What could you accomplish if you had all the support you needed in your business?
How would your business look?
How would your life be different?
How would you feel different?
As we set business goals, we often think about how many sales we will make or what our take-home amount will be. What often gets missed is who will be on your team to enable that success.
Business is not a solo sport and you will need an empowered team in place to help you achieve your goals.
An empowered team can work independently and produce results that work toward the business goals.
Let’s back up a bit and assess your current team.
- Does each team member have a defined job description and supporting SOP?
- Are you able to effectively delegate tasks?
- Are you constantly interrupted by employees asking questions or seeking direction?
- Do team members have the tools and information they need to complete their tasks successfully?
- Are they able to work independently while producing the results you desire?
One client that I am working with right now has tried to hire over and over again but has not had the systems in place to help those hires be successful. That is like inviting someone to play a game with you but not telling them the rules!
The gap between the empowered team you need and your current team can be filled with well-defined job descriptions and standard operating procedures (SOPs).
The Benefits of Having a Well-Documented SOP
Defining and documenting your standard operating procedures will benefit your business in several ways:
1. Readiness for Future Growth
One of my clients has a very successful construction company. He is building 20 new homes each month and has closed about 40M in sales per year. He has the opportunity readily available to him to open up a new community to build another 20 homes a month and double his profit. The challenge is that to do that, he needs more support staff and does not have any policies or procedures in place to hire and train that staff. As we are creating his SOP with him, he can add to his staff and prepare for growth opportunities.
2. Simplified Performance Management
A non-profit company that we work with has had issues with team members going beyond their hired scope and avoiding the essential work they were hired to complete. This employee was hired to fund-raise but was spending all of their time in other areas of the business. Because there was not a documented job description, contract, or SOP for that employee, it was difficult to reign them in and hold them accountable. That will not be the case for their next hire!
3. Control Product Quality and Consistency
I LOVE Mexican food. I practically survived college on burritos and so I was thrilled when a new Mexican restaurant opened up in my small town. When I went the first time, it was AMAZING! So naturally, I was happy to go back. My next visit was not great, the food was slow and lacked flavor. Over the next 3 visits, the food was very inconsistent. I never knew what I was going to get. If the owner was cooking, everything was fantastic! But if the owner was gone, the food was bland. Documenting SOPs for how to prepare the food would have corrected this issue before the restaurant inevitably went out of business.
4. Protect Yourself from Knowledge Loss
The owner of a waste management company that we work with has the challenge of needing to be away from the office frequently and needs the office manager to keep things running smoothly. He has had some great and some poor office management. The challenge was that each office manager came in and had to create their processes from scratch. When they left, they took their systems with them and there was always a large lag time before the new manager could create systems and get up to speed. Now that a firm SOP and job description are in place, they are protecting the business knowledge for the next hire.
5. Save on Training Costs
Training new employees can be a strain on your time and reduce your productivity. It is not just the initial training that is the challenge though. If you don’t have a SOP for employees to refer back to, you become the only training tool. When team members have questions, they will keep coming back to you. Having a Standard Operating Procedure in place means that they have support tools they can refer to.
How to Get Started With Your SOP
Chances are, you have several processes that you use in your business. However, you are probably not consciously aware of them because they have become second nature to you. The first step to creating your SOPs is to start documenting your processes. Let’s get your business systems out of your head and written down!
Think outside the box. Not every process needs to be detailed in writing–there are other methods such as video, screenshots, and finding existing training. We use a variety of tools to capture and share our Standard Operating Procedures. Grab our free cheat sheet on Ways to Document here.
Learn to Create and Organize Your SOP
We know how overwhelming it can be to start defining and documenting your SOP, but don’t worry! We are here to help you document the processes you are already using as well as define the holes that are causing issues or undue stress.
In our SOP Simplified Course, we walk you through creating your Standard Operating Procedures step-by-step. Use our templates, organization, and expert process. This course is just $37 and will empower your team to develop a systems mindset and prepare you for growth. Learn more about the course here.