Creating standard operating procedures

You often see small businesses that have been there for years. They provide their owners with a good living. They do a fantastic job. But they stay the same, day in, day out, year in, year out.

Now, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

But you do wonder what happens if the owner gets ill. Or even dies. What happens to the business? More importantly, what happens to the staff?

Can it keep going without the main protagonist? Are those jobs lost? Is that pillar of the local community gone?

I want my business to be able to work without me. Not just so I can lie on a beach, sipping a cold drink without worrying (although that would be nice). But also, because I want it to have a reach that’s slightly bigger than me. Not much, just a bit.

Which is why I need to write out our procedures. A handbook. This is how we do things. There are many ways to get things done, but this is ours. It’s not perfect, but it’s the way it is here. We’ll revise it every now and then, but the processes described in this book are the business, whether it’s me running things, or someone else.