For years, every time someone joined my agency, the training process was the same: they shadowed me. I answered the same questions, explained the same workflows, corrected the same mistakes. Every new hire meant weeks of my time before they were productive. And when I wasn’t available, things got done differently depending on who was in the room.

We eventually created detailed SOPs for every single service we offered. That changed everything. New designers didn’t shadow me for a month. They watched the training videos, followed the documented process, and were delivering billable work within a week.

The difference between an agency that scales and one that stalls is almost always systems. Here’s how to build SOPs your team will actually use.

Why Most Agency SOPs Fail

Before we get into the how, let’s address why most documentation efforts die within a month.

They’re too long. A 30-page operations manual looks impressive. Nobody reads it. Your team will skim the first page, get overwhelmed, and go back to asking you questions. Every SOP should be short enough to reference in under 5 minutes.

They’re written once and forgotten. Processes change. If the documentation doesn’t change with them, your team learns to ignore it because it’s out of date. A stale SOP is worse than no SOP, because it creates false confidence.

They describe the ideal, not the reality. The best SOPs document what actually happens, not what you wish happened. Write them based on how your best team member delivers the work today, not how you imagine the process should work in a perfect world.

Nobody owns them. If updating SOPs is “everyone’s job,” it’s nobody’s job. Assign ownership. Each SOP needs a name next to it.

The Two Types of Agency SOPs

Type 1: Video SOPs (The Training Library)

The fastest way to document a process is to record yourself doing it. Screen recording with a voiceover takes 5 minutes and captures details that written instructions miss.

Here’s the system we built at my agency and that I now teach to every agency I work with:

Set up a simple spreadsheet (Google Sheets works fine) with tabs organised by department:

Each row contains:

Recording rules:

The accountability feature is built in. Loom shows who watched the video, how much they watched, and when. If someone makes a mistake on a documented process, you check whether they watched the training. That changes the conversation from “you should have known” to “you didn’t watch the video.”

Type 2: Written SOPs (The Quick Reference)

Some processes are better as written documents. Anything your team needs to reference mid-task should be written, not video. You can’t pause a client call to watch a 5-minute video on your proposal process.

Written SOPs work best for:

Format rules:

What to Document First

You don’t need to document everything at once. Start with the processes that cause the most pain.

The “Asked Twice” Rule

Every time someone asks you a question about how to do something, that’s a signal. The first time, answer it and note it down. The second time, record it as an SOP. You should never answer the same process question three times.

This single rule built 80% of our training library over 6 months. We didn’t sit down and write a manual. We documented as we went.

Priority Order

Document first (highest impact):

  1. Client onboarding. What happens between a signed contract and work starting? Every touchpoint, every email, every deliverable. This process has the most impact on client experience and is the one most commonly done inconsistently.

  2. Project delivery workflow. How does a project move from briefing to completion? What are the approval stages? Who reviews what? This is where most scope creep originates, because nobody agrees on what “done” means.

  3. Invoicing and payment collection. When do invoices go out? What are the payment terms? What happens on day 1 past due? Day 7? Day 30? A sale is not a sale until the money is in your bank. Your team needs to know the process for getting it there.

  4. New hire onboarding. What does someone need to know in their first week? First month? Build this before you hire, not after. A new person starting with a training library and clear documentation is productive in days. One starting with “just shadow me for a while” takes weeks.

Document later (still important, lower urgency):

  1. Quality review process
  2. Client communication cadence
  3. Sales pipeline management
  4. Monthly reporting
  5. Tool and software setup

The Monday Morning Email: An SOP in Action

One of the most effective SOPs I teach is the Monday Morning Email system. It’s a process so simple that most agency owners dismiss it, and then are shocked by the results.

Every Monday before 9am, your account managers send each active client a short email:

That’s it. 5-10 lines. Takes 15 minutes to send to all active clients.

The result: 80% reduction in “just checking in” queries. Clients stop chasing you because they already know what’s happening. Your team spends Monday doing productive work instead of fielding status update requests.

This is what a good SOP looks like. Simple enough to explain in two paragraphs. Specific enough that any team member can execute it. Measurable enough that you can tell if it’s working.

Building the System: A 30-Day Plan

Week 1: Set Up the Structure

Week 2: Document Client-Facing Processes

Week 3: Document Internal Processes

Week 4: Fill Gaps and Assign Ownership

Common Mistakes

Writing SOPs Nobody Asked For

Don’t document your lunch ordering process. Focus on processes that affect revenue, client experience, or team productivity. If a process doesn’t fit one of those three categories, it probably doesn’t need a formal SOP.

Making Them Too Rigid

SOPs document the standard approach, not the only approach. Leave room for judgment. “Follow these steps for a standard project. For projects over £10,000 or with unusual requirements, discuss with [name] before proceeding.” That sentence prevents your SOPs from becoming a straitjacket.

Not Updating Them

Set a calendar reminder: quarterly SOP review. Go through the library. Is anything out of date? Has a process changed? Delete or update anything that no longer reflects reality. An outdated SOP trains people to do the wrong thing with confidence.

Trying to Document Everything at Once

The agencies that succeed with SOPs build the library gradually over months, using the “asked twice” rule. The ones that fail try to write everything in a single weekend, burn out, and never touch documentation again.

How SOPs Affect Your Agency’s Value

If you ever plan to sell your agency, or even just want the option, documented processes are one of the strongest signals a buyer looks for.

A business where every process lives in the founder’s head is a business that can’t survive without the founder. That makes it risky for a buyer and reduces the multiple they’ll pay.

A business with documented SOPs, a training library, and clear role definitions can be transferred. The new owner (or management team) can run it from day one. That’s worth significantly more.

When I was preparing my agency for exit, the documentation we’d built over the years was one of the things buyers commented on specifically. It proved the business was a system, not a personality.

Tools That Work

You don’t need expensive software. Keep it simple.

For video SOPs:

For written SOPs:

For the training library index:

The tool matters far less than the habit. Pick what your team already uses and build there. Migrating to a new platform is a distraction that kills momentum.

What to Do This Week

Pick the one process you explain most often. The one where someone asks “how do we do this?” and you answer from memory every time.

Record a 5-minute screen recording of yourself doing it. Upload it. Add it to a shared spreadsheet. Share the link with your team.

That’s your first SOP. Build the library from there, one process at a time.

Building Systems That Scale

If you’re serious about building an agency that runs without you, SOPs are one piece of a larger system. Read the Owner Extraction Method for the full framework on systematically removing yourself from operations.

Take the free Agency Valuation to see how your current documentation and systems score against the 7 factors buyers evaluate. It takes 3 minutes.

If you want structured support to build these systems faster, the Strategic Growth Programme covers operational documentation as part of the 12-month framework. Book a discovery call to discuss where you are and what you need.