How to write standard operating procedures for a small business

A standard operating procedure is a set of written instructions that document a routine or repetitive activity, so it is done the same way whoever does it.

What is a standard operating procedure in a small business?

A written set of instructions for a routine or repetitive piece of work. That is close to the definition the Environmental Protection Agency uses in its guidance on preparing them, which was written for laboratories and applies just as well to a service business, a shop, or a trade. The point is the same everywhere: the work is done the same way no matter who does it, and a new person can learn it from the document instead of from the one person who remembers.

In a small business the procedure usually lives in the owner's head. That works until the owner is sick, on holiday, or trying to sell. The Run guide explains why operating on written systems is the difference between a business and a job; this page is how to write the systems.

Which procedures should be written first?

The ones that cost the most when they go wrong, and the ones only one person can do. Start with a list, not a document. The process inventory worksheet gives a row per recurring job: what it is, who does it, how often, and what happens when it is missed. Expect the first pass to be longer than you think, because the jobs nobody writes down are the ones done without thinking.

Then rank them. Money first: invoicing, collections, payroll inputs, and the month-end close. Customers second: how an order is taken, how a complaint is handled, how a job is quoted. Then everything that depends on one person. Write the top 5 before starting the next 5.

What goes into a procedure?

Five parts, and no more until the business needs them:

1. Purpose. One sentence on what the work is for and when it happens.
2. Owner. The role responsible, not a person's name, so the document survives a hire.
3. Steps. Numbered, in the order they are done, each starting with a verb. One action per step.
4. Checks. How the person knows each important step was done right: a total that must match, a signature, a photo.
5. Exceptions. What to do when the normal path fails, and who to call.

Keep it short enough to be used. A procedure nobody opens is a document, not a system. If a step needs a screenshot to be followed, add the screenshot.

How do you write one without stopping the business?

Record the work instead of writing it from memory. The person who does the job walks through it while someone records, then the recording is turned into a first draft. A model can produce that draft from a transcript, which is the use the guide to using AI in a small business recommends first, provided a person reads and corrects every word.

Then test it. Give the draft to someone who has never done the job and watch them follow it, without helping. Every question they ask is a missing step. Every place they stop is an unclear one. A procedure is finished when the second person can do the work from the page, not when the first person is happy with the wording.

How do you keep procedures current?

Give each one a review date and an owner, and change it when the work changes, not once a year. The simplest rule is that the person who finds a step is wrong fixes the document the same day. Keep the procedures where the work happens: a shared folder the team actually opens, not a binder in the office.

Measure whether they are used. A procedure that has not been opened in 6 months either describes work that no longer happens or work that someone is doing from memory again. Both are worth knowing.

What does a business with written procedures look like?

It runs when the owner is away. The owner answers questions about exceptions, not about how the invoicing works. A new hire learns the work from the page and asks about the exceptions, not the basics. And when the owner decides to sell, the buyer can see how the business operates instead of taking the owner's word for it, which is what the Systemizing yourself out course is built around. None of that happens from one document. It happens from the habit of writing the next one.