This ONE Change Will Unlock Your Business Growth

Are you a small business leader who.

Feels like my team is constantly asking me questions? I can never get anything done. I'm the bottleneck on everything.

Well, before you self destruct like a DOGE thing. Right, Instead of all that, try this.

Create sop. I can't even spell sop. What the hell is this?

All you need to do is open up a spot inside the place that you already manage your work. So this could be a Google Doc, a spreadsheet, or I think, Chuck, you're a Notion user, right? So go ahead and open up the ProcessDriven HQ template for Notion.

Are you telling me that ProcessDriven now has ClickUp, SmartSuite and Notion support?

Yeah, yeah, but focus, Chuck. What is one thing that your team is asking you questions about that you wish you could just have them do on their own?

Well, lately the biggest issue has been when people are out of the office. We've had a lot of sickness lately and people are constantly calling off sick. And every time someone calls off sick, someone comes into my office and is all confused about what we should do.

Great. Let's use that head inside your area for writing down standard operating procedures. In other words, instructions and information for your business. I know you have one because you went through our program, Chuck, so go to that.

All right. I'm here in notion.

Great. Now create an SOP called How to Cover for an Unexpected Team Member's out of Office. It's a mouthful, but it's descriptive.

I'm going to go to new SOP page template how to Cover for Unexpected Team out of Office.

Perfect. Yep. What you have just created is your area to track information around this painful part of your business. And what we're going to do is figure out how to get what's in your brain, Chuck, into this document. So that way if people have questions, they go here instead of to you. This point, I would start writing down some of the steps. So what do you do when there's an unexpected team member out of office? What are the steps? 1, 2, 3. You already know this, Chuck, but for the rest of the you can use my video up at the top where I show you how to write an sop and just follow that tutorial to fill this section out.

I'll type it out.

Morning, Chuck. Just want to Let you know two things. First, some silver play button arrived from YouTube. I don't know, you should probably open this package at some point. Don't know what that's all about. The other thing is Heather just texted and she said she's not going to be in today. Could you. Let's pause here.

How the hell did you do that?

It's pure magic, Chuck. But what I need you to pay attention to is whatever Marge is about to say to us. I want you to respond with the question. Did you check the S.O.P. okay.

Uh, yeah.

Can you handle that? Cool. All right, let's play in today. Could you go through and let me know what we need to do to make sure we're all covered for her being out of office?

Holy shit. That's cool.

Excuse me. This video is brought to you by. Yep. Because I love the color forest green way more than I love working with sponsors. Yeah, this was. This was not. This was not planned. If you've been watching this channel for a while, you know about my nerdy passion for helping systemize small teams. What you might not know is that this YouTube channel is not the main way I do that. The content of this channel comes from my own team and the things that we're doing, but. But also from the clients we work with at ProcessDriven. ProcessDriven is the company I founded back in 2018. So, like, if the lack of combed hair and makeup is not enough of a tell, I'm not some paid brand ambassador spokesperson, because who the hell would. Who the hell would hire the forest green camouflage girl as their spokesperson? No, I'm the founder of this business here and over in ProcessDriven, what we do is we work with small companies to help them systemize their operations, primarily through our program called Foundations. If you want more than just tips and tricks and little tutorials here and there, and you actually want to systemize your business from A to Z with a full methodology, step by step, that's exactly what our foundations program does. Since 2018, we've worked with over 2,000 clients to make the transformation from chaotic to systemized. And we've had clients in every industry under the sun, ranging from nonprofit to government sectors to startups and holding companies. Whether you're a small business struggling to get organized or a larger business looking to reinvent your team's productivity with, we've got some ways that we can help you. So if you'd like to learn more than just what I cover in these short, silly YouTube videos and instead join our slightly longer, but also still silly main program where you can work through systemizing your business in an enjoyable way, check out the link in the description below. All right, with that, back to the video.

Oh, nothing. Sorry. Got distracted there for a minute. Marge, did you check the sop?

Uh, no, I didn't realize there was one.

