Which SOPs Should You Document First? The Ones That Make You Money (71% More Revenue)

A three-question decision framework for prioritizing which SOPs to document first (2:22). The questions are: (1) Does this process directly generate revenue? (2) Does it happen repeatedly? (3) Are you personally the bottleneck? If a process scores yes on all three, it should be documented before anything else.

The most common mistake business owners make is documenting easy, low-impact processes like ordering office supplies or formatting email signatures (1:35). This creates a false sense of progress while leaving the actual revenue-generating bottlenecks untouched.

Client onboarding is identified as the near-universal first SOP to document across industries (3:20). A financial services client grew from 62 to 215 clients in 6 months after documenting and delegating their onboarding process, demonstrating how removing yourself as the bottleneck directly unlocks growth capacity.

Documented sales follow-up processes close 28% more deals simply through consistency (4:25). The SOP takes the form of a decision tree covering post-call emails, follow-up timing, and non-response protocols, removing dependence on the business owner's mood or memory.