Standard Operating Procedures – or SOPs – are crucial in taking your business to the next level. Having documented procedures for different processes in your business allows you to delegate tasks to a Virtual Assistant or Online Business Manager, and will allow your business to scale over time.

In an online business, you might have Standard Operating Procedures related to:

• Customer Service: How should incoming customer inquiries be handled? Who is responsible for responding to Facebook messages? Do you deal with those differently than emails?
• Content Creation: Any business that creates and publishes content, like blog posts, videos, or even social media posts, needs an SOP for managing the content creation process. This might include guidelines for brainstorming and researching topics, creating outlines, writing or producing content, editing and proofreading, and publishing or scheduling content.
• Order Processing and Fulfillment: If your online business sells physical products, you will need an SOP for managing order processing and fulfillment. This might include the process for receiving orders, how you fulfill orders, managing inventory, packaging and shipping products, and tracking and managing returns and exchanges.

Of course there are countless other ways you can use SOPs in your business! By taking the time to document your processes and collect them in a shared location, your business will benefit. SOPs can help streamline operations, making it easier for you and your employees to run your business. It also helps ensure that customers receive a consistent, high-quality product, whether it’s in a service or product you’re providing or just through your team’s customer service. You can easily train new employees on where to find things and how things are done, making it much easier to upscale your business as new team members join.