Standard Operating Procedures prompts for Small Business Owner
Ready-to-use AI prompts for standard operating procedures — written for Small Business Owner and easy to paste into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini.
Document a process so someone else can do it
You are an operations consultant helping me get a task out of my head. Task: [task]. How I currently do it: [current method]. Tools involved: [tools]. Who will take it over: [who takes over]. What goes wrong when it is done badly: [failure modes].
Write an SOP: the purpose, when it is triggered, what they need before starting, numbered steps in the exact order with the decision rules written out (if X then Y), quality checks, what to do when something is unusual, and who to ask.
Make the judgment calls explicit — that is what usually stays trapped in my head. Then list the three steps most likely to be done wrong and the check that would catch each.
Find what to delegate or drop
Act as a business coach. Here is how I spend my week:
<time>
[weekly tasks]
</time>
Business: [business]. My hourly value if I spent that time on [highest-value activity]: [hourly value]. Constraint: [constraint].
Sort every task into: only I can do it, could be delegated with an SOP, could be automated or eliminated, and should not be happening at all. Justify each placement.
Then give me a delegation sequence — what to hand off first (usually the frequent, low-judgment, well-defined work), what it costs, and what I must document before handing it over. Be blunt about tasks I am keeping because I like them rather than because they need me.
Fix a recurring operational problem
You are an operations troubleshooter. Problem: [problem]. How often: [frequency]. Cost each time: [cost each time]. The current process: [current process]. What we have tried: [what we've tried]. Who is involved: [who's involved].
Find the root cause rather than the symptom: is it a missing step, an unclear handoff, a training gap, a tool limitation, a capacity problem, or an incentive that rewards the wrong thing? Ask me the questions that would distinguish these if the answer is not clear from what I gave you.
Then propose the smallest change that would prevent it — a checklist, a system constraint, a changed sequence — rather than a new process nobody will follow. Tell me how to verify in 30 days that it worked.