There is now. Why don't you go check that and then if you have any questions, come ask me. Because, frankly, I'm a little distracted right now. I got a bunch of stuff going on, and so I feel like that'll be more correct than me just trying to remember off the top of my head.

Oh, okay. That was awesome, Chuck, because what you have just done in that one interaction is you've started to set the scene that the true expert in this area is actually not your brain. It's not Marge's brain, it's the process that you've built. And again, our goal is to get people to go here first, so that way there are fewer questions coming directly to you.

Okay, I'm starting to get it now. Can I get that remote while we're at it?

Sure. Oh, hey, Chuck, me again. One quick thing.

This is freaking cool, but it looks like you're playing Fun Failed. Clearly, the SOP didn't help at all.

I respectfully disagree. All this is showing us is that, yes, the SOP can work, but it's not perfect yet. It's not at a point where people can use it fully independent of Chuck. So let's fix the sop. Let's make it more valuable. When Marge asks you this question, respond to it, but then respond to it with the acknowledgment that, hey, if you answer, the answer needs to end up in the sop. So kind of an exchange happening. Ready to try it?

I get you. So if I answer in a way that makes the SOP stronger, I won't have to answer that question again.

Exactly. We're using this one time cost of this conversation, which is interrupting you to then save you from having to have this same conversation in a week or a month when this happens again. We're saving your work, making an investment in the future. And if we keep doing this, we're making you less and less of a bottleneck.

I got it.

I was looking through your sop, and there's one detail I'm just not clear on. Am I supposed to submit time off as unpaid time off or paid time off? Because no one's told me whether Heather wants paid or unpaid, and she's got both.

I'll answer your question, but would you mind updating the SOP with the answer?

Sure.

Well, that was easy. Basically, use paid time off if it's there, otherwise, go unpaid.

Ah, perfect. I knew it. That's exactly what I thought. Hey, let me actually get this back for a second. Are you open to some bonus tips here?

If it gets me the remote back, sure.

If you listen to what Marge just said, she actually interrupted you. Not because she didn't know, but because she wasn't confident enough that she wasn't making the wrong decision. So if we want to make sure Marge is making more decisions autonomously because clearly she knows enough to make good decisions, you can actually set a team wide rule here. Your rule could be something like, hey, if a decision is easily reversible and you're not quite sure, just make the decision and tell me after. That would basically have given Marge permission to not interrupt you and just make a call and let you know after. If she made the wrong call, you could just fix it, because paid time off in this case with a quick turnaround is very reversible. Another way of approaching this would actually be setting a dollar threshold. So, for example, if a decision is worth less than $100 and you're unsure, just make the decision, and if it's wrong, we'll eat the 100 bucks. It's worth that. To avoid the interruption, you can pick whatever dollar amount suits the trust level you have with your current team. Could be anywhere from $5 to $5 million. Uh, you can set that threshold there. But that's also a great way to just say across the board if you were ever unsure. Marge, here is the threshold from which I just want you to make a decision, and I won't be mad if it's made incorrectly.

Ah. That way they can make decisions where they want to talk to me about it, but they don't have to talk to me right that moment. That's really. Oh. Oh, look at this. While we were sitting here, Marge already updated, dated this SOP to have this information in it.

Of course she did. Because unlike you, Marge is in a situation where she has some excess capacity. She's got some extra time in her day, so if something comes up urgently, she can adapt and adjust. That is where we want to get you to as well. If you weren't so bottlenecked with these tiny little decisions that shouldn't take up your time.

That is freaking cool.

In fact, it's a concept I first read about in the Goal, which is the. Really the book that sets. Set me on this path with processdriven all those years ago. And yes, I just naturally keep it inside my jacket at all times.

Wait, who are you talking to? I'm over here.

Oh, me. I'm just talking to some people who should join our next cohort of processdriven foundations.

You are such a nerd.

Till next time, enjoy the process.

Let's watch this next video. Let's get the stupid left hand who has an ergonomic left handed mouse. Jesus Christ. Click on the. Get the stupid clicker to work. Okay, there we go. Almost there. Click on it. Click on it. Oh, why am I still holding the coffee cup? All right, there.