How to Write an SOP: The First 5 SOPs Every Service-Based Business Owner Must Document
The Entrepreneur’s Fallacy: "It's Faster If I Do It Myself"
In my last post, I wrote about the costly trap of hiring more people to solve operational chaos. I shared how, throughout my career, I've seen leaders—from those planning simple team kickoffs to those executing complex product roadmaps—default to throwing more bodies at a problem instead of fixing the broken system at its core. We established the core thesis: systems, not staff, are the real key to sustainable growth.
Once you’ve had that realization, the next logical question is: "Great but how do I actually start building those systems?"
This is where most get stuck. You're already overwhelmed, working in the business just to keep the lights on, and the idea of pausing to "build systems" feels like a luxury you don’t have. This leads to the single most dangerous, self-sabotaging belief a business owner can have: "It’s faster if I just do it myself."
This belief feels true in the moment. Why spend 30 minutes teaching a task when you can get it done in 10? But this is a fallacy. You're saving 20 minutes today while sentencing yourself to repeating that 10-minute task 52 times a year. You haven't saved time; you've mortgaged your future freedom.
This post is the practical, actionable blueprint to break that cycle. The work of building systems begins with one simple, powerful act: documentation. It’s time to learn how to write an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) and, in doing so, take the first real step from overwhelmed operator to empowered CEO.
Why Are SOPs Important? Reframing SOPs as Your Business's Intellectual Property
When you hear "SOP," you probably picture a dusty, 3-inch binder of bureaucratic procedures that no one ever reads. Let's get that idea out of your head.
An SOP is simply a "living document" that details the specific steps required to complete a task correctly. In Lean Six Sigma, this is known as "Standard Work," and it's defined as "the current best, safest, and most effective way to perform a task or process".
For a service-based founder, an SOP is not paperwork; it is your business's core Intellectual Property.
Right now, your unique brilliance—your "secret sauce" for delivering results, managing clients, and creating content—exists only in your head. This undocumented expertise is known as "tribal knowledge," and it's the single biggest risk in your business. If everything relies on your memory, you cannot delegate, you cannot scale, and you certainly cannot sell the business.
The act of creating SOPs is the act of codifying that tribal knowledge. It transforms your personal methodology into a tangible company asset, a repeatable playbook that ensures quality and consistency, with or without your direct involvement. This is the first step in building a business that can run without you.
The Strategic Value of Business Process Documentation
Before we dive into what to document, we need to be crystal clear on the immediate ROI of this work. Investing time in business process documentation isn't a "nice to have" admin task; it is a high-leverage strategic activity that solves your most pressing pains.
The Antidote to "Delegation Paralysis"
As a successful leader, you feel the crushing weight of delegation paralysis. You know you need to delegate, but you're terrified. What if they mess up? What if they damage a client relationship? What if they just don't do it right?
This fear isn't a personality flaw; it's a 100% rational response to an undocumented environment. How can you hold someone accountable for meeting a standard that doesn't officially exist?
SOPs are the antidote. By defining "the right way" to perform a task, you create a clear baseline for performance. This builds trust, eliminates ambiguity, and provides the psychological safety net you need to finally let go. You are no longer delegating a vague idea; you are assigning a documented, measurable process.
The Key to Consistency and "White-Glove" Quality
In a service-based business, your process is your product. A "white-glove" client experience is defined by consistency. A client doesn't just judge the final deliverable; they judge the entire journey—from the first inquiry to the final invoice.
When your processes rely on your memory, consistency is impossible. You forget a step in onboarding, send an invoice late, or show up to a client call unprepared. These small fractures create "quality control issues" that undermine your authority and make your practice feel amateurish.
SOPs are the single best tool for ensuring consistency and quality control. They guarantee that every client gets the same "A-Team" experience, every single time, regardless of who is performing the task or how busy you are.
