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Creating systems in your business is supposed to make life easier, but if you’ve ever tried writing an SOP and felt like you were shouting into the void, you’re not alone. Many entrepreneurs pour hours into documenting their processes only to watch those SOPs collect dust, never to be used or referenced again. It’s frustrating, and it can feel like a waste of valuable time and energy.
The truth is, standard operating procedures (SOPs) can be one of the most powerful tools in your business when they’re done right.
The problem isn’t that your team doesn’t care or that SOPs are inherently flawed. It’s that most SOPs are written in ways that are confusing, overwhelming, or just not designed to be used in real time. What you need is a shift in approach.
In her latest YouTube video, Yvonne Heimann breaks down the exact SOP template that her clients rely on to save time, reduce mistakes, and actually get things done.
This is more than a checklist. It’s a strategy for creating SOPs that are clear, actionable, and built to be used by real teams in real businesses every single day.
The SOP Dilemma: Why Most SOPs Don’t Work
Even with the best intentions, many business owners end up with SOPs that sit untouched. What starts as a well-meaning attempt to bring order and clarity quickly becomes another forgotten document in your drive. The most common complaint? “It’s easier to just do it myself.”
As Yvonne Heimann explains in her recent YouTube video, this disconnect often comes down to how SOPs are built. They’re too complicated, too vague, or too overwhelming for the average team member to follow consistently. The issue isn’t the need for SOPs, but rather the way they’re structured and presented.
The Secret to Effective SOPs: Structure and Simplicity
After years of working with clients from solopreneurs to national organizations, Yvonne has refined an SOP structure that not only prevents mistakes, but actually makes teams want to use it.
The formula is simple. Provide information that is easy to digest, structure the work so it’s visually clear, and use templates that empower instead of overwhelm. This approach has saved her clients hours each week and thousands in costly rework and errors.
Key Elements of an SOP That Actually Gets Used
1. Make the Purpose Crystal Clear
A great SOP starts with the why. Why does this procedure exist, and what is the ultimate goal? As Yvonne explains, your team must know the destination. What is the desired outcome of following this process? Spell it out at the top. Don’t assume any prior knowledge. When readers understand what they’re working toward, they’re far more engaged and less likely to make mistakes.
2. List the People, Tools, and Updated Info Up Front
People need to know who’s responsible for what, which tools are required, and if they’re looking at the most current version. Be specific:
Who is carrying out each step
Which manager to turn to for help if something goes wrong
What apps or tools will be used in the process
When this SOP was last updated
A quick reference at the start can save everyone from confusion and wasted time hunting for answers.
3. Give Step-by-Step Details Without Hiding Information
There’s a trend toward packing SOPs into a single page or collapsible toggle menus. However, as Yvonne notes, this creates a dangerous illusion. When tasks are hidden, people, especially those with ADHD, can vastly underestimate the time and complexity involved. Instead, outline each step visually and clearly so the perceived workload is realistic. Visibility ensures your team allocates adequate time and attention to complete tasks correctly.
4. Highlight Common Errors and Quality Checks
Don’t just tell your team how to perform the task. Tell them what could go wrong and how to catch mistakes before they happen. Think of this as an internal FAQ:
What are the most common errors
How should someone check their work
What are the signs something went off track
Providing these pointers empowers your team to self-correct and maintain higher quality standards without relying on you for every minor issue.
5. Empower Your Team to Keep SOPs Updated
Processes and tools change constantly. Give your team both the permission and knowledge to update SOPs as changes happen. This is especially important if automations are tied to the process. Make sure they understand that changes could impact those systems, and teach them how to update without breaking anything. This reduces bottlenecks and gives your team more ownership over their work.
Real-World Results: Less Stress, More Freedom
When you shift to this SOP structure with clear goals, accessible steps, error prevention, and team empowerment, everything changes. Your SOPs actually get used. Your team makes fewer mistakes. You spend less time repeating instructions, and more time focused on growth.
Yvonne has used this template with both small agencies and large organizations, and the results speak for themselves. SOPs go from being ignored to becoming tools your team relies on daily. Chaos is replaced with clarity and confidence.
Ready to Transform Your Business?
All of this is available to you in one simple, fill-in-the-blank ClickUp SOP template. Tested in real businesses and free to download, this SOP framework can save you hours of frustration and help your team perform at their best.
This small change could be the key to building a business that runs smoothly, even when you’re not around.
Your business should give you more freedom, not less. Build SOPs your team will actually use, and take the first step toward scaling with confidence.
🎁 ClickUp SOP Template: https://askyvi.tips/SOPtemplate
ready to take action and stop trying to figure it all out on your own?
You don’t have to do it all – or all by yourself.
I have helped many Digital Entrepreneurs scale their operations, teams, and offers!
Let’s get you to that next level.
Video Transcription:
Yvonne Heimann [00:00:00]:
Have you ever created an SOP that nobody on your team actually uses? Or you spend hours documenting a process only to end up doing it yourself anyway because it’s faster? You’re not alone, and today I’m sharing the exact SOP template that will save you time, prevent costly mistakes, and actually.
Yvonne Heimann [00:00:23]:
Gets used by your team.
Yvonne Heimann [00:00:26]:
Business owners waste hours creating standard operating.
Yvonne Heimann [00:00:29]:
Procedures that just collect black digital dust.
