Must-Have SOPs to Create for Your Business During Quieter Times
When it’s all hands on deck, there’s little time to dedicate to housekeeping within your business. But during quiet periods, you can invest more energy into the inner workings of your company, optimizing processes for the inevitable upswing to come.
From decluttering your inbox to testing new software, there’s plenty to fill your time during slower seasons. But there’s one thing to put at the top of your to-do list: SOPs.
SOPs, or standard operating procedures, are sets of written instructions for processes within your business. Even if you primarily operate on muscle memory, SOPs add structure and can future-proof your organization for eventual growth.
“SOPs allow anyone with any role to jump in seamlessly without missing a beat,” explains Kevin Dennis, owner of Fantasy Sound Event Services. “If you travel frequently and spend time away from your business, your team will feel empowered to take care of things in your absence with a plan of action to reference.”
So whether you’re a solopreneur or a leader to many, it’s worth investing the time to create, update, and adjust the SOPs in your business when there’s room in your schedule. By doing so, you’ll set yourself up for smoother operations and a clear path to growth. Here are a few must-have SOPs to start organizing your internal workflows.
Financial Management
Managing money requires far more than simply knowing your bank account balances. You must monitor cash flow, track payments, calculate profit margins, and analyze the data to make meaningful decisions within your business. Understanding these processes and organizing them into a streamlined flow is fiscally responsible, even if you have an accountant or bookkeeper overseeing your day-to-day numbers.
While financial professionals can catch warning signs and provide valuable insights into your business’s solvency, you are the primary decision-maker. That means you must know your way around the numbers and how they apply to the bigger picture.
“Creating SOPs around when and how certain financial metrics are updated and tracked can help owners make better-informed decisions about their business,” confirms Deliece Knights-Barnett, founder of Dhalia Events LLC.
Beyond consistency, financial SOPs can save you time and headaches in the long run. Knowing how to run and evaluate balance sheets, P&L statements, and cash flow records means you can access the data needed to make decisions confidently.
“Knowing how financial metrics are tracked, rules of tracking, and when they are tracked in a well-documented SOP can make the administrative burden much lighter for business owners,” Knights-Barnett adds. “It also helps avoid having to scramble at year-end to reconcile and manage books and reporting.”
Financial peace of mind goes a long way toward a business’s health, but it also contributes to improved mental health for the business owner. Entrepreneurs venture out to make money, so don’t overlook this essential component of a profitable enterprise!
Client Experience
Every client is unique, but that doesn’t mean you should provide a different experience for each. Successful businesses have one thing in common: consistency. When they do something well, they replicate it over and over. That’s where SOPs can save the day.
The client experience begins with onboarding, which is also an excellent place to start with SOPs. “Correctly setting up a client is integral to ensuring that they have a positive experience with your business,” promises Knights-Barnett.
Write down each step of the onboarding process in detail, from the moment the signed contract arrives to the moment production starts. Include all touchpoints, including emails, welcome gifts, software introductions, and project meetings. When finished, any team member should be able to pick up the document and carry out the procedure.
“Your core team should be in the loop when it comes to the client process from start to finish,” Dennis assures. “While every client may have different needs and circumstances, your team will have a better understanding of what expectations are and how they can step in.”
Perhaps just as vital as onboarding, Knights-Barnett notes that “owners should pay special attention to their off-boarding SOPs as it can make all the difference between whether your business is referred or not.”
With off-boarding, consider everything you or your team must do to end the working relationship on a positive note. A few things you might add include collecting final payments, sending thank you cards, adding anniversaries to the calendar, asking for reviews, and removing clients from collaborative software.
By standardizing the client experience, you’ll ensure consistency and comfort for everyone. Your team members will know what to do (even if they’ve never done it!), and your clients will know what to expect. It’s a win-win situation!
Marketing Strategy
Most business owners have a marketing strategy. Unfortunately, that strategy can quickly end up on the back burner when business picks up. But wishful thinking doesn’t attract more clients, so letting your marketing break down can mean falling short of your financial goals. The secret, of course, is in the SOPs you create for this essential function.
“Most small business owners struggle to ‘keep up’ with marketing,” says Enji founder Tayler Cusick-Hollman. “Creating these internal standards is the first step to running an effective marketing department for your business—even if it's a marketing department of one.”
Since marketing is often one of the first things entrepreneurs delegate, creating SOPs in this area will put you ahead of the game when it comes time to hire and outsource. From setting up email newsletters to scheduling social media posts, documenting your marketing processes allows for easy hand-off without sacrificing consistency.
You may also consider adding branding and messaging standards. For instance, if there are words or phrases to avoid, note them within the document. Likewise, you can set guidelines for colors, logos, and imagery to use (or not use) in your brand’s marketing.
Detailed SOPs can set the foundation for a robust and resilient business, providing the resources necessary to scale and expand without a hitch. But wedding photographer Colton Simmons reminds us that nothing in business is set in stone.
“It is great to have SOPs, but we have to make sure that we allow for adaptability over time,” he says. New technology might make your job easier, so taking the time to go over your procedures and see how they can be modified once a quarter is a good rule of thumb.
There’s no need to reinvent the wheel for every task, so take the time to remove the guesswork with thorough SOPs to use and share with your team. Then, make it a priority to stay on top of them. Look at how your business ebbs and flows throughout the year, scheduling routine audits to update and adjust your SOPs for peak efficiency.
