The Folder That Saved Me Hundreds Of Hours

You might laugh now, but one of the biggest reasons I quit my job and started freelancing full-time was because I wanted the “it-girl” life.

Back when I ran my youtube channel, I was a big fan of organised gurlies Lavendaire and Kalyn Nicholoson. Gosh, their cozy spaces, running a feminine business - it was a dream I had.

While putting in my papers, I questioned myself one last time: Can you do it?

One of my inner voices (yes, I have many) said:

“Gurl, you’re the most planned, sincere, accountable person I know. If you won’t - who will?”

Somehow I had imagined it all to be happy canva templates, everything systemised, organised… but as you all know, that doesn’t last.

I started getting clients - my workload started increasing massively. I would redo the same proposal three times, then work the next 3 hours on getting the agreement right. And then the client ghosts me.

So I would redo the entire process.

Some 3 months into freelancing, the universe sent Anushka into my life. She was hiring a Virtual Assistant, and after much deliberation, I applied. That was probably the best thing I did.

She’s the one who added fuel to the fire - introduced me to SOPs, Clickup, Asana, what they were, how a business gets managed, etc. I started thinking of systems all day long - and eventually realised that this indeed was my zone of genius.

We didn’t work together for long (although we continue to be best gurls today 🧿), that knowledge stayed with me and got me to build my business systems.

Do you even need systems? I’ll leave out that section because I think you’re smart enough to figure that out. (If you ask me, everyone does)

It’s way too easy for me to just conclude the newsletter here and give off the entire SOP template or something, but you know what will happen? You’ll see the file, try to adopt, and then quit.

Why? Because every business is built differently. The things I prefer might not be the things you want. And we don’t do shortcuts here. So let’s build this right!

Step 1: I started with pen and paper initially - but then switched to a mindmap board. I basically did a map of all the processes my clients and I went through - from lead generation, to onboarding, to offboarding - everything that I could think of.

What I love about this is that it lays out your business processes as a structure - makes you feel uncluttered.

Step 2: I started by isolating process buckets. For example, everything from how to prospect to how to send a proposal comes under lead generation. There are going to be some obvious ones:

Feel free to add/remove processes that don’t match your business.

Step 3: Before you begin drafting your SOPs, you need a place - a directory of sorts where you can list out all SOPs beautifully so that you can use one when you need!!

Two obvious tools come to mind - Google Sheets or Notion. Pick your poison.

I used Google Sheets. This is what my directory looks like:

As you can see here, I have added Master Processes and different sheets for different processes. You may totally skip it.

I’ve used Google Docs for SOPs here that live within a dedicated SOP folder. If you’re using Notion, you can sublink the pages.

Step 4: Now that we are all set, let’s make some SOPs!!!

All of my SOPs start with a question: How to do XYZ. The format I follow:

For the ease of understanding, let’s try an example- “How to Onboarding Call for Personal Branding”.

This is the first call I get on with a client after I onboard them. I’ve listed the purpose as: Get the login details, understand their technical expertise, and set expectations without confusing the client.

The SOP Procedure goes like this:

Step 1: Send the welcome email - (followed by the email template I use). I have also added a section- When to do this.

Step 2: Things to do on onboarding call, the flow of the call, questions I ask them, etc.

Step 3: After the call, I send them another email outlining what we discussed, the next steps, and what I need.

Not all SOPs are just step-by-step. Some are templates, like the invoice, agreement, content calendar, and an entire bare client folder that I can just replicate when I onboard a new client.

You make them once and use them over and over again.

SOPs come especially handy when you’ve gotta onboard a team member - it’s just so much easier to hand them SOPs than explain everything over and over again. Here are some SOPs I use for that:

That’s it - that’s how you make SOPs. Of course, the more you use them, the more you upkeep them, and update processes that change.

This should be enough for you to set up your own systems, but here are a couple more resources if you need more help:

Wishing you a systemized and peaceful business!!

Until next time,

- Shrishti