Yvonne Heimann [00:00:33]:
Because they are too complicated, too vague, and simply too overwhelming. But here’s the thing. The problem isn’t that you need standard operating procedures. The problem is how you structure them. In case we haven’t met, I’m Yvonne Heimann, aka Yvi of askyvi.com I am a business efficiency consultant who has been working with ClickUp since 2018. I have helped countless business owners transform their chaotic processes into streamlined systems.
Yvonne Heimann [00:01:04]:
And after years of trial and error.
Yvonne Heimann [00:01:06]:
And yes, creating SOPs that nobody read, I’ve discovered the exact structure that works every single time. And today I’m sharing the standard operating procedure template that not only prevents those costly mistakes, but actually makes your team want to follow them. This is the exact framework we use with our clients that has helped them save hours every week and allowed them to finally step away from their business without everything falling apart and going up into flames. So let me show you how this works.
Yvonne Heimann [00:01:43]:
What makes for a good sop? When you talk about not giving too much information, that’s one piece, structuring is the other piece. Meaning we want information to easily be digestible but also have the perceived work kind of like visible in the document. I’ll explain what I mean by that. As you know and yes, whoever stays sticks around till the end. And my replayers, you are getting this template for you to literally just copy and paste into your ClickUp. We always need to assume that the person that is reading the standard operating procedure and working their way through has no clue. I always say like just think about it as if you are talking to a three year old. So I don’t assume that they know how to see the history of a document automatically.
Yvonne Heimann [00:02:43]:
Yes, the team gets ClickUp training, but I just can’t assume it’s so simple to just put that comment in there. Hey by the way, if you are looking for an older version, this is where you find it. We also mention additional resources so if you watch one of my videos on YouTube how we handle and sort and collect standard operating procedures in a list view too. This is where this link is going so it’s easily accessible. We need to know who is actually doing this Thing if something doesn’t go as planned, who do I need to talk to? And that’s where we have a manager. What tools are being used that allows your team members to make sure they have access to in this case to run this Go high level. Actually that’s the process we’re going to use as an example. We’re going to need go high level, we’re going to need canva, we are going to need ClickUp, those kind of things and then note down when you have updated it last so that we have that bulk information right in the beginning.
Yvonne Heimann [00:03:51]:
Cool. Awesome. If something goes south, I know where to go and who to talk to. Now, a efficient, well documented standard operating procedure has multiple parts to it. One is the goal. If your team doesn’t know what the end goal is, what is that destination? Why do I care? Why do I even. This is how you bring people in. This is how you determine they know exactly what the destination is.
Yvonne Heimann [00:04:21]:
What is the expected outcome? So where are we going and what’s the expected outcome? The expected outcome is I’m getting to the destination with my car still having gas in the tank. Make sense? What do I need specifically to get this process done? This is where assets comes into place. You also want to really make sure that they know any automations that is connected to this process. And there is a reason why automations is before the actual process. Because if somebody updates the process like you want to tell your team that if something changes in the process they can update the standard operating procedure. They should keep their work and their standard operating procedures updated accordingly. They shouldn’t be calling you and be like hey, something changed here. Can we, can we update this? No, give them the power to update it but also give them the information that hey, this process is connected to automations.
Yvonne Heimann [00:05:25]:
Make sure you are not breaking the automations when you update the process. And then we are coming into the process itself. Some experts talk about you want to have a one page standard operating procedure. We have tested it. We have tested it with multiple different people that are using these and this one has been the most used and the less troublesome. So what I mean by that is we have in the past used toggle down. We have interviewed our clients from major agencies, Solopreneurs to National Sports Association. How are you perceiving this? What works for you? What doesn’t work for you? And I really dug deep with them.
Yvonne Heimann [00:06:15]:
Why they like certain formats and don’t like other formats. And one of the biggest lessons I had is with the toggle menu Especially people with ADHD will perceive the work to be like oh yeah, I can get this done in five minutes. That’s a problem because chances are this process doesn’t just take five minutes. But because they only see a low list this short because you got the toggle menus, they perceive this to be not a big job. Oh yeah, I can just squish that in somewhere. Which is why we really reframed from using the toggle menu. You this visual. These are the different steps and this is how you do this.
Yvonne Heimann [00:06:59]:
Make sure in a well documented standard operating procedures you also warn your team with common errors. Think of it as your FAQs on your website. What are the common mistakes that happen in this process? Or what do you do when an error comes up?
Yvonne Heimann [00:07:16]:
How and give them a way to.
Yvonne Heimann [00:07:18]:
Really quality control their work. Being able to to handle things without freaking ourselves out. It’s our baby. It’s our business. Right? We want our business to be taken care of. We want to make sure our clients get the service they expect and they deserve. So let’s make it happen. What you are going to see the three dots are right up here where it says duplicate.
Yvonne Heimann [00:07:47]:
And you can just copy and copy that straight into your workflow.
Yvonne Heimann [00:07:53]:
So here you have it. The exact SOP template that prevents costly mistakes by making information first of all digestible and showing really the work being involved. It also ensures everyone can follow without any confusion. This template has saved our clients countless of hours and thousands of dollars in mistakes and rework. Here’s the best part. I’m giving you that exact template for free. Check the link in the description for your copy and plug it right into your ClickUp. And if you’re ready to take your systems to the next level, my video on how to create a business that runs without you is the perfect next step.
Yvonne Heimann [00:08:38]:
I’ll show you how these sops fit into the bigger picture of your business strategy. Let me know in the comments. What’s your biggest struggle with creating standard operating procedures and then actually get used? I read every comment and might create my next video based on your question. And remember, your business is supposed to give you more freedom, not less. See you in the next video.
