The SOPs You Need Before Opening a Second Location

The real reason second locations underperform

The owner's instincts, taste, and presence are what made location one successful. When they're not at location two, the standards drift. The new manager makes different judgment calls. The product isn't quite right. Customers notice.

The fix isn't cloning yourself. It's documenting what you do so that someone else can do it at the same standard — even when you're not there.

8 SOPs to write before you sign the lease

1. 1.

   Your core product or service procedure

   The jasmine tea. The signature dish. The exact way the service is delivered that makes customers come back. This is the most critical document. If you can only write one thing, write this.

2. 2.

   Opening procedure

   The daily startup sequence. Your opening manager needs to be able to run this without calling you. Every step, every check, in order.

3. 3.

   Closing procedure

   The end-of-day process by position. What's cleaned, what's counted, what's locked, what's logged.

4. 4.

   New hire onboarding — days 1 through 5

   How do you train someone to your standard when you can't be the one doing the training? This SOP is what makes your GM a trainer instead of just a worker.

5. 5.

   Quality control checkpoint

   How does your location two manager know the work met your standard before the customer experiences it? What are they checking, and when?

6. 6.

   Escalation procedure

   What does the location two manager do when something goes wrong that's above their authority? Who do they call, when, and what do they decide themselves?

7. 7.

   Vendor and supply ordering

   Your par levels, preferred vendors, order frequency, and minimum stock requirements. If this isn't written, location two will either overstock or run out — probably both.

8. 8.

   Customer complaint resolution

   At what point does a complaint get escalated to you versus handled on-site? What's the location manager authorized to do? What requires your approval?

How to create them before your ribbon cutting

You have one location running well. That means you already know how to do all of these things. The knowledge exists — it just isn't written down yet.

Describe each process out loud as if you're training your location two GM. That's it. Use TalkNDone to turn each recording into a formatted PDF. Eight processes, 15–20 minutes each, one week of work.

That week of documentation is the investment that lets location two run without you being there every day.