How to Write an SOP: What It Is, When You Need One, and What to Include
"It's all in my head."
I hear that sentence from founders more often than almost any other, usually right before they tell me they cannot take a real day off. If you are the only person who knows how your business actually runs, you are carrying something heavy, and it is something you can set down one page at a time.
Why Writing an SOP Feels Like Extra Work
An SOP, short for standard operating procedure, is a written set of steps for a task you do repeatedly. For a busy founder, writing one can feel like paperwork stacked on top of an already full week. There is often a quieter worry as well: that putting your way of working into steps will make it rigid, or that no one else could do it the way you do.
Those feelings are understandable. They also tend to disappear once you see how much time a single clear page can give back.
Why Your Business Needs an SOP
A good SOP does a few jobs at once. It keeps the quality of your work consistent, it makes handing a task to someone else possible, it shortens training for a new hire, and it keeps the business running when you are sick, traveling, or finally on vacation.
Some of the best-known brands in retail and food were built on written procedures. In 1958, when McDonald's had only 34 restaurants, operations leader Fred Turner set strict guidelines, including fries cut precisely 0.28 inches thick and exactly ten patties formed from each pound of beef, according to Wikipedia. The goal was simple: a customer in one location should get the same experience as a customer in any other.
Now picture the opposite approach. Nordstrom's employee handbook was famously a single card, and its one rule, as the company's spokesperson told Business Insider, was "Use good judgment in all situations." The card describes a culture rather than the full picture, since the company has also maintained more detailed written policies, as one employment law firm noted.
Both approaches work, and most businesses need a bit of each. Judgment shines where a customer needs a personal touch, such as styling a client or settling a delicate complaint. Procedures shine where the same result matters every single time, such as the order of an inventory count, how a return is processed, or how a wholesale order is packed and shipped. An SOP covers the second kind of task so that your judgment is free for the first.
When to Write an SOP
You do not need an SOP for everything. These are the moments when one earns its place:
You do the task again and again. Client onboarding, invoicing, publishing content, fulfilling orders, processing returns, opening and closing the shop, and sending a production order to a factory are all good candidates.
You are about to hand something off. The best time to write the steps is just before someone else takes over the task.
The same mistakes keep happening. A missing step is usually the reason, and writing it down fixes it for good.
You are the only person who knows how it works. If the task stops when you stop, it deserves a page.
The task is high-stakes. Anything involving payments, legal requirements, or a client's first impression is worth getting right every time.
Tasks that change constantly or depend mostly on creative judgment are usually better served by a short set of guidelines than by a rigid list of steps.
How to Write an SOP Your Team Will Actually Use
Pick one task. Start with the one that costs you the most time or worry, rather than trying to document the whole business.
Do the task and record it as you go. Take screenshots, jot down each click and decision, or record your screen. Writing from memory tends to skip the steps that feel automatic.
Write each step as a short action. Begin with a verb, such as "Open," "Send," or "Save," and keep one action per step.
Keep it to about one page. If it runs longer, split it into two SOPs.
Test it with someone who has never done the task. Watch where they hesitate, and add whatever was missing. Their questions are the most useful editing you will get.
What an SOP Should Include
A clear title and purpose. One sentence on what the task achieves.
An owner and a date. Who looks after the document, and when it was last updated.
The trigger. When to use it, such as "when a new client signs."
Tools and access. The software, logins, and files the task needs, and where to find them.
The steps in order. Numbered, short, and specific.
What done looks like. A simple way to tell the task was completed well.
Common mistakes. The slips that tend to happen and how to avoid them.
Who to ask. A name for questions that the page does not answer.
How to Use and Maintain It
Store every SOP in one shared place that your team can find without asking you, and link to it from wherever the work happens. Use it for training, and invite new people to correct it as they learn. Review each one every few months, or whenever a tool or process changes, and update the date when you do.
Treat the SOP as a living document. When someone finds a better way, the page changes to match, so the document stays useful and no one has to defend an outdated process.
What This Looks Like in Practice
I've coached a founder who ran a small design studio and was the only person who knew how to onboard a new client. Each onboarding took her about three hours, and she dreaded it every time a project signed. We spent one afternoon turning her process into a one-page SOP, including the welcome email, the intake form, and the folder setup.
Her part-time assistant ran the next onboarding from the page. She also found two steps the founder had never written down, because they had become second nature. After one revision, the process worked without the founder in the room.
The same pattern shows up in product businesses. I've coached a founder who ran an online boutique and personally handled every return, checking the item, issuing the refund, and restocking it. One page covering those steps let a part-time team member take over returns, while the founder kept the part she loved: styling customers and choosing the next collection.
In my experience as a life coach, writing an SOP is an act of trust as much as an organizing task. It says that your way of working can be shared, and that the business can hold some of the weight you have been carrying alone.
Ready to Get It Out of Your Head and Onto the Page?
If you know you need to document how your business runs and are not sure where to start, you do not have to figure it out alone. Book a Free 30-Minute Chat with Asi Efros to talk through what to write first and how to hand it off with confidence. 👉 Book your free 30-minute chat here
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