Simple Systems SOP: Write Processes Your Team Will Actually Follow
This is a Small Business SOP: a free, do-this-today standard operating procedure pulled from a real operator on the Unscripted Small Business podcast. This one comes from Mitchell Wilson of Coachbirds, a business coach who works with tradies, professionals and local service business owners across Australia and New Zealand on three things: sales, systems and strategy.
You started the business to get some freedom. Now you’re the one answering every call, chasing every invoice and fixing every mistake. Mitchell’s fix isn’t a thick operations manual. It’s a short list of really simple written processes your team will actually follow, built in the right order. This SOP walks you through the first one. Run it this week.
The Play: One Line
Find the work only you are doing, know your numbers, then write the leakiest process on one page so simple your team actually follows it, and hand it over.
Why a busy owner can’t grow without simple systems
Most of the owners Mitchell coaches are doing far too much. In his words: “They’ve ended up building a busy job with overheads.” The team is running around, the owner is working harder, and maybe the money is better, but there’s no time. Hiring more people on top of that only makes it louder. His line from the episode: “As they start growing, we need to make sure that we’ve got the systems in place. Because honestly, you can’t scale chaos.”
His test: can you put the phone down while the business keeps working without you? He puts the alternative bluntly: “Otherwise you still have got that job.” Systems is the middle leg of his sales, systems and strategy framework, and it’s the one that buys back your time. If you need to map what the business does before you write anything down, start with the Clarity One-Pager SOP.
Systems come third: mindset, then habits, then systems
Mitchell says you need both the right thinking and the written process, in that order. Owners usually assume their mindset is fine and skip straight to software. The three stages:
Mindset
What it means: Seeing that you shouldn’t be the one doing everything, and knowing your numbers before you decide anything.
Your move: Steps 1 to 3.
Habits
What it means: Doing the boring stuff consistently while it’s still just you. Miss a day, get back on it the next.
Your move: Step 8, every month.
Systems
What it means: Once you have a team, a process written down that is short enough that people actually use it.
Your move: Steps 4 to 7.
The 8 steps to simple systems your team will follow
1
Mindset
Ask the mindset question before you write anything
Block 30 minutes. List everything you did yesterday, then put one question next to each item. Mitchell’s version: “Should I actually be the one doing this? Should there be better systems, better processes in place so this doesn’t happen in the first place?” Circle every item where the honest answer is no. That circled list is your raw material.
2
Know your numbers
Know your numbers: your client stack
Rank your clients by share of revenue. Flag any single client, or any single sector, big enough that losing it would put the business in trouble. In Mitchell’s words: “So step one is actually knowing your numbers, knowing actually who your clients are and what the risk is each client has.” There’s no magic percentage. He says it depends on the business and how much risk you want to take. You just can’t decide that without the list.
3
Know your numbers
Know your numbers: your real hourly rate
Mitchell asks tradies what they earn and hears an hourly rate. Then he asks about the hours behind the scenes: invoicing, looking for new work, ordering supplies. For one week, write those hours down next to your paid hours. Divide what you earned by all of it. That number is what running without systems is costing you, and it tells you which admin job to write down first.
4
Systems
Fix the leakiest process first, usually sales
Most owners ask for more leads. Mitchell’s warning: “A lot of people think they just need more leads where their sales funnel just could be looking like a sieve.” Pick the one process where work falls through the cracks. For most small businesses it’s getting from enquiry to quote to yes. His goal for it: “So we want to get the sales process right and make sure it is a process that the same result happens time and time again.”
5
Systems
Write it on one page, really simple
No binder. Write the process the way you’d explain it to a new hire on day one: what kicks it off, the 5 to 7 steps, who owns it, and what “done” looks like. Mitchell is blunt about the big-company version that sits on a shelf collecting dust: “These systems need to be, I’d preach like really, really simple. So people actually follow them.” If it doesn’t fit on one page, it’s two processes.
6
Systems
Hand it over, with access and authority
Give the one-pager to the person who will run it, plus the logins and the permission to make the call without you. The hand-off is where most owners stall, because they believe no one can do it as well as they can. Mitchell’s answer: “We need to kick out of that mindset to know that, look, other people can do it, not just you.” The same goes for AI tools. The bigger problem he sees is that “the rest of the team hasn’t actually been given that access and that authority to actually use it.”
7
Systems, with a human
Systemise speed to lead, and keep a human in it
Replying fast to a new enquiry is the process most service businesses drop. When Jeremy raised it, Mitchell said: “I don’t actually think that’s an AI job. I think that’s sort of more of a systems job.” Automate the alert and the first acknowledgement, then name the person who calls back. “I always think there should be at this stage anyway, some form of human interaction there somewhere.” For the stakes, see Jake Melendy’s speed-to-lead mystery shop: over half of the service businesses he contacted never responded at all. The Speed-to-Lead SOP has the full play.
8
Habits
Repeat what works, and check the numbers every month
Once a process is written down, run it the same way until the numbers say otherwise. Mitchell sees owners run a campaign that works and move straight on to the next thing. His rule: “If something is working in business, do it more.” Put a monthly 20-minute review in the calendar: revenue by client, enquiries answered, quotes won. If results start to dwindle, that’s your signal to change the process, not before. Treat it like brushing your teeth: “we can fall off the bandwagon a day, but we definitely want to get back there the next day.”
Take the whole SOP with you
One printable page: the play, the 8 steps, a time-and-numbers worksheet and a checklist. No email required.
