Day 18: Your First SOP — How to Create One in Under 15 Minutes (No Tech Needed)

A simple system to make delegation, consistency, and sanity a whole lot easier

🗓️ This post is part of a 90-day blog series for solopreneurs and micro-business owners building sustainable, profitable businesses with less stress and more support.

If you're doing everything yourself, chances are you're also reinventing the wheel every week.

Writing client emails from scratch. Packing orders on the fly. Manually posting to social without a plan.

It’s not just time-consuming — it’s mentally exhausting.

That’s where your first SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) comes in. And no, it’s not just for big businesses or corporate teams.

Creating even one SOP will save you time, reduce errors, and make future delegation a breeze — even if the only person you're delegating to is "future you."

💡 What’s an SOP, Really?

Think of an SOP as your personal cheat sheet.

It’s a short, clear document that shows how something gets done in your business, step by step.

It can be:

• A checklist

• A screen recording

• A short doc with links and templates

• Or a combination of all three

The goal isn’t to be fancy. It’s to be repeatable and transferable.

🛠️ How to Create Your First SOP (In Under 15 Minutes)

Pick one task you do more than once a week.

Examples:

• Sending a client onboarding email

• Publishing a blog post

• Running a sales call

• Shipping a product

• Posting on social media

Then, choose your format:

🖼️ Option 1: Use ScribeHow (Free Tool)

ScribeHow automatically creates step-by-step guides from your screen activity.

✅ Pros: Fast, visual, easy to share⚠️ Cons: Works best for computer-based tasks

Just hit “record,” do the task as you normally would, and let Scribe generate the SOP for you.

✍️ Option 2: Write a Simple Checklist

1. Open Google Docs

2. Title it clearly (e.g., "Weekly Newsletter Process")

3. List the steps in the order you do them

4. Add links, logins, or templates as needed

That's it. No software required.

📦 Why SOPs Are Worth the Time

Even if it only saves you 15 minutes a week, that adds up fast.

And when you're ready to outsource, hand off tasks, or build systems, you won’t have to train from scratch.

Instead, you’ll be able to say: “Here’s how I do it. Let me know if you have questions.”

Bonus: SOPs make your business more valuable if you ever want to sell, partner, or license your IP.

🧭 Inside the Program

In Taking Care of Business – Together, we show you:

• Exactly which tasks to systemize first

• How to create effective SOPs with or without tools

• How to integrate SOPs into your operations dashboard

• How to know when it’s time to delegate

Small business success isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing less — more strategically.

👉 Get the support to build systems that scale

📝 Catch Up on the Series:

• Day 1–17 Blog Archive

  
  

➡️ Coming Tomorrow: Day 19: Should You Raise Your Prices? A Simple Test to Know for Sure