Document every process with playbooks and inspection processes—makes the business sellable and scalable
Every single process at GoProposal had a documented playbook: how to do a welcome call, how to send an email, how to set up an event, how to run a webinar—everything was documented to the letter. Beyond documentation, every expectation had an inspection process (Dr. Edwards Deming: 'Whatever you expect, you have to inspect'). And every process was reviewed on a cycle to improve it—nothing stays the same; it's either getting better or worse. This systematization enabled £1.5M ARR with just 12 people. When M&A firms came in, they said the business was exit-ready because they could see exactly how it ran. Playbooks aren't just for scale—they're for sale. Acquirers pay premiums for businesses that can run without the founder.
When to use
Start documenting playbooks from day one, especially for repeatable processes like customer onboarding, support, sales, content creation. Don't wait until you're 'big enough'—the act of documentation forces you to systematize and find efficiencies early. Review and update playbooks quarterly.
Don't do this
Keeping processes 'in your head' or in tribal knowledge, thinking 'we'll document it later when we're bigger.' Later never comes, and when it does, you're trying to reverse-engineer processes that have evolved organically. Also: creating documentation that sits in a folder and is never inspected or updated.
1 Founder Who Did This
Created detailed operational playbooks for every function - welcome calls, email sequences, webinar formats, team processes - with the mantra 'whatever you expect, you have to inspect'