Business SOPs — Free Printable Operating Procedures
Universal operating procedures for any small business, plus industry-specific manuals. Start with the universal pack, then add your trade. Free to print, source-anchored, no signup.
Industry-specific manuals (lawn care, house cleaning, restaurant, and more) live under their own trades in the Operating Procedures hub. More on the way.
Why every small business needs written procedures
The difference between a business that runs and a business that runs you is whether the work lives in someone's head or on paper. When a process is only in your head, you are the bottleneck — nothing happens right when you are off, sick, or scaling. A standard operating procedure (SOP) moves that knowledge out of your head and into a document anyone on the team can follow to the same result every time.
The Any Business operating manual collects the 14 procedures almost every small company needs regardless of trade — opening and closing routines, handling a customer complaint, taking payment, onboarding a new hire, end-of-day cash and reporting, and the admin that keeps the lights on. These are the universal SOPs you build first, then layer trade-specific procedures on top.
What's inside each operating manual
Each SOP is a single printable page: a clear scope, who does it and when, the tools and materials, numbered steps in order, a quality check, and cited sources.
How to use these SOPs
These are working documents, not wall art. Read the procedure top to bottom before the work, print one per person (toggle ink-saver for a cheap black-and-white copy for the binder), and have new hires sign off once they can run it unsupervised. Found something out of date? Use the feedback link on any SOP — flagged procedures are re-researched against their source list.