'm going to show you the exact framework I give to six, seven, and 8 figureure business owners at selfmastery.co co to help them write SOPs that actually get used and allow them to grow their business whilst working less. Let's dive in now to make this as actionable and as simple as possible for you to implement because I want you to actually do something with this information. Okay?

[00:00:41]Don't just watch this, watch it and implement it because it will change your business forever. But for this to be actionable and simple, we're going to go over the areas where most people get stuck. Okay? So, we'll cover what SOPs actually are, what to write SOPs for, how to write SOPs the right way, how to simplify and systemize your SOPs, what you need to do so that they let your business run without you, and how to make sure they actually get used. So, let's start with clearing up a bit of confusion around what standard operating procedures or SOPs actually are because most people are either over complicating them or completely missing the point.

[00:01:16]See, people hear SOP and immediately picture a 17page Google Doc with bullet points so small it gives you a migraine just trying to read step two or they imagine some corporate style folder graveyard no one ever opens and therefore the SOPs never get used and they're useless. But here's the truth and the shift that should help with this. SOPs aren't just about documentation. They're about liberation.

[00:01:38]Okay, think of SOPs like a recipe. You don't have to be a Michelin star chef to follow a recipe and make a decent meal.

[00:01:45]Same with your team. If you give them the right ingredients, clear steps, and a reason behind why it matters, they can produce repeatable results without you being the chef every single night. So, an SOP is quite simply a clear set of steps that explain how get something gets done, the why behind those steps, and the expected outcome. It is the foundation of a business that doesn't need you to babysit it. But before you start writing your SOPs, you need to know what to even write SOPs for. And that's the second place most people actually get stuck. Now, there are two schools of thought here with what to make SOPs for, and I've tested both.

[00:02:22]Some people say that you should only make SOPs for the mission critical stuff, the big processes, the important things. Others say SOP everything someone else touches. Now, like with everything in business, which I'm sure you figured out by now, there's no real right or wrong answer, okay? You can do either. Both work. It's up to you. But in my opinion and based on my experience, if you only SOP the important stuff, you're leaving 80% of the chaos unressed. Okay? So, let me give you a good example. One of my clients at selfmastery.co, links in the description, by the way, runs a 7igure coaching business. When he started working with me, he was drowning in Slack messages with his team constantly asking things like, you know, where's the client dashboard template? How do we onboard this person? Where do I upload this video? All these things, right? He thought the only SOPs he needed were for sales and fulfillment, the super super important things. And yes, those big things are the most important and they're likely your bottleneck. But once you solve them for free SOPs and systems, the bottleneck is now the little things, the non-essential tasks that you never bothered to document. So I get this client to build SOPs for all of it, okay? Every repeatable task. And suddenly he stopped getting pinged every 10 minutes. He claimed to back more time. And he went from reactive chaos to productive growth. So, what should you make SOPs for? Well, I firmly believe everything should have an SOP. Now, if you map out all your systems, processes, and tasks, which by the way, I show you how to do it in a systems deep dive video that I put up a few weeks ago. So, if you want to know how these SOPs play into your business systems, I'll link that video at the end of this one and you can check it out. But when you have those mapped out, every single process or task should have an SOP in my opinion. Now, you obviously don't have to do it this way, okay? There is an argument to only have SOPs for the important things, but the way I've seen it play out with my clients is that the fewer SOPs you have, the more chaos there is and the more reacting you have to do. But the more SOPs you have, the less chaos there is and the less questions you have to answer and the fewer fires you have to put out, which is most entrepreneurs end up spending their entire days just putting out fires. So, they never work on the important stuff and they're constantly ask constantly answering questions and so the business doesn't really go. So it sort of maintains maybe a slight growth whatever a large reason for that is because you don't have SOPs for everything okay and doing this one simple thing can really change the game for you. So even if something feels minor make an SOP because those minor tasks right if someone else is doing them they have to ask you questions on how to do it or how do you want it done or when do they do it etc. Or if you're doing it and you have to sit there and think oh how do I do this? That all adds up. It creates friction and steals your damn freedom. So now you know what SOP, let's break down how to write one that well doesn't suck. And this is where most people overdo it or I or underdo it. If your SOP is too vague, your team keeps asking questions because quite simply when you when you boil it down, an SOP is simply the steps to doing a certain task or thing in the business and answering questions that someone might have when doing that thing. But if it's too complicated, if your SOP is just completely overwhelming, it will overwhelm anyone who tries to use it and it basically doesn't get used. Writing an SOP is like it's like writing instructions for building furniture except the end product obviously isn't, you know, a unit or something. It's your business functioning without your constant input. And what I mean is that you you want to create clarity, okay?

