Two Claude skills for documenting your business
Step BackFoundations
Two Claude skills that help you map every system your business runs on and turn each one into an SOP a new person can follow without you.
It's how I stepped back to about 5 hours a month for five years, then sold without staying on a single day.
More time for you now, and a business that's more attractive to buyers when you sell.
Instant access to your private portal right after checkout.
Created by Lindsay Smith, systems architect and founder of two counseling centers she built, documented and sold.
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Sound familiar?
If Your Business Still Runs Through You
- Your team brings you the same questions every week, because the answers live in your head.
- You take a day off and still check your phone in case something comes up.
- New hires learn by shadowing someone, and each person who trains them teaches it a little differently.
- One person on your team knows how something works, and you'd rather not think about what happens if they leave unexpectedly.
- You've started writing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) before. A few got done, and then the business got busy again.
This is what happens when a business grows faster than anyone can write it down. It's a sign of a business that's working.
The next step is getting what you know out of your head, so your team can run with it.
My story
How I Stepped Back
From My Own Business
I'm Lindsay Smith. I'm a licensed therapist, and over 15 years I founded, scaled and sold two counseling centers that served thousands of families.
As I built, I wrote down how things were done. How we answered a new client's first call. How we set up a new clinician. How payroll ran.
Over time, those documents became the way the business ran. A new person could run a role to my standard from what was written, without coming to me with questions.
That let me hand the day-to-day to someone else. For five years after that, I stayed the owner and made the big decisions, and I worked about 5 hours a month.
I got to focus most of my time on traveling and deepening my relationships.
In 2025, I sold. When the buyer's team went through the business, everything was already in place. Many owners stay on after a sale, sometimes for several years, to help with the handoff. I didn't have to stay on for a single day.
Now I document systems for founders. I created Step Back Foundations so you can document your business the same way I document for my clients, on your own time.
A business that runs on what's written down is easier to step back from, and easier to sell someday.
Why it gets stuck
Why SOPs Get Started and Then Stall
Many of us have tried. We open a blank document, write a few steps, then the business pulls us back in.
Here's what usually gets in the way:
Starting from a blank page.
Writing a process from memory is hard, and the steps you do without thinking are the ones that get left out.
No list of what exists.
Without a full list of your systems and who owns each one, there's no way to see what's documented and what's missing.
The wrong size.
Some SOPs are so long nobody reads them. Others are so short a new person still has so many questions.
Missing the judgment calls.
The steps are the easy part. What makes someone good at a role is knowing what to do when a customer says something unexpected. After years of doing the work, many of us no longer notice those decisions. They've become automatic, so they never make it onto the page.
Step Back Foundations is built around each of these. The map helps you to create the full list, with every system within each role identified. The SOP Builder starts from a recording of the work, so you never face a blank page, and then interviews you until every judgment call is on the page.
Two Skills That Work Together
First you see everything your business runs on. Then you document it, one system at a time.
Skill 1: The Systems Map by Role
One list of every system your business runs on, organized by the role that owns it.
Add your org chart, job descriptions and anything already written about how your business runs. Messy, incomplete, and outdated are all welcome.
Claude reads all of it and builds the first draft of your map. It also suggests systems businesses like yours usually run, marked so you decide what belongs.
Then you go role by role. Claude can interview you, or you can talk with the person in that role and upload the transcript, send them a question sheet, or have them work in Claude directly.
You get a finished interactive map your team can click through, plus a Word copy.
Every system on the map has one owner and one trigger, the thing that starts it. That's what makes each one the right size for its own SOP.
Skill 2: The SOP Builder
Turns one system into a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) document a new person can follow, plus a short checklist for people who already know the work.
The standard every SOP is held to: a new person can run this system to your standard, from start to finish, without asking you a single question.
It draws out what you don't realize you know. After years of doing the work, much of it happens without thinking. You check one thing before another. You hear something in a customer's voice and change what you say. Those decisions are what make someone good at the role, and they're the first things left out when we write from memory. The SOP Builder asks about every point where you make a choice, what you'd do if this or that happened, and why you do it the way you do. Then it writes your thinking right into the step, so your judgment goes with the work.
Pick a system from your map.
Show the work. Record your screen, record it on your phone, or share recordings of calls, and talk through what you're doing and why. If you'd rather talk it through, that works too.
Claude studies the recording and asks only what it couldn't see, a few questions at a time.
Before you see a draft, Claude reads it as a brand new person would. Anywhere that person would get stuck, it asks you first.
You get a branded Word SOP and a checklist. Tell Claude what to change and it rebuilds both files. Your map updates to show that system is done.
Your SOP includes:
The exact words to say on calls and in conversations
Every email or text written out, ready for your team to copy and paste
The judgment calls, written as "if this happens, do this," right where they happen
The reason behind any step that's easy to skip or costly to get wrong
Screenshots where they help, with arrows pointing to the right spot
Who owns the SOP and when it gets reviewed next
Plus: The Setup Guide
Written steps to turn on the settings Claude needs, install both skills, set up your project, add the basics about your business, get tips for recording, and share with your team.
See What You'll Get
Your Systems Map is an interactive map your team can click through. The org chart shows every role and who it reports to. Click a role to see every system it owns, with a one-line description of each.
Shown: Juniper Grove Counseling, a fictional sample practice. Your map is built in Claude and branded to your business.
Your SOPs
Every SOP comes as a branded Word file, plus a short checklist for people who already know the work.
The exact words to say. Every email or text written out. The judgment calls, right at the step, so a new person knows what to do when things don't go as planned.
Shown: a page from a sample SOP made with the SOP Builder for Juniper Grove Counseling, a fictional practice.
What changes
More Time Now, and a Business