2 Must-Have Tools for Managing Your Agency

SOPs and KPIs may not even be on your radar at all. If they are, they might even make you want to snooze harder than an alarm at 5am. 

 

But then you heard someone talk about them on an Instagram story once, and then it seemed as though the term was popping up all over the place – including this very blog post!

 

You may still be wondering….

Why should you even bother with SOPs (standard operating procedures) and KPIs (key performance indicators)? 

Will you actually use those tools in your business? 

You’re intrigued, yet not totally convinced. 

 

But let me ask you…do any of these sound familiar?

• Lots of internal revisions for the team that you send back and forth (center this, keep fonts consistent, etc.)
• You notice that every time you hire someone, they always come at you with a million questions about how the onboarding will go and what their next steps are.
• You never know when and if you need to hire or if you’re using the people you already have to their fullest potential. 

 

This brings up a question that you may or may not have asked yourself at this point: 

 

“Am I really doing things with excellence, or just spending my time keeping things above water? 

 

If any of this resonates, chances are, you need SOPs and KPIs in your life STAT.

 

 

And it’s for good reason. I’m going to show you how they can keep your team on track toward your goals, help you make analytical decisions, and ensure that everyone is clear and focused on what’s most important.

 

If this is all new to you, trust me – I like to say they’re the one thing you never knew you needed in your business until you started using them. Kind of like the first time you ate the perfect slice of pizza – I mean, what even was life before that?

 

Let’s go through three specific examples of how to use SOPs and KPIs using the above examples:

 

Three Ways to Use SOPs in Your Online Business

 

1. Task Management & Consistency

 

Once your team is solidified, the SOPs ensure all processes and work stays consistent. Regardless of who’s on the team or changes in the agency, the work for your clients remains at a high standard. 

Clear instructions = minimal questions, mistakes, and revisions.

SOPs make it so that you’re walking down a very clear path, rather than making it up as you go. With SOPs, you’re starting with a solid foundation of how things are meant to flow which eliminates stress and confusion for both your clients AND your team.

 

 

2. Onboarding.

 

If you’ve been through a couple of junior designers and VAs and you notice that they all ask you the same questions every time they start, you need SOPs for onboarding. 

This looks like laying out all of their contracts, all important info and links they need to get started, dates/times for team meetings, maybe some tutorials for any platforms they’ll be introduced to – literally anything that they’ll use on a daily basis should have instructions that bring them up to speed. 

This way you’re using less of your own time to answer questions and put them through training if you already have everything they need packaged up and ready to go for them!

 

 

3. Who and When to Hire.

 

Sometimes you’re so head-down in your work that you don’t know when or if you need to hire again. However, it’s inevitable that you will hit a point as an agency owner where you’ll sit there and wonder if everyone is being utilized to the fullest. And these are hard questions to answer if you don’t have a way to measure performance.  

The KPIs help you make sure you’re hitting your goals, as well as track your team’s performance and each individual’s performance. This will be your tool to evaluate if you need to hire someone new.

Having a standard set with the KPIs also makes it easier for you to hire someone who is a super fit for your agency, both in standard and personality. You want someone who does the work you need well, flows in seamlessly with the rest of the team, agrees with your mission and core values – a KPI can be made out to ensure that each person on your team is checking off those boxes, amongst others. 

 

Other reasons why you need them + how it’s going to change your business:

 

In case you weren’t convinced yet, here’s what happens when you take the time to work through the process of building out SOPs and KPIs:

 

• SOPs help you get all of the extra baggage out of your head, onto paper or into your project management system. This frees up brain space for other tasks and work that will demand your best of you. 

 

You’re one person, and unless you have the memory of an elephant, there’s no reason to hold it all in your head. And GASP! What if you want to go on, I don’t know, a vacation?!

 

• You’ll feel so much more put together, organized, and happy that your team isn’t losing links and important need-to-knows in Slack.
• The people and clients in your business – including yourself – will take you way more seriously as a highly-professional, BA agency owner. Enough said.
• The massive relief you feel because you trust your team members more knowing they have a clear direction.
• You actually like the people you work with, since the KPI is your filter for people who are good at what they do AND have quality characteristics as a worker/person. 

 

My clients who get SOPs from me always look back and wonder how they ever functioned in their business without them. They’re your best chance of avoiding a lot of mistakes, miscommunications, and inconsistencies within the business or agency.

 

Not sure why you’d want to wait on that! 

 

No clue where to start with the backend business of your business? Ya girl’s got you. Send me a message on instagram and let’s chat about how my team could be just what you need to get and stay organized like a true entrepreneur!