[00:05:49]Not confusion. Like, you know, when you go to build a bit of furniture and the [ __ ] instructions are terrible and you have so many questions, you're overwhelmed, you're confused, you have no idea how to build the bloody thing.

[00:05:58]Well, that's what a [ __ ] SOP is like for your business. And so, when it comes to writing SOPs, the most important thing you can consider is clarity. And more specifically, that means you need to be clear on what needs to be done. So, what the task or process is, why it matters.

[00:06:15]So what's the importance of it? Who owns it? As in who is responsible for it, which we'll get into in more detail in a few minutes. When that thing gets done in terms of like does it have to happen after a certain task, does it have to happen before a certain other task etc. Exactly how that task gets executed and what the goal output is. So that is the steps. So it's like if you have to do a certain task and there's five steps to doing it, the execution is those five steps essentially, right? The most simple way to write an SOP is to first choose the thing you're writing an SOP for obviously and then ask yourself how do I do this thing? You then write out the steps as to how you would do it. And the important thing here is that you use the likes of checklists, bullet points, and add screenshots if you need to, right? It's up to you. But don't be putting in big paragraphs of text. Keep it to bullet points and checklists so that it's scannable, clear, and feels usable, not overwhelming. Something I say to all my clients all the time is that you cannot expect people to rise to your expectations if you do not make your expectations clear. So make sure you're super clear on exactly what needs done, how it gets done, when it gets done, where it gets done, how you want it to look, and where to find tools and whatever they need to do the task.

[00:07:32]Because when it comes to communication, either written or verbal, clarity is everything. Okay? So the more clear you can be about the more things in terms of how it gets done, how you want it to look at the end, where it gets done, when it gets done, etc., the better.

[00:07:46]Now, in terms of where you should write your SOPs, it is up to you. Some people like notion, some people like paper. I just recommend Google Docs and to have all your SOPs in an SOP folder that everyone has access to. And look, I would always recommend being more detailed when writing your SOP because more details means fewer questions that will be asked to you so long as you still write in a short, clear, simple way. Now, there is an argument to write SOPs more high level and less detailed.

[00:08:12]Again, if you want to do that, that's fine. It does work. But I always tend to sigh to more detail as it's more structured. It's more clear and answers more questions that someone might have when doing that task. But something to consider here when writing SOPs is that different tasks need different levels of detail. What I find is that tasks for higher level roles, say a CFO role for a Fortune 500 company, they might just need an outline in their SOPs or maybe they don't even need SOPs at all because at that level at what they're working, they live and breathe the thing they do.

[00:08:44]Okay? But for junior roles like a SAT or a VA or a sales rep, you want clarity so sharp that it cuts for you any confusion. So my general rule of thumb is be more detailed. But still again, write in short bullet points. But higher level rules may need less detail in their SOPs. Lower level roles tend to need more detail. Okay. There's one thing I would recommend you add to all your SOPs that will change the game for them. Record yourself doing the task while talking it through on Loom. So, if you don't know what Loom is, it's just a free screen recording software that's really good. And what you can do is write out the SOP and record a loom of you doing the task according to the SOP.

[00:09:25]Now, first off, some tasks are more complicated and so a loom or screen recording of you doing it will help explain what you mean in a more clear way. Secondly, it'll help you think through the actual steps of you doing that task and so you can make sure the SOP is accurate and you haven't missed anything. Because in its most simple form, an SOP is simply the steps to do a certain task. Okay? So, when you're recording yourself going through it, you can basically make sure you don't miss any steps and that your SOP is accurate.

[00:09:52]And look, it doesn't have to be pretty, doesn't have to be perfect. Just explain what you're doing and why you're doing it. Then, drop that Loom link into your SOP document. And if you want, what you can also do is you can transcribe the video with chat GBT, which means you might not even actually have to write the SOP out yourself. However, I would argue that you would should still do at least a rough draft of the SOP yourself.

[00:10:16]But either way, this means your SOP works for visual learners and readers and it's more clear for those using the SOP. Also, a side point depending on your team structure. Maybe, you know, you have a head of department for a certain department and you get that head of department to make all the SOPs for that department. Okay? You don't necessarily have to do these yourself.

[00:10:36]This can be a task you give to someone on the team. However, it obviously just really depends on your team, the tasks, etc. But it is something to consider.

[00:10:44]Now, speaking of making things easier, let's talk about your new AI assistant.

