Your First Three SOPs: Where a Consultant Starts When the Business Only Runs Through You
Produced by: Corey A. Wilson
Published: November 2nd 2026
If every question, approval, and fire lands on your desk, your company is not missing talent. It is missing written procedures. This article explains what a standard operating procedure (SOP) is, why a consultant starts with just three of them, and how to write each one in an afternoon. You will leave with a short list you can start this week and a simple test to see whether they work.
Key Takeaways
An SOP is a written, step-by-step description of how a recurring task gets done and who does it.
Start with three procedures that touch money and customers: getting paid, month-end close, and customer handoff.
The IRS says you may choose any recordkeeping system that clearly shows your income and expenses, so a written close routine does not need expensive software.
The IRS says to keep all records of employment taxes for at least four years, so your close routine should say where those records live.
Test every SOP by leaving: if someone else can follow it while you are away, it works.
Introduction: Why the Business Feels Like a Job
A business feels like a job when the work stops the moment you do. You answer the invoice question, you remember how the last client was set up, you know which account the sales tax comes from. None of that knowledge is written anywhere, so none of it can be handed off. Hiring more people does not fix this. It simply gives more people a reason to knock on your door.
A consultant looks at this as a documentation gap, not a people problem. The goal is not a 200-page manual. It is a small set of procedures that move the most repeated, most expensive decisions out of your head and onto a page.
Why Three Procedures, and Why These
What an SOP is, in plain language
A standard operating procedure is a checklist with an owner. It says what triggers the task, the steps in order, who does each step, and how you know it is done. It can be one page. If it takes longer than a page, the task is usually two tasks. Keep it in one shared folder with a clear name so anyone can find it without asking you.
How a consultant picks the first three
We choose procedures by cost of failure and frequency. Money that does not arrive, books that nobody reviews, and customers who are handed off badly are the three places where small companies lose the most. Marketing and product improvements can wait. Fix these three and the owner gets hours back every week.
The Money Procedures
Procedure one: getting paid
Write the path from agreed work to cash in the bank. Who sends the invoice, how soon after delivery, what terms are printed on it, who follows up on day 7, day 14, and day 30, and who decides when to stop work. In an illustrative example, a ten-person services firm with no written collections steps sees every overdue invoice become an owner phone call. Once the steps and the person are named, the owner only hears about invoices past a set threshold.
Procedure two: month-end close
A month-end close is the routine of confirming that every transaction for the month is recorded and matches your bank and card statements. The IRS says the law generally does not require any special kind of records and that you may choose any system suited to your business that clearly shows your income and expenses. So your procedure can be simple: download statements, match them to your books, categorize what is left, review a short list of reports, and save the package in a labeled folder by month. Add one line stating where employment tax records are kept, since the IRS says to keep them for at least four years.
The Handoff Procedure and Making It Stick
Procedure three: customer handoff
Most customer complaints start at a handoff: sales to delivery, delivery to billing, one employee to another. Write down what information must travel with the customer at each handoff, who sends it, and where it is stored. Include a short checklist of what the customer should receive and when. This single page prevents the repeated question, "Who told them that?"
Test it by leaving
A procedure is only finished when someone other than the author has run it. Pick one SOP, hand it to the person responsible, and stay out of it for a week. Note every question they ask; each question is a missing line in the document. Revise it, then move to the next procedure. Three tested pages will do more for your freedom than any hire.
Conclusion: From Owner-Dependent to Process-Dependent
Your business becomes less like a job each time a decision moves from your head to a page with a name on it. The practical next step this week: pick the procedure that interrupts you most often, block ninety minutes, and write it as a numbered list with one named owner. Hand it to that person and track the questions that come back.
Strategic Insight: Advisor Perspective
When I walk into a company where the owner is the bottleneck, I do not start by redesigning the org chart. I start with diagnosis before prescription: where do the interruptions come from, and which three of them cost the most? Almost always the answer is money collection, bookkeeping rhythm, and customer handoffs. We write those down first, test them, and only then decide what role the company needs to hire for.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long should an SOP be?
Aim for one page. If it runs longer, the task is probably two tasks and should be split. Short procedures get followed; long ones get ignored.
Do I need special software to write SOPs?
No. A shared document and a clearly named folder are enough to start. Choose a tool your team already opens every day.
Who should write the procedure, me or the employee?
The person who does the task should draft it, and you should review it. They know the real steps, and you know the decisions that must be protected.
What does the IRS require for my bookkeeping system?
The IRS says you may choose any recordkeeping system suited to your business that clearly shows your income and expenses, and that the law generally does not require any special kind of records. Your month-end routine just needs to be consistent.
How often should I update my SOPs?
Review each one after every month-end or whenever someone asks a question the page did not answer. A short quarterly review keeps them current.
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