How to Write the Perfect SOP

Last week we talked about Spring cleaning for your business. One of the tips to get your business spic and span was to update your standard operating procedures or SOPs. This is a fancy way to say your documented processes. These are the “how to” documents associated with your business. They can be anything from “How to train employees” to “How to write a client update after a pet sitting visit”.

As your business grows and changes, so do your SOPs. The ones you already have will need updating and you may need new ones relative to how your business operates today. Writing an SOP isn’t complicated but there’s definitely some things you want to keep in mind to make these documents helpful and useable.

Start with a title and a version number

One of the biggest mistakes people make in writing procedures is they pick too large a topic. Picking a title can help with this. Think about what your procedure will cover. If you can’t describe the process you’re documenting in 5 or so words then you’ve probably picked too broad a subject.

An example of this would be your hiring process. There’s a multitude of different components to it including, but not limited to, sourcing employees, doing interviews, hiring them, onboarding them, etc. It’s better to break up the very large topic of hiring into smaller bite size procedures that can be more easily digested by those performing the tasks.

Also be sure to include a version number with your SOP. These are meant to be living documents and will need updating periodically. It helps tremendously to know which version is the most recent and, if they’re shared with employees, which version the employee received.

Keep it simple and avoid the big words

Bear in mind that people’s attention span is short and the easier something is to read, the more likely they are to make it to the end of the document. This is not the place to practice that consequential capacious locution (aka big words).

If you need help determining whether you’re writing simply there are many tools out there for this. One I use often is the Flesch Reading Ease Score. This is a test that measure the readability of a text based on the average length of your sentences (measured by the number of words) and the average number of syllables per word.

You want to write so that it can be easily understood by 13–15-year-olds. Yes, I know you’re writing for adults but the level of difficulty of your writing will directly impact how well people absorb and understand the material and your goal is that they learn it.

Pretend they know nothing

I remember when I was in grade school my teacher led an activity designed to demonstrate the importance of being clear. She brought in all the fixings for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and laid them out on a table. She then asked for a volunteer to “walk her through” how to make a PB&J sandwich. I raised my hand immediately (I was the teacher’s pet) and said, “Start by spreading the peanut butter.”. She then proceeded to plunge her bare hands directly into the jar and pulled out a fistful of gooey peanut butter that she spread with her fingers all over the table. The class broke up laughing but we also learned a valuable lesson. She had followed the directions I gave her. Unfortunately, I had neglected to tell her to use a knife to scoop out the peanut butter and to put it on the bread.   

Standard operating procedures should follow the same principle. Don’t assume that your reader knows the finer details. You want to include enough information so that if they have never done the process before, and in many cases they haven’t, they could learn it effectively by simply reading your document.

Include pictures

There’s nothing truer than the phrase, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”! I recently bought a new coffee table from Ikea. If you’ve ever had to assemble a piece of furniture you know how frustrating the instructions can be. I was not looking forward to it until I saw the directions. There were literally a dozen pictures showing exactly which bolt went where and how everything fit together.

Sometimes things are just easier to explain in pictures than in writing. There’s nothing saying that an SOP has to be only words. Use graphics, pictures, arrows, words, whatever works well to explain the process clearly and simply.

Have someone else read it

Finally, when you have the document in a form you’re satisfied with, have someone else read it. It’s remarkable how clear instructions look to us if we’ve written them. Ask a friend or one of your employees to read it with a critical eye and make sure they understand it. If they have to ask questions about it to completely understand it then you probably have a little more work to do on the document.

Happy writing!

Other great pet business articles you might like:

Getting Back to Business – Post Pandemic Marketing

https://www.thepetbusinesscoach.dog/post-pandemic-marketing/

About Eliza?

Eliza is the owner of two successful pet related businesses; Preferred Pet Partners, a pet sitting and dog walking company, and The Pet Business Coach, offering coaching and resources to aspiring or current pet related business entrepreneurs. She maintains two awesome blogs. One for pet parents https://preferredpetpartners.com/blog/ and one for pet business owners https://thepetbusinesscoach.dog/blog-page/.  Eliza also supports various animal rescue and shelter organizations. Eliza and her husband have three furry family members. Visit her websites: www.preferredpetpartners.com or www.thepetbusinesscoach.dog.