This article is part two of a multi-part excerpt from our latest downloadable guide, From Chaos to Clockwork: A Peachtree VA Implementation Guide.
Running a business well is not about doing everything yourself. It’s about building systems, trusting your team, and making smart decisions about where your time actually goes. That is the central thesis of Like Clockwork by Sam Goodner, a serial entrepreneur and former Swiss Army officer who spent decades learning how precision, structure, and delegation can transform an organization.
Our resource, created in partnership with Sam Goodner, distills nine of the book’s most actionable chapters and pairs each with a practical breakdown of how to implement these principles in your own business, specifically showing how a virtual assistant can help you get there faster.
Download the full guide for all nine strategies! →
Whether you are a founder still wearing every hat or a growing company trying to scale without chaos, Sam’s book meets you where you are. You do not have to implement every chapter at once. Start with the principle that would make the biggest immediate impact on your business and build from there.
Want to go deeper? Pick up the full book:
Like Clockwork: Run Your Business with Swiss Army Precision by Sam Goodner →
Strategy 2: Codifying Best Practices
“The idea of doing things differently only came up when I was sitting around with the rest of the leadership team, talking about how all our new people kept making the same mistakes we did when we started out. Why weren’t we heading this off, providing the knowledge we already had so they could avoid those pitfalls?” – Sam Goodner, Like Clockwork Chapter 4
Most founders carry years of hard-won knowledge entirely in their heads. They correct mistakes when they happen, train on the fly, and assume that things will eventually stick. They rarely do. Codifying your best practices is not a one-time project. It is an ongoing investment in your team’s ability to perform independently and at a high level without you in the room for every decision.
Get Your Business Best Practices Out of Your Head:
- Involve your most experienced people in building these documents. They know the real lessons.
- Treat it as a living document. Revisit and refine it as the business evolves.
- A pocket-sized or easily accessible summary is more useful than a manual no one opens.
- Attach a story to each best practice. Stories make lessons memorable.
Leverage Your Virtual Assistant in SOP Creation
Ensuring all your important business processes are documented and up-to-date is a time-consuming and iterative process. You can leverage a virtual assistant (VA) from Peachtree VA to own this function.
Your VA can:
- Brainstorm with the leader to surface institutional knowledge the leader holds but has not yet documented.
- Turn leadership input into polished Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), training documents, and employee handbooks.
- Maintain version control and keep documents up to date as processes change.
- Build and organize a central repository where all resources are easy to find.
- Draft the sales playbook structure for the leader to populate and refine.
From Idea to Implementation
Your VA can bridge the gap between strategy and implementation. Once you establish how you want your onboarding process to look, your virtual assistant can handle the rest and keep you informed, so you can rest easy knowing nothing is falling through the cracks.
If you’re ready to get ideas out of your head and into your business, get the right support to help you get there. Schedule a no-obligation consultation with Peachtree VA to learn more about how a virtual assistant can help you and your business!
If you want to dive deeper into the other strategies from Sam’s book, stay tuned for part 3, or download our joint resource:
From Chaos to Clockwork: A Peachtree VA Implementation Guide →
