What Does SOP Stand For?

“SOP” (Standard Operating Procedures) is really just a fancy name for a document that includes a set of detailed instructions making it easier to pass the duties of a job from one person to another.

When creating your business, especially on a budget, you may crave total control of the operation. If you’re a self-starter, your instincts are likely to do many things yourself rather than to spend time teaching other people what you want. While this type of mentality often means you have a strong work ethic, it will ultimately make you the bottleneck in your project.

When starting a business, time is your greatest asset. Being able to quickly delegate tasks to freelancers or in-house team members is a skill that helps launch your business forward while preventing you from getting stuck. Using SOP documents save you hours of time when passing work to your team members.

With tools like Fiverr, Upwork, 99designs, etc. it has never been cheaper or faster to find and hire part-time team members. To craft a lean and efficient team, all you really need is a small budget and an awareness of which tasks suck up your time and drain your motivation. Managing becomes heaps easier when using SOPs by providing clear-cut instructions that outline the task and save you the trouble of explaining what needs to get done.

BENEFITS TO USING SOP TEMPLATES:

Reduces back and forth questions and conversations between you and your team
Makes it easier for you to estimate the time and cost to complete a task
Gives you a written record for what has been done in case you decide to change personnel
Reduces errors and false expectations
Allows you to easily manage several team members at the same time
Improves quality of the final product
Is completely scalable as your business grows
Decreases redundant work for you and your team
Takes only a few minutes to get used to using the documents, but saves hours of time on a regular basis
Allows you to spend more time on higher priority tasks
Streamlines communication and collaboration between departments

SOPs are also helpful with in-house teams, especially when adding new people. For example, there are several programs that you use on a regular basis for your business, such as Google Analytics, Slack, Trello, etc. You want all new team members to be familiar with how you use each of these programs to make your business more efficient.

Every time you add or change a team member, you have to teach the newcomer how you use each of these programs for your business. This takes time away from more pressing tasks. Instead, having a library of SOP templates means that you can quickly put together a starter kit for new employees to review on their own. They end up getting all the information they need without requiring time from other team members.

Traditionally SOP documents are hundreds of pages thick and typically only used in fields requiring a high-level of technical expertise, such as the military or in chemical labs. Over the past few years, the term has taken on a new meaning in the digital marketing and startup space.

SOPs are now more accessible and can be used for individual tasks when creating an online business. From creating a logo for your app to making your WordPress site SEO-friendly, they can be used to help you quickly delegate a task to someone else.

SOP TEMPLATE EXAMPLES

All the SOPs in this library are updated on a regular basis and include clear step-by-step instructions to complete the job successfully. Take a look at some of the tasks you can get done quickly with SOPs from the ever-growing SOP Template library:

Focus on what matters most in your business and delegate the dirty work, that’s the mission that we set out to accomplish with SOP Templates.