[00:10:48]Okay? Yay. AI, it's [ __ ] changing the game. Look, not all of us are naturalborn SOPs writers. That's fine because you've now got an AI intern. So, if your SOP looks messy, it looks clunky or just not that clear or you're not that happy with it, copy and paste it into chat GBT. Say, make this SOP clearer step by step and easy for a new hire to understand. Provide some context around the task, your business, the role that would be doing this SOP, and anything else. This is quite literally like having a second brain that's really good at formatting and making things clear and simple. You do the thinking, chat, JPT does the polishing. So, use it to improve the flow, fix confusing steps, or rewrite it like you're explaining it to a 16-year-old on their first day. basically means you get to spend less time writing, you get better SOPs, and you have more clarity for your team. Now, before you run off and publish 47 SOPs at once, you've got to streamline what you've written. Just because it's written down doesn't mean that it's useful. It's like writing a gym program that no one can actually follow. It sounds good on paper, but it fails in practice. The real test of an SOP isn't whether you think it makes sense. It's whether someone else can actually follow it without asking questions or actually wasting more time than before. And that means you've got to audit and streamline your SOPs. Think of it like a game of broken telephone.

[00:12:10]You explain it once, then someone else repeats it back by following your instructions. And if the outcome is a mess, that's not on them. That's on the SOP. Okay? So, if you get someone to do a task, they do it wrong. Chances are it's because the SOP is [ __ ] It's not that person's fault. And as an entrepreneur, you need to take full responsibility for every single thing that happens in your business. If something's not up to scratch, it's up to you to fix it or get the person who does it to fix it. It's up to you to incentivize and push progress. So, you want to grab a team member, ideally someone who's never done the task before, and say, "Can you follow this SOP and complete the process without help?" Watch where they get stuck. Watch where they ask questions. Watch where they hesitate. Okay? Because every single one of those moments, every question and bit of confusion is a weak point to tighten in the SOP and something you need to be more clear about. Now, once you've made it more clear, go through every single step of the SOP and ask yourself these questions. If I eliminated this step, would the task still get done in a productive and effective way? If yes, then eliminate the step. If I automated this step, would the task still get done in a productive and effective way? If yes, automate the step. This way you remove any bulk or unnecessary steps and make the SOP faster and more simple, which will help people actually use it.

[00:13:26]And also, look, I get it. Let's be honest, writing SOPs sounds like a bloody chore. It can actually be rather overwhelming to some people, but jotting down the steps you follow while you do a task. Well, that's much easier. So, if you're experiencing, you know, a ton of overwhelm here, sometimes the biggest block isn't actually knowledge. It's it's the friction between you and the task. So what I've often said to my clients is we want to remove the friction by refraraming what you're doing. Okay? So if the idea of writing an SOP is really overwhelming, you don't know where to start. Instead of sitting down to write an SOP, think of it as writing the steps to doing a task. Okay?

[00:14:03]So cuz that's literally what you're doing. So you want to find all the tasks that you have in your business and you want to go through each task and just write the steps to doing them. So open a document, bullet out the steps. You can even build it out the steps as you do the task if you want to and also record yourself doing the loom at the same time. It's up to you. But if you want to really simplify it, just open up a Google doc for a certain task. Write down every step to doing that task. Then later, clean it up, audit it, give it a bit of structure, plug it into your template, plug it into chat GBT, ask it to simplify it, etc. And boom, your SOP is done. But let me tell you right now, okay, the first draft of your SOP will not be perfect. And that's exactly the point. I see so many entrepreneurs, business owners, founders never write or use SOPs because, you know, they're not perfect and they think they have to be perfect or they think they have to update them or change them over time and people still ask too many questions and so they think SOPs just don't work.

[00:14:57]Well, guess what? The goal is not to write a flawless SOP. It's practically impossible. Okay? The goal is to write a usable first draft and then to refine it over time as real world questions and problems pop up. Okay? Okay, so think of your SOP like an iPhone. Version one, the first iPhone wasn't [ __ ] perfect, but it worked well enough to be released and every few months there's an update.

[00:15:18]Okay, there's bug fixes, there's optimizations, new features. Your SOPs should and will evolve the same way.

[00:15:25]Okay, so set the expectation with your team, but also primarily with yourself that SOPs and your systems in general will get updated because if you want your SOPs to actually work and for people to actually use them, they need to be updated over time. Like let's say you give your team a new SOP. All of a sudden the team member asks you a question about that task. Instead of thinking which most entrepreneurs do, [ __ ] sake, these SOPs aren't working and you just abandon them. Realize that that's part of the process. Realize it's just an opportunity to solve a problem forever. Because guess what? Someone comes to you with a question about doing a task. Most entrepreneurs just answer it and then that's it. And then two weeks later they're asked the same question or tomorrow they're asked the same question. But guess what? the answer to that question or problem that your team member had, you add it to the SOP. You answer it once, then plug the answer into the SOP so you never have to answer it again. And that problem is solved. That fire is solved. Put out forever. And now that SOP just gets stronger. You get asked less questions.

