One of many greatest myths in entrepreneurship is that the extra concerned you might be in each a part of your small business, the extra profitable it is going to be. Lies, I inform you!
Hustle tradition glorifies being “within the weeds.” However I’m gonna lay it down: if your small business can’t run with out you, then you definately don’t personal a enterprise. You’ve constructed your self a really demanding job.
The trail to freedom doesn’t come from working tougher. It comes from designing a enterprise that runs itself. This week, I need to offer you one software to start out making that shift, and it’s one thing I name the mini-SOP.
What the heck is a mini-SOP?
A mini-SOP (customary working process) is a small, streamlined technique to doc and delegate a activity. It’s not a 30-page ops handbook gathering mud on a shelf. It’s fast, usable, and repeatable. It’s one thing your crew will truly use and enhance.
Consider it this manner: your small business is full of duties you do robotically, with out considering. Answering a weekly e-mail. Publishing a weblog. Posting to social media. Working payroll. What if another person might do a type of for you, precisely the best way you do it?
You don’t want to rent a techniques marketing consultant or construct a posh workflow software to get began. You simply want your cellphone and three to 5 steps.
Right here’s what to do.
Your 10-minute task
Decide one easy, recurring activity that you simply do each week. Be certain that it’s one thing that doesn’t require deep technique; simply clear execution.
Now, report a fast video (2–5 minutes) displaying precisely the way you do it.
- Open your display recording software or cellphone digital camera.
- Speak by way of the steps as if you happen to’re instructing a crew member.
- Hold it easy. Suppose: “Open this software → Click on this tab → Paste the content material → Hit publish.”
That’s it. You simply made your first mini-SOP.
Now, hand it off.
Let your crew member take it and run with it. Don’t hover. Don’t good. Let it’s imperfect, however out of your head. Solely revisit or enhance it as soon as the duty runs with out you.
That is how companies scale. Not with huge reinvention, however with small techniques executed constantly.
And, it builds plain empowerment in your workers.
Not that: Don’t construct an enormous handbook
Let me be tremendous clear right here: don’t write an operations handbook. Don’t create an enormous doc filled with bullet factors nobody will learn.
We’ve all been there. We construct an SOP library with the most effective of intentions, solely to seek out it turns into an unused digital graveyard.
Mini-SOPs are completely different. They’re dwelling instruments, not static paperwork. They’re constructed for use and improved in actual time. Begin small. Keep sensible. Construct whereas in movement.
Why this works
If you take away duties out of your plate and move them to your crew, you’re doing greater than saving time. You’re constructing a self-sustaining machine. And it begins with one activity.
Need to see this idea in motion? Right here’s the way it ties immediately into my core techniques:
- Clockwork: In Chapter 4 (pages 71–77), we speak concerning the Queen Bee Function—the important exercise that retains your small business thriving. Mini-SOPs assist defend that position by shifting the whole lot else off your plate.
- Repair This Subsequent: Chapter 5 (pages 89–95) is all about eradicating bottlenecks. Guess who the largest bottleneck often is? Yep—you. By documenting and delegating duties, you release area and velocity up development.
- Revenue First: Programs aren’t nearly time—they’re about cash too. Chapter 9 (pages 165–171) exhibits you how you can create constant money move by way of systematization. The extra predictable your processes, the extra steady your earnings.
A mini-SOP might really feel small. However that one small handoff is an enormous transfer towards true enterprise freedom.
An actual-life instance
A enterprise proprietor I labored with had a bottleneck round posting her weekly e-newsletter. Each Thursday morning, she’d panic to get it written, designed, formatted, and despatched. It took two hours and plenty of psychological area.
We recognized it as the primary mini-SOP alternative.
She made a display recording of her course of, narrated it as soon as, and handed it to her assistant. Inside one week, the duty was off her plate. Inside three weeks, her assistant had improved the method, added templates, and scheduled it out two months prematurely.
Increase. Freedom.
That is what’s potential whenever you doc in movement and delegate with belief.
Remaining thought – Construct as soon as, run without end
The perfect techniques in enterprise are those that hold working with out your fixed enter. That’s the great thing about a mini-SOP. You construct it as soon as, and it runs without end with another person on the wheel.
One step. One activity. One video.
Then one other.
And one other.
Fairly quickly, your small business is working due to you, not completely on you.
As Michael Gerber famously mentioned in The E-Fable Revisited:
“Programs run the enterprise. Individuals run the techniques.”
Begin your first mini-SOP at the moment. Let it’s easy. Let it’s imperfect. However let it’s completed.
You’ve bought this.
– Mike
For extra perception, take a look at the assets right here:
The Cash Behavior: https://bookshop.org/a/4474/9781774586433
Get Completely different: https://bookshop.org/a/4474/9780593330630
Repair This Subsequent: https://bookshop.org/a/4474/9780593084410
Revenue First: https://bookshop.org/a/4474/9780735214149
Pumpkin Plan: https://bookshop.org/a/4474/9781591844884
All In: https://bookshop.org/a/4474/9780593544501
Clockwork: https://bookshop.org/a/4474/9780593538173
Cash Bunnies: https://bookshop.org/a/4474/9780578929989
Podcast: The Don’t Write THAT E book podcast has been serving to (and entertaining) authors and entrepreneurs alike. Give a pay attention in your favourite podcast platform at the moment.
Mike Michalowicz is the creator of Get Completely different, Revenue First, Clockwork, All In, Surge, The Rest room Paper Entrepreneur, The Pumpkin Plan, and The Cash Behavior. He’s on a mission to eradicate entrepreneurial poverty and assist enterprise house owners construct wildly profitable, radically fulfilling corporations.
