A founder documents his business tasks step-by-step after a personal crisis ten years ago, turning them into SOPs that let his company run without him. He shares a weekly method: pick one task, write every step in a Google Doc, add screenshots of the result, repeat for a year.
But if you've ever kept the business going through something that should have broken you and nobody outside your four walls knows how hard that actually was, then this one's for you. 10 years ago, I had a newborn at home and my mum was dying. I had no right to keep the businesses running, but it did. Not because I worked harder, but because for the first time in years, I was genuinely terrified of what would happen if I got hit by a bus. So I wrote everything down. Every job, every step, every decision— that fear built the best system that I've ever created. So pick one job in your business this week, open up a Google Doc, write down every single step, screenshot what good looks like at the end of each stage, and that is your first SOP. Do one of these a week for a year and your business is going to run without you. It's pretty much guaranteed.
