Standard Operating Procedures for Your Amazon Business

Standard Operating Procedures

Do you find yourself giving the same instructions repeatedly? Spend hours reviewing employee outputs? Are you hanging onto complex tasks and afraid to delegate them out?

Then SOPs will really help your business. 

A standard operating procedure (SOP) is a set of detailed work instructions to help employees in performing tasks. It describes each step of a process highlighting the tactics, tips, or techniques used.

Employees can refer to an SOP when doing their jobs which reduces mistakes and increases efficiency. It leads to consistent outcomes while also ensuring compliance and quality assurance in your operational practices. 

How to Create SOPs

 Start with activities you do regularly or the ones which are more error-prone

1. When performing the activity make a list of every step you take. 
2. Break down each activity according to the process, tools, people, and strategies needed to complete it from start to finish.

• Process - the step-by-step sequence of actions including inputs, outputs and timings/frequency
• Tools - the required devices, apps, or software
• People - the person/s in charge of each step of the process
• Strategies - the tactics, tips, or techniques you use

3. Take pictures, screenshots or videos in order to provide more clarity for the user. Popular apps for screen-recording include Screencastify, Loom and Screen cast o’matic

Bonus Tip: If you have already delegated some processes in your business to a team member, then create a template, provide some guidance and get them to write the SOPs while performing their tasks. This exercise will show you that they really understand the process, identify improvements they have made beyond your intial training and save you a bit of time!!

Finally - SOPs are not set in stone.  Firstly, the operating environment is fluid. Secondly, you will always find ways to streamline, automate and improve your processes. Capture your learnings and experience as you go!