Every business hits a ceiling without clear processes. It usually shows up as the founder being stuck in the weeds, mistakes happening inconsistently or the business feeling fragile — like everything breaks the moment you step away.

If you’re at that point, someone may have suggested an SOP to you.

SOPs are easy to get stuck on. Either they get wildly overcomplicated and turn into a 40-page Google Doc no one reads, or they get put off indefinitely because things are changing fast, or you’re intimidated to start.

Both approaches miss the point.

SOPs are not about perfection. Done right, they are living documents that reduce decision fatigue and make your business easier to run, scale and step away from.

Let’s break down what SOPs actually are and how to write ones people will actually use.

What an SOP actually is

An SOP — standard operating procedure — is simply a documented way of doing something consistently.

A good SOP is simple and outlines the outcome you’re trying to achieve, the owner of the process to get there and a simple recount of each step in that process.

If someone new joined your team tomorrow and followed the SOP exactly, they should be able to complete the task without guessing.

You don’t need SOPs for everything on day one. SOPs usually start with the most important processes in your business. These are the ones that happen repeatedly, have a significant impact on business success and are bottlenecked by you. It can help to start with SOPs for processes that someone else would ideally own.

If you still aren’t sure where SOPs could help, here are some common types of SOPs:

• Onboarding for clients or team members

• Invoicing and billing

• Lead follow-up and sales process

• Customer support

• Month-end financials

In short, if you’re answering the same question more than twice, that’s an SOP waiting to be written.

A simple SOP structure to get you started

You do not need fancy templates. And please, don’t just throw it into AI tools and hope for the best! Use this SOP structure as a starting point for your first draft instead:

Title, owner and purpose

Tools used

Step-by-step instructions

That’s it, you have an SOP!

How to write SOPs without slowing down your business

The best SOPs are written while the work is happening. With the various screen recording and AI transcription tools available, this has become even easier as a process.

Here’s a practical way to do it without overthinking:

1. Do the task once. Plan to slow down slightly and pretend someone is watching over your shoulder.

2. Write it (or dictate it) as you go. You can talk into a voice note, record yourself using Loom, or talk to your favorite AI tool. You can also open a doc and jot down the steps, simply and as messily as needed — don’t worry about perfection.

3. Make sure to capture your decision points. Don’t just say “send the email.” Instead, say which template to use and how to decide when to use it

4. Throw this starting version into an AI tool and ask for it to be transcribed or refined, depending on what your starting version was. Make sure to ask the AI to keep it simple!

Remember, you can always refine later. An imperfect SOP used today is more valuable than a perfect SOP that never gets written or used.

What makes a usable SOP

If you want people to actually follow SOPs, they need to be short enough to scan and written in clear, direct language.

If it’s more than two to three pages long, it is probably too long. Use clear, numbered steps and write exactly what you want someone to do. It should feel more like a checklist than an essay.

Once you have this written, make sure it’s stored in a place your team can easily access and use. Where you store it is also important, so your team can actually use it. Some great options include a Google Drive or similar tool with a clear naming and folder structure or in your team’s project management tool. Wherever they live, they should be centralized and clearly named.

Maintaining SOPs without creating busywork

SOPs are living documents. If they never change, they’ll become irrelevant. That said, maintaining SOPs isn’t anyone’s favorite task.

An easy approach is to assign an owner to each SOP — someone who is responsible for checking periodically, call it monthly or quarterly, to update it for any changes or lack of clarity. Keep a “last updated” date at the top so any user is aware of how updated it is.

A great way to know if SOPs are in need of updating is to empower your team to leave comments on parts of SOPs that are confusing or seem outdated to them. This makes maintaining SOPs part of your regular routine and a team effort.

The payoff of SOPs

If you aren’t convinced yet, let’s talk about the payoff of well-written SOPs. They save time, sure, but also make delegation much easier, improve client experience, make onboarding more efficient and generally stabilize your operations. They also set your business up to be bought one day if that’s a goal for you, as they are a clear signal of a well-run business and make it easy for a new owner to step in.

This scales significantly as your business grows as well, with ROI on SOPs being estimated at 60%+ for growing enterprises. Making that small investment along the way will result in big gains down the road.

You don’t need hundreds of SOPs. Pick just a few to start with, write them simply, let them be imperfect, and repeat.