What Is an SOP and Why
Your Business Needs One
There is a question I ask every new client during their discovery call, and the answer is almost always the same. The question is: if you were unavailable for three weeks — a family emergency, a health issue, an unexpected trip — which parts of your business would simply stop functioning?
The answer is almost always: most of it. Not because the work cannot be done by others, but because the knowledge of how to do it lives exclusively in one person's head. The processes are undocumented, the preferences are assumed, and the institutional knowledge is invisible.
A Standard Operating Procedure — an SOP — fixes this. Here is everything you need to know.
What an SOP actually is
An SOP is a step-by-step written document that describes exactly how a specific recurring task should be completed. Not a vague outline. Not a bulleted list of intentions. A precise, replicable guide that means any competent person can execute the task to the same standard, every time, without needing to ask questions.
Good SOPs describe not just the what, but the how and the why — including the preferences, exceptions, tools, and quality benchmarks that make the difference between a task being done and a task being done well.
"An SOP is your business's memory made visible. Without it, every key process exists only in someone's head — a single point of failure."
What SOPs are not
SOPs are not bureaucracy for its own sake. They are not the preserve of large corporations. They are not the same as a job description, a workflow chart, or a checklist — although they may incorporate all three. And they are definitely not a sign that you do not trust your team. They are a sign that you do — and that you want to set them up to succeed.
The three SOPs every founder needs first
In the first 30 days of working with a new client, I focus on documenting the five most frequent and high-impact recurring tasks. These almost always include a version of the following three:
- Inbox management protocol — how emails are categorised, prioritised, responded to, and escalated. Including which senders always get a same-day response, which newsletters are actually read, and the exact wording preferred for common reply types.
- Meeting and diary management — scheduling preferences, buffer requirements, travel time allowances, video call setup preferences, pre-meeting briefing format, and how last-minute rescheduling requests are handled.
- Travel booking protocol — preferred airlines, seat preferences, hotel standards, car hire requirements, expense capture process, and the format for the final travel pack delivered before each trip.
The Northern Desk Vault: your SOPs, organised
As part of the Partnership and Embedded retainer packages, I build and maintain each client's Northern Desk Vault — a secure, structured Notion workspace containing all documented processes, preferences, and protocols. It is searchable, version-controlled, and updated whenever a process changes or a new one is added.
The Vault is yours. If you ever stop working with Northern Desk, everything is exported and handed back in a format you own. The knowledge never belongs to us — it belongs to you and your operation.
Identify the single task you do most often that you have never written down. Block 45 minutes. Write down every step, every preference, every exception. Then ask yourself: could someone else do this now, using only what I have written? If not, keep writing until the answer is yes.
The business that scales is not the one with the most talented founder. It is the one where the founder's knowledge, standards, and preferences have been translated into systems that work without them having to be in the room.
Debbie Jones is the founder of Northern Desk, an executive services practice.