How to Turn a Chaotic Spreadsheet into a Simple SOP: A 5-Step Guide for Executive Coaches
I was once handed a 10,000-line spreadsheet and told it was a "recruiting process." What it actually was? A hidden $11,000/year mistake and a masterclass in operational chaos.
Early in my career, I inherited a hiring process for a sales department that was a nightmare. For years, applicants were tracked manually on a massive spreadsheet with duplicate entries and dozens of fonts. To "fix" this, the company had invested in an $11k/year job posting site that was attracting candidates who were completely misaligned with the roles, while the real, day-to-day work was still happening in the nightmare spreadsheet.
The company thought they were saving money by avoiding a better system, but they were actually just paying for the problem in a different way. My salary was being spent managing this broken system: wrangling the spreadsheet and filtering out useless applicants from the expensive tool. The attempt to "fix" a process problem with the wrong software didn't solve anything; it just added a five-figure annual expense to the existing chaos.
This story might sound like a classic corporate headache, but for many successful executive coaches, it's a mirror. Your "nightmare spreadsheet" might be a messy collection of Google Docs, a chaotic folder system, or your client notes scattered across a dozen different places. It's that one manual, chaotic process that you know is inefficient but haven't had the time or energy to fix.
This article is your intervention. We're going to diagnose the real disease that this symptom points to. Then, I’ll walk you through the exact 5-step framework I used to transform that chaotic process into a simple, effective Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)—a framework you can apply to your own coaching practice this afternoon.
The Real Problem: 3 Subtle Signs of an Inefficient Business
The 10,000-line spreadsheet wasn't the real problem. It was a symptom of a much deeper issue: business process chaos. This is a state where a business operates on a patchwork of manual tasks, inconsistent workflows, and institutional knowledge that lives only in the owner's head.
For an executive coach, this chaos manifests in a different ways. See if any of these feel familiar:
Sign 1: You Suffer from a "Pre-Call Scramble"
Fifteen minutes before a high-stakes client call, you're frantically clicking through a dozen different places—a Google Doc for old notes, your email for their last update, your calendar for their meeting history. This scramble is a direct result of not having a centralized, standard process for managing client data. It's one of the clearest signs of an inefficient business, and it drains your cognitive energy right before you need it most.
Sign 2: Every New Client Feels Like a "Fire Drill"
You land a new client, and instead of excitement, you feel a wave of administrative dread. You have to manually create a contract, draft a welcome email from scratch, send a separate invoice, and then remember to follow up with an intake form. This lack of a standard onboarding process means you're reinventing the wheel every time, leading to an inconsistent client experience and a high risk of errors.
Sign 3: You're Paying a Hidden Tax on Manual Tasks
You spend hours each week on low-value admin work—invoicing, scheduling, chasing payments—instead of the high-value work that actually grows your business, like coaching, creating IP, or business development. This is a classic example of the Lean Six Sigma "waste" of Non-Utilized Talent. You, a world-class expert, are acting as an entry-level admin for a significant portion of your week.
How to Create Standard Operating Procedures: A 5-Step Framework
The fix to this chaos isn’t working harder. It's creating simple, repeatable systems. A Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) isn't a rigid, corporate document; it's a simple recipe for a task you do over and over. Here is the exact 5-step framework for creating your first SOP and breaking free from the spreadsheet trap.
Step 1: Identify Your "Nightmare Spreadsheet"
You can't fix everything at once. Pick one process that causes the most friction and frustration in your business right now. This is your pilot project. Good candidates include:
Onboarding a new client
Sending out monthly invoices
Preparing for a client session
Publishing your weekly newsletter
Step 2: Map the Current State
Before you can design a better process, you have to be brutally honest about your current one. Open a document and list out every single step you currently take to complete the task, no matter how small or messy.
For my recruiting project, this looked like: "Open the master spreadsheet. Scroll through 10,000 lines to see if the applicant is a duplicate. Manually copy-paste their info into new columns..." Be detailed. This exercise will make the sources of waste painfully obvious.
Step 3: Define the "Future State"
Now, describe the simplest possible path to get the same result. What would this process look like in a perfect world? Don't worry about technology yet; just focus on the ideal flow of actions.
My ideal flow was: "Applicant applies through a form. Their data automatically appears in a clean, central dashboard. I review and send a standardized email in two clicks." This simple vision becomes your “North Star.”
Step 4: Document the Standard
This is where you write the actual SOP. It should be a simple, clear checklist that anyone (including a future VA) could follow. Use this simple template:
Process Title: (e.g., New Client Onboarding)
Goal: (e.g., To create a seamless, professional experience for every new client.)
Tools Needed: (e.g., CRM, Email Template, Scheduling Link)
Checklist/Steps:
[First Action]
[Second Action]
[Third Action]
Step 5: Implement & Iterate
An SOP on a shelf is useless. The final step is to commit to using your new checklist for the next 30 days. You will immediately notice ways to make it even better. This is the practice of Kaizen, or continuous improvement. Your SOP is a living document, not a stone tablet.
Step 6 (The Final Step): Layer in the Right Technology
Notice that we've designed our entire ideal process without mentioning a single specific app (think back to step 3). This is the most critical part of the methodology.
Technology is a tool to serve a process, not a solution in itself.
The reason most coaches have a "Frankenstein tech stack" is because they buy a tool and then try to fit their process into it. That's how you end up with an $11k/year mistake.
Only after you have defined your ideal, "future state" workflow should you ask the final question: "What is the simplest tool I can use to execute this step?"
By defining the process first, you can choose technology with intention and clarity, ensuring every tool you pay for is a strategic asset, not just another expensive guess.
A Real-World Example: A Simple Client Onboarding Checklist for Coaches
Let's apply this 5-step framework to the most common "nightmare process" for coaches: a chaotic client onboarding workflow. By mapping out the critical steps, you can create a simple, repeatable standard that transforms a client "fire drill" into a smooth, professional experience.
Process Title: New Client Onboarding
Goal: To create a "white-glove" welcome experience that eliminates buyer's remorse and sets the stage for a powerful coaching engagement.
The 3 Core Phases:
Commitment: The client signs the contract and pays the invoice.
Welcome & Scheduling: An immediate, personalized welcome email is sent, containing the link to schedule the kickoff call.
Preparation: Once the call is booked, a second communication is sent with the detailed intake form and any "first assignment" homework.
Mapping out this simple, three-phase flow is the first step to creating order, but as my story about the 10,000-line spreadsheet shows, a single broken process is often a symptom of a much larger, systemic issue.
From "Process Chaos" to "Peace Through Precision"
This 5-step framework gives you the power to fix your most painful bottleneck. It’s the first step in moving from reactive firefighting to proactive, intentional design.
That single spreadsheet was just one of the "leaks" in my former company's operational foundation. The important question you must now ask is: how many hidden leaks are in your business?
To help you get a clear, data-driven diagnosis of your entire operational backend, I created The Coach's Chaos Scorecard.
It’s a "do-with-you" audit that will help you pinpoint the exact sources of your operational drag across the five core systems of your practice, from client management to your tech stack.
Click the link below to download the free Scorecard, and move from fixing symptoms to architecting a true solution.