Why you need SOPs in your (business) life
‘This needs a process’
Anyone who has worked with me will have heard me say this at least once (some of my longer-standing clients will be *very* familiar with the phrase).
What I mean when I say this is ‘let’s work out all the steps involved in making this happen, and document it’ – otherwise known as creating a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). I’d recommend having SOPs for any task that you carry out repeatedly – whether that’s daily, weekly, annually or dependent on a specific trigger. It’s not just because I am super-organised, but also because I know it will make a big difference to how the business is run.
SOPs can be simple
SOPs don’t have to be complex, all you need to do is document:
- what triggers the process (ie it’s the end of the month, or someone completes an enquiry form)
- each step of the task
- relevant links (to software ‘how tos’, additional information)
If you are the only person working in your business this probably sounds like a bit of a drag but, believe me, in the long term you’ll be glad you did it. Let me explain…
Helping you grow
No matter where you are with your coaching business at the moment, at some point you will want to expand. This might be taking on a VA, or growing your team, or scaling to the next level. Whatever that step is, one or more new people will need to start delivering work that has historically been done by someone else (in many cases you). If you have SOPs in place, it will make life so much easier.
Having an SOP for a process means that tasks can be carried out in a consistent way, by different people if necessary, and having a process to follow means that there’s no time wasted reinventing the wheel.
It means that if the person who usually does the task isn’t available, someone else can do it! If you already work with a VA, imagine if they leave and you have to start again with someone new. Now imagine if you didn’t have to teach them how to do everything, because it was all documented!
Don’t wait
I know that it’s tempting to think that you’ll do it when you get to the point where you take on a VA, or you expand your team, or you are scaling up. But when you get to that point there will be so many processes to document that it will feel really overwhelming – and not to mention time-consuming. If you start now, you can create SOPs as you go and you’ll soon have a lovely library of all your processes, which will make a massive difference as your business grows.
If you want to have a chat about how SOPs can improve your business (and how you can get them in place). get in touch.
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