The Ultimate Onboarding Accelerator
Think about the time it takes to onboard a new assistant or team member. In a chaotic environment, it’s a massive time and energy drain. You are forced to train them in real-time, repeating the same instructions over and over while trying to do your own job. This "inefficient onboarding" is a huge hidden cost.
Now, imagine handing that new hire a small, curated library of simple SOPs on day one. You've just replaced weeks of fragmented, interruptive training with a structured, self-paced learning system. Well-documented SOPs prevent inefficiencies, reduce the ramp-up time from weeks to days, and empower your new hire to start adding value almost immediately.
What SOPs Do I Need for My Service Business? Your First 5 (with Examples)
Okay, you're convinced now but where do you start? The idea of documenting your entire business is overwhelming. The goal is NOT to document everything; it's to document the right things.
The best place to start is with the tasks that are either most critical to client experience or most repetitive and draining on your time. Here are the first 5 standard operating procedures examples every service-based business owner should create.
1. The Client Onboarding SOP: Your Most Critical First Impression
This is the most important SOP in any service business. Your client onboarding process sets the tone for the entire engagement. When it's chaotic, it creates buyer's remorse before you've even started. When it's smooth, it validates their decision to hire you and builds immediate trust.
Your goal: Document every single step from the moment a client signs your proposal to the successful completion of the kickoff call.
What this SOP should include (as a checklist):
Countersign the proposal/contract.
Save the signed contract to the client's specific folder.
Create the client in your invoicing software (e.g., QuickBooks).
Create the client in your project management tool (e.g., Asana).
Send the initial invoice (e.g., "Deposit Invoice") using an email template.
Upon payment, send the official "Welcome Email" (using another template).
This email should include:
A link to book their kickoff call.
A link to their private client portal/folder.
Instructions for a pre-call "intake" or "strategy" questionnaire.
Confirm the kickoff call is booked and all pre-work is received 24 hours prior.
2. The Invoicing Process SOP: Your Path to Consistent Cash Flow
One of the biggest pain points for established founders is "chasing payments." This is almost always a systems problem. An invoicing process SOP eliminates guesswork, ensures you get paid on time, and professionalizes your financial operations.
Your goal: Document the entire lifecycle of an invoice, from creation to collection.
What this SOP should include:
For recurring retainers: Generate and send all recurring monthly invoices on the same day every month (e.g., the 25th for the upcoming month).
For project-based work: Generate and send the invoice immediately upon hitting the project milestone specified in the contract (e.g., 50% deposit, 50% on completion).
The Follow-Up Sequence (Automated): If payment is not received by the due date:
Day 1 Past Due: Send automated reminder #1 (polite, "just a reminder").
Day 7 Past Due: Send automated reminder #2 (firm, "please advise on payment status").
Day 14 Past Due: Personal email follow-up.
Record the paid invoice in your accounting software.
3. The Client Call Prep SOP: Reclaim Your Cognitive Energy
How much time do you waste scrambling in the five minutes before a client call, frantically searching through emails and old notes to remember what you talked about last time? This pre-call scramble drains your cognitive energy before the session even begins. This simple checklist SOP ensures you walk into every client call prepared, confident, and strategic.
Your goal: Create a 10-minute "pre-flight checklist" to complete before every client session.
What this SOP should include:
Review the client's goals (from their intake form or strategy doc).
Review notes and action items from the previous call.
Check for any new emails or messages from the client since the last call.
Open the dedicated agenda/notes document for this session.
Write the single most important outcome for this specific call at the top of the agenda.
4. The Content Publishing SOP: Streamline Your Marketing Engine
Whether it's a blog, a newsletter, or a podcast, your core content is a recurring, high-value activity. It's also probably a task you dread because it involves so many small, easy-to-forget steps. An SOP for content publishing turns a chaotic creative task into a reliable, repeatable marketing engine.
Your goal: Document every step from "final draft complete" to "published and promoted."
What this SOP should include:
Finalize draft text.
