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What are the Top 5 SOPs for an Entrepreneur?
Do you ever feel like you're running your business on a wing and a prayer? Are your ideas scribbled on napkins and your follow-up tasks a mess of sticky notes? You're not alone. Many business owners feel this way, and it's a big cause of stress and burnout.
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What if you could turn your most stressful tasks into a simple recipe?
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That's the magic of a Standard Operating Procedure, or SOP. Think of an SOP as a step-by-step guide for doing something important in your business. It's like a recipe that makes sure your work is done the same great way every single time. SOPs create consistency and free you up to do what you love.
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By creating just five key SOPs, you can free up your mind, save time, and build a business that works for you instead of the other way around.
Table of Contents
1. Client Onboarding and Offboarding
2. The Lead Generation & Sales Follow-up
3. Service Delivery & Project Management
4. Content Creation & Marketing
5. Financial Management
What if you didn't have to do it all alone?
Here are the top 5 SOPs that every service-based entrepreneur needs.
1. Client Onboarding and Offboarding
This is your recipe for how you welcome new clients and how you say goodbye. A great first impression and a memorable last one can make all the difference. When you have a step-by-step process for this, you're always prepared and organized. A good SOP for this makes sure new clients get everything they need right away and that past clients leave feeling amazing and ready to tell their friends about you.
When was the last time you sent a "thank you" that made your client's day?
How to Start:
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List every step: Write down every single thing you do, from the moment a client says "yes" to the first day of work.
Things like:​
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Send the service agreement.
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Schedule the first kickoff call.
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Send the first invoice.
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Send the welcome email.
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Turn it into a checklist: Put all those steps on a single checklist you can use for every new client.
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Do the same for offboarding: List out all the steps for when a project ends, such as asking for a testimonial, sending a final invoice, and sending a final thank-you note.
2. The Lead Generation & Sales Follow-up
This SOP is your plan for finding new clients and talking with them. It's the recipe for how you turn a new person who is curious about your work into a paying client. A well-documented sales process helps you keep track of potential clients and makes sure you don't miss a single follow-up. Without a good plan, it's easy for people to fall through the cracks.
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Getting out of your comfort zone to find and talk to new people can be hard, but it's where your business grows. As my mentor, Rhonda Britten, says, "Your comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there." This SOP is your guide to bravely and consistently finding new business.
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How many potential clients have you lost
simply because you forgot to follow up?
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How to Start:
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Identify your lead sources: Write down every place new leads come from, like your website, social media messages, or referrals.
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Create a simple follow-up plan: Make a list of what you will do each time someone new contacts you, for example:
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Day 1: Send a quick, personal thank-you message.
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Day 3: Follow up with a helpful resource, like a blog post you've written.
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Day 7: Send a final check-in to see if they have any questions.
3. Service Delivery & Project Management
Do you deliver the same great work every single time?
This SOP is the heart of your business—it's the recipe for how you do the work you've been hired to do. Having this plan written down makes sure you deliver the same great quality every single time, whether it's the first time you've done it or the hundredth. This is the result of strategic thinking, not just doing.
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As my mentor, Caterina Rando, teaches, "The people who get paid the most get paid the most for their thinking and not for their doing." This SOP is proof that you've put in the time to think about the best way to do your work. For a VA, this could be a detailed SOP for scheduling social media posts.
How to Start:
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Break it down: Choose one of your main services and break it down into every single step.
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For example, if you schedule social media like I do for my clients, your steps might be:
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Ask the client for content ideas.
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Find or create images.
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Write the post captions.
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Get client approval.
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Schedule the posts.
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Track the results.
List the tools: Write down every tool you use for each step.
4. Content Creation & Marketing
If you ever feel stuck on what to post or share, this SOP is for you. It's a simple, repeatable plan for how you get your message out to the world. Having a solid plan for your marketing and sales activities helps you avoid repetitive tasks and keeps you from feeling stuck. This SOP takes the stress out of marketing and lets you focus on being creative and consistent.
Imagine never having to say, "I don't know what to post today!" again.
How to Start:
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Pick a schedule: Choose one or two days a week to work on your marketing. For example, you could decide to do all your marketing on Mondays.
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Create a checklist: Make a checklist for a new piece of content, from the idea to sharing it. For a weekly blog post, your steps could be:
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Choose a topic.
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Write the post.
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Find or create an image.
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Share it on your social media and email list.
5. Financial Management
Money can be a big source of stress for entrepreneurs. This SOP is your recipe for how you handle your business's money, from invoicing to paying bills. Having a plan for your finances is key to having peace of mind and clarity in your business.
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What would it feel like to always know where your money is going?
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How to Start:
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Choose your tools: Decide on a tool for your invoices and expenses (like a simple spreadsheet or a program like QuickBooks).
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Make a routine: Write down a checklist of your money tasks for the month. For example:
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First of the month: Send all new invoices.
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15th of the month: Review all your expenses and update your books.
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End of the month: Review your income to make sure all payments came in.
What if you didn't have to do it all alone?
Creating these five SOPs is one of the best things you can do for your business. It brings consistency, reduces stress, and gives you back your most valuable asset: time.
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But what if you didn't have to do it all alone?
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I can help you build these SOPs from scratch. I'll work with you to create your "recipes" and set up the systems so that you can focus on being the leader of your business, not just the one who does all the work.
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Ready to get started?
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Schedule a call, and let's work together
to build your recipes for success!
