The Closing Guide Series

Business Process Documentation for Beginners

Your first process map. Where to start, what to include, and how to make it useful.

The Reframe

Every process in your business already exists. You just haven't written it down yet.

“The question isn't 'do we have processes?' You do. The question is 'can anyone other than the person who usually does it run this process without asking them?' If the answer is no, documentation is the fix.”

Process documentation sounds like corporate overhead. Something big companies do with Visio diagrams and six-sigma consultants. That scares business owners away from it. So the processes stay in people's heads and the business stays dependent on specific people.

Documentation for your business is simpler than you think. A Google Doc with numbered steps, an owner for each step, and a description of what 'done' looks like. That's it. No flowcharts required. No special software.

The first process you document will take about 45 minutes. Every process after that takes less because you'll reuse the same format. Within a month, you'll have the 10-15 core processes that run your business written down and shareable.

The Framework

Your first process document

Pick one process

Choose the task you answer the most questions about. The one where someone asks 'how do we do this?' at least once a week. That's your starting point because it gives you an immediate return: you stop answering that question.

Write the trigger

Every process starts with something. A customer emails. A form gets submitted. Monday morning arrives. Write down what kicks off the process. This is the first line of your document.

List the steps

Numbered. One action per step. Written so that someone who's never done this task before could follow along. 'Step 1: Open the shared pipeline sheet. Step 2: Find the lead in column A. Step 3: Update status in column D.' Be specific.

Add owners and outputs

Next to each step, write who does it. At the end of the document, write what the finished result looks like. 'Output: Lead moved to Proposal Sent stage, follow-up email scheduled for Day 3.' The output is how the team knows the process is complete.

Take Action

Start here

  1. 1
    Pick one process right now and write it down. Don't overthink which one. Pick the task you explained to someone most recently. Open a Google Doc. Write the trigger, the steps, the owners, and the output. 45 minutes.
  2. 2
    Share it with one team member and ask them to follow it. If they can complete the process without asking you a question, the documentation works. If they get stuck, update the document at the step where they got stuck. The feedback loop is the document getting better.
  3. 3
    Repeat once a week for the next month. One process per week. In four weeks you'll have four core processes documented. That's more documentation than most businesses have ever created.

Ready to map your processes?

Work with me

3 months per department. Two of your people train alongside me weekly while we map processes, build SOPs, and install AI side by side. $22,500 per department. Retainer continues at $20,000 per 3 months.

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