[00:16:22]There's more clarity, less fires, and more freedom and control. But still, if you want people to actually use the SOPs, someone needs to be responsible for them. So, let me ask you something, okay? Who's responsible for each of your SOPs right now? If your answer is, you know, h I guess me, that's a problem.

[00:16:38]Okay? Because if everyone owns something, no one owns it. Or if you own it, you own it. You're responsible. You do all the work. You solve all the problems, etc. But if no one owns it, it gets forgotten, ignored, and eventually it's just a digital dust and a folder that no one's opens. Every SOP is like a garden, okay? Without a gardener, it overgrows. It gets messy. It stops being usable. So assign an owner to every SOP.

[00:17:00]One person who's responsible for keeping it up to date, making sure it's followed. flagging when it needs revising. This creates clarity and accountability and suddenly the SOP isn't just a document. It's a tool that someone is actively managing. Now, the owner of each SOP should be the person who is going to be using that SOP. And now, if multiple people are going to be using it, you either make one of them the owner or you make the team leader the owner of that SOP. This way. What you can also do is write who's responsible in the SOP document. And anyone who is using the SOP and has a question, they go to that person first.

[00:17:34]The person who's responsible for the document with their questions, not you.

[00:17:39]And all of a sudden, you create a layer of protection between you and the fire.

[00:17:42]Now, even responsibility means nothing without accountability. And this is where most SOPs fall short. They describe what to do, but not what success looks like. And if you don't define success, people will make up their own version, which basically means there's going to be inconsistency, frustration, and results that vary depending on the day, which defeats half the purpose of SOPs. Imagine giving someone a gym plan without any targets, no reps, no sets, no weight, no tracking. They show up, they move a little, they leave. Are they making progress? Well, who the [ __ ] knows? Same thing with SOPs. Okay, so what you want to do is attach a number. For example, send onboarding email within 24 hours of payment. Send onboarding email within 1 hour of payment. Respond to all support tickets within six business hours.

[00:18:28]Complete weekly client review report from by 12:00 p.m. Friday. Or if a step of an SOP has a metric that can be tracked like if you have a SOP for sending cold emails, track the number of cold emails you send each day and the number of responses you get and calls booked etc. Numbers create clarity. They create accountability. And accountability creates consistent performance and creates a room for progress because like if you have an SOP for how to send cold emails and you track the number of responses you get and how many clients you sign from that etc. If you're getting a low number of responses you can change a single aspect of the SOP and basically run a scientific test to see if I change this one variable how does that affect the output the results the number of responses you get and therefore you can test and improve with actual data not just guesswork. Okay. And look how this works is you can just say here's the goal for this step for this metric do it and track what the actual output is what the actual input is and all of a sudden that person has a goal and something to aim for and you know if they don't hit it so they will do their best to hit it.

[00:19:32]Now obviously this step of assigning numbers to SOPs is not always possible and sometimes it can create more confusion and complication than it's worth. So you will need to use a bit of critical thinking and common sense here.

[00:19:44]But here's the final and arguably most important part of making SOPs work and ensuring they actually get used. Because the harsh truth is most SOPs don't get used, not because they're bad, but because they're buried. Out of sight means out of use. An SOP that isn't integrated into your actual business operations is like a gym membership that you never use. Sounds productive, feels impressive, but you know, nothing changes. So, here's how to make sure SOPs get used. You store them in one central accessible place like Notion, Google Drive, or an SOP software. I'm a big fan of Google Drive mainly because of how simple it is. If it's applicable, link the SOP in your task or project tools so they show up when and where they're needed. Remind your team if you're doing the task, follow the SOP.

[00:20:28]Remember, if you expect people to to use SOPs, make it clear to all of them that you expect it. Review and audit your SOPs every quarter and make sure someone is responsible for each SOP. And as always, simplify without dumbing down.

[00:20:43]Because simplifying doesn't mean removing detail. It means making it clear, faster to absorb, and easier to act on. And when you do that, SOPs stop becoming theory. They become execution.

[00:20:53]So look, SOPs aren't sexy. They're not flashy. They're not going to go viral on Instagram. But you know what they are?

[00:21:00]They're the difference between a business that scales and one that scales you. into burning the [ __ ] out. They're how you work less without slowing down.

[00:21:08]They're how you delegate without disaster because you can now say, "Hey, John, you're doing this task. Follow the SOP and I will tell them exactly how to do it to the standard that you want."

[00:21:17]They're how you stop being the bottleneck. So whether you're at 10K a month or a million dollars a month, if you want freedom, repeatability, and real momentum, build SOPs, keep them simple, make them useful, and update them like your business depends on it because it does. And if you want to see how these SOPs should play into your business systems as a whole, click this video on screen now and I'll show you exactly