The 5P Framework
Your business documentation hierarchy that actually makes sense. Stop trying to document everything at once. Start thinking in layers.
🔥 Your Business Documentation Is a Dumpster Fire
Right now, you've got critical business info scattered across:
- • That notebook from 2023
- • 103 Google Docs with names like "New Process v3 FINAL FINAL"
- • Sticky notes that fell behind your monitor six months ago
- • Your head (until you forget it at 2am)
You're not documenting because nobody taught you the hierarchy. You're trying to write War and Peace when you need a comic book.
The 5Ps: Documentation That Makes Sense
Who you are and how you work
Your business on one page
End-to-end workflows (the highways)
Step-by-step instructions (the exits)
The numbers that actually matter
Persona - Who You Are and How You Work
Before you document your business, understand yourself. Your behavioural profile determines what energises you, what drains you, and how you make decisions.
What goes in it:
- • Your behavioural profile (DISC or similar)
- • Work that energises you vs. drains you
- • Your decision-making style
- • Communication preferences
This informs everything else. Delegate tasks that drain you. Keep tasks that energise you.
Persona template coming soon...
Profile - The Executive Summary You Never Wrote
One page. That's it. If someone had to run your business tomorrow (because you're on a beach or in hospital), this is what they'd need.
- • What you do
- • Who pays you
- • How money flows
- • Where everything lives
Process - The End-to-End Highways
These aren't procedures. They're the big-picture workflows. Think "Client Onboarding" not "Send Welcome Email." A process shows the full journey from trigger to completion.
Examples:
- • New client onboarding (from inquiry to first invoice)
- • Monthly billing cycle (from service delivery to payment received)
- • Content creation workflow (from idea to published)
Keep these visual if you can. Flowcharts beat walls of text every time. If you can't draw it on a napkin, it's too complex.
Procedure - The Step-by-Step Stuff
NOW we get detailed. This is where you put the "click here, type this, select that" instructions. These live UNDER your processes. They're the detailed turn-by-turn directions for each exit on your process highway.
The test:
Could a reasonably intelligent human follow these steps without texting you questions? If no, add more detail or screenshots.
Performance - The Numbers That Actually Matter
Not everything needs measuring. This isn't McKinsey. Pick 3-5 metrics that tell you if the business is healthy. That's it.
Solo operator metrics that matter:
- • Revenue per hour worked (the only productivity metric that counts)
- • Client concentration (how screwed are you if your biggest client leaves?)
- • Time to payment (cash flow is king)
- • Utilisation rate (billable vs admin time)
Skip the vanity metrics. Nobody cares about your website traffic if you can't pay yourself.
The Implementation (Without Losing Your Mind)
Write your one-page Profile. Even if it feels stupidly obvious. Especially if it feels stupidly obvious.
Pick ONE process that's currently making you mental. Map it out. Napkin sketch first, fancy flowchart later (or never).
Write 2-3 procedures under that process. Include screenshots. Your future stressed-self will thank you.
Pick 2 performance metrics. Just 2. Track them weekly, not daily.
The compound effect: Do this for one process per month. In 6 months, you'll have documented the core of your business. In 12 months, you can take a holiday without your phone.
🐺 The Wolf's Rant
I learned this the hard way, like everything else.
It's 2023. Good client, complex project, custom workflow I'd "perfected" over three months. Delivered brilliantly. Client loved it. Six months later, they want the exact same thing for their sister company.
Could I remember the workflow? Could I hell.
Found scattered notes, half a Trello board, and some cryptic email threads. Spent two weeks reverse-engineering my own bloody process. Made half the money in twice the time because I was too clever to write it down the first time.
The real joke? I'd been a process consultant for a decade. I'd literally been paid to document other people's businesses while mine ran on memory and prayer.
That's when I built the 4P structure. Not because I read it in some business book written by a 26-year-old guru, but because I was sick of being my own worst client.
Documentation isn't about perfection. It's about getting the chaos out of your head so you can use your brain for actual thinking instead of remembering.
Start With the Profile
One page. Tonight. Stop treating your business like it's too special to document. It's not. You're not. And that's exactly why this will work.
Get the Profile Template