Ep. 071 SOPs: The Secret to Scaling & Streamlining Your VA Business
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Have you mapped out the repeated processes in your virtual assistant business?
If you’re anything like me when I first started my business, you’re probably holding a lot of information in your head. When it comes to the repeated things you do daily, weekly, and monthly in your business, you might find yourself suddenly thinking “Oh yeah! I forgot to do that?” or “How did I do that last time, again?”
Having standard operating procedures or SOPs is an important first step of building a business that’s ready to grow and scale.
On today’s episode of The Support Squad, I’m talking all about SOPs: The Secret to Scaling & Streamlining Your VA Business.
Tune in to hear:
- What SOPs are and how to use them
- How SOPs can help you cut out unnecessary work and streamline your business
- 2 ways SOPs can help you begin to scale your business and earn more as a virtual assistant
What are SOPs?
SOPs are standard operating procedures. They are outlines or checklists for the repeated tasks in your business.
I use them for so many things: from customer service procedures to social media management to the production of my podcast and membership community. They help me to ensure that my brand stays consistent and I can easily move through tasks without getting hung up on trying to remember how I did things the LAST time I did it.
How do SOPs help you to streamline your business?
Creating an outline for repeated tasks helps you to see where you are overcomplicating things or starting from scratch each time. For example, before I created SOPs for my podcast, I didn’t have a solid structure for my blog posts and I constantly was switching up the graphics.
Creating SOPs for these things has made production of my podcast go so much faster, because I have everything I need right in front of me each time. I’ve also removed elements that were unnecessary and it was easier to spot those once I outlined everything.
How do SOPs help you to scale your business?
- You move faster through tasks, so you can earn more: When we can cut down on the time it takes us to complete repeated tasks, it gives us more time to serve clients. This means more money without putting in more hours! This is why I highly recommend choosing one signature service and creating a rock-solid SOP for it. The more efficient you are, the more money you will make!
- You can easily bring on team members: Having well-documented processes in your business makes it so much easier to bring on a team member. We all eventually get bored with some of the repeated tasks in our businesses and with SOPs, it becomes much simpler to outsource the more draining pieces, freeing you up to create a new offer or take on another client!
How Do I Create SOPs?
There are many free tools available and different strategies you can use to create your SOPs. I personally use a combination of Loom, Trello, and Google Docs to create my SOPs and this month in The Support Squad Membership, I’m taking members behind the scenes and showing the actual SOPs I use in my business and share how to create truly effective SOPs.
Having SOPs changes the way you see your business. Rather than seeing your work as random, disconnected tasks, with systems in place you can see your repeated tasks as a framework for building a grounded and ready-to-grow business. Having a clear grasp of what it takes to run the operations of your business will allow you to dream about how you can begin to go after bigger goals, knowing that your back-end is covered.
If you’re ready to learn how to build this framework, I would love to see you this month in The Support Squad Membership. I’m sharing my processes and will be holding coaching calls about How to Manage a Virtual Team and how to let go of your need for control as you begin to expand your business. You can join us with a FREE 14-day trial at thesupportsquad.com
I’ll see you here on The Support Squad next week to share The 4 Biggest Time Wasters New Virtual Assistants Face.
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