Create all graphic assets (e.g., blog header, social media graphics) using pre-made SOP templates for small business.
Proofread the text one final time.
Upload text and graphics to the platform (e.g., WordPress, Substack).
Format for readability (short paragraphs, bolding, subheadings).
Check all links.
Optimize SEO (meta title, description).
Schedule or hit "publish."
Promote the piece:
Schedule 3x social media posts (e.g., LinkedIn, Twitter).
Send the email newsletter to your list.
5. The Client Offboarding SOP: Securing Referrals and Social Proof
How you end an engagement is just as important as how you begin it. Most founders finish a project, send a "thanks!" email, and move on, leaving a massive opportunity on the table. A formal SOP for client offboarding ensures you end every project professionally, secure social proof, and create a pipeline for future work.
Your goal: Document the process for successfully graduating a client and turning them into an evangelist.
What this SOP should include:
Schedule the final "wrap-up" or "results review" call.
Prepare a final report summarizing all work completed and ROI achieved.
During the call, ask for feedback.
24 hours after the call, send the "Official Wrap-Up Email" which includes:
A link to the final deliverables/report.
A direct link to your testimonial form. (Make this easy!)
After they submit the testimonial, send a "thank you" email and ask for a referral. (e.g., "It was a pleasure working with you. If you know of any other founders who might benefit from this work, I'd be grateful for an introduction.")
Archive the client's project folder.
How to Create an SOP: Overcoming Common Pitfalls
Even knowing the "what" and "why," entrepreneurs still get stuck. The real challenge is overcoming the inertia and the internal objections that keep these processes stuck in your head.
Objection: "My Business is Too Creative for SOPs"
This is the most common objection from creative professionals, designers, and even many coaches. You believe your work is "art," not "science," and that processes will kill the magic.
This is a fundamental misunderstanding of what SOPs do. SOPs are not meant to script the creative act itself. You don't create an SOP for "how to have a breakthrough conversation" or "how to design a brilliant logo."
Instead, you create SOPs for the operational container around the creative work. You document the non-creative steps that support the creative genius: how a project is set up, how feedback is collected, how a final file is delivered, and how the invoice is sent. Standardizing the container doesn't restrict creativity; it liberates it, freeing you from administrative drag to focus only on the high-value creative work.
The "Minimum Viable SOP": How to Use Loom to Create SOPs in 15 Minutes
The second biggest objection is, "I don't have time to write a 20-page manual." Good news: you shouldn't.
Perfection is the enemy of progress here. A simple, one-page checklist is infinitely more valuable than a perfect, comprehensive manual that never gets written. This is what I call the "Minimum Viable SOP."
The easiest way to answer the question of how to use Loom to create SOPs is to just do it. The next time you perform a repetitive task (like publishing your newsletter), simply open Loom (or any screen recorder), turn on your microphone, and record yourself doing it. Talk through the steps out loud.
When you're done, you have a 5-minute video. Title it "Content Publishing SOP V1" and save it in a designated "SOP Library" folder. That's it. You've just created your first SOP in 15 minutes. It's not perfect, but it's 100% delegable. You can always have the person you hire (or an intern) turn that video into a written checklist later.
From Operator to Architect: How SOPs Fuel Your CEO Shift
The act of documenting your processes is the most tangible, high-leverage "work on the business" you can possibly do.
Every time you stop, step back from the "doing," and document how you do it, you are transitioning from the role of Operator to the role of Architect. You are moving from being a doer to being a designer.
These SOPs are the literal blueprints for your business. They are the foundation for creating true business systems for founders. They are what allow you to replicate your results, hire effectively, delegate with confidence, and build a scalable asset that doesn't depend on your personal heroics for its survival. This is how you finally fire yourself from the role of chief doer and step fully into your role as CEO.
Want to fast-track your first 5 SOPs and finally reclaim your time? Book a call with me, and let’s map out how to turn your processes into a business that runs without you.