The Importance of SOPs in Your Business

When I started as a virtual assistant, my first client was in the nonprofit space. She was a grant writer with experience as a project manager, and one thing I learned from her was the importance of SOPs. We didn’t have a crazy number of meetings together, and there was no long drawn-out training period. She laid out her expectations and shared all her SOPs with me, and I followed them to the letter… and the business moved smoothly. Well-oiled machine and all that. It clicked for me right there the importance of processes in your industry. Writing down how you do things makes training a new person easier and takes the guesswork out of how you’re running your business.

Why are SOPs so Important?

Standard operating procedures (SOPs) are essential for any business. They provide a clear and concise guide for a virtual assistant on how to perform their tasks, which leads to increased efficiency, productivity, and a happy happy client (you!).

As your business grows, SOPs help improve communication and collaboration within a team. Instead of trying to guess what one teammate should be doing, take a look at the SOPs and you can gain clarity.

SOPs can also help to reduce errors and mistakes. When your team knows exactly what is expected of them, they are less likely to make mistakes. This saves you precious time and gives you the freedom to do more than just look over each team member\’s shoulders.

Writing SOPs

The first step in writing SOPs is to identify the tasks that need SOPs. This can be done by brainstorming with your team or reviewing your current processes. There is no task too big or small to be made into an SOP. If it’s a repetitive task, it can be made into an SOP.

Once you have identified the tasks, you must break them down into smaller steps. This will make it easier to write clear and concise instructions.

Next, you need to write the SOPs clearly and concisely. Use simple language that is easy to understand. Avoid jargon and technical terms.

Aside: I have a teammate who was telling me about a time she was in school, and they had an interesting assignment: Write an SOP on how to make a peanut butter sandwich. It’s an easy task, right? Wrong! The steps seemed easy enough, but if you had a step like “open the peanut butter jar”, the teacher would ask you “How do I open it?” That’s the amount of detail needed to make the SOPs on making a peanut butter sandwich. Untwist the lid on the peanut butter jar; pick up the butter knife that’s on the table, etc etc. That’s the type of attention to detail you need for your SOPs.

After writing them, record a video (Loom or whatever) that shows you doing the steps. Some people learn better by hearing instructions and some by watching and copying what’s being done. We need to cater to all types of learning styles.

Finally, it would be best if you got feedback on your SOPs from your team. This will help to ensure that they are accurate and complete. It also helps to know that if they had to do your job for you, are your instructions clear enough for them to take over without too much difficulty? That is how you know that you’ve written a good SOP document.

Another thing to note:

Edit your SOPs frequently – I usually recommend once a year or as soon as possible if there is a major change in how you’re doing things and the tools you’re doing them with. If you’re not crazy about updating SOPs alone, I recommend doing a co-working session with the rest of the team.

If you need someone to help you make sense of all your processes in your business & to note them all down, book a call with us! We’ll bring our first-born daughter energy and make your SOPs!

With you in business,

Nawena Virtual Solutions