What are the first three processes a startup founder should document before hiring an operations manager?
Before hiring an operations manager, document these three processes: (1) your customer fulfillment workflow — the end-to-end process from order to delivery, (2) your financial operations — invoicing, payment processing, and expense tracking, and (3) your customer communication cadence — how and when you communicate with customers. These three give the ops manager the context to run the business without constant founder input.
Why these three?
| Process | Why It Cannot Wait |
|---|---|
| Customer fulfillment | The ops manager needs to understand the core revenue-generating workflow on day one |
| Financial operations | Cash flow management cannot have gaps during the handoff |
| Customer communication | Customers should not notice the transition from founder to ops manager |
What should each SOP cover?
1. Customer Fulfillment
- Order receipt and verification
- Service delivery or product shipping
- Quality check and completion criteria
- Customer confirmation and follow-up
2. Financial Operations
- Invoice creation and sending
- Payment tracking and follow-up
- Expense categorization and approval
- Monthly reconciliation
3. Customer Communication
- Welcome/onboarding sequence
- Regular check-in schedule
- Issue escalation and response times
- Renewal/upsell timing
How do you create them quickly?
Record each workflow using Glyde as you perform it this week. Three processes, 5 minutes each to record, 3-5 minutes each to review. Total investment: under 30 minutes. The ops manager starts with a clear picture of how the business runs — no week-long shadowing required.
This answer is part of our guide to SOPs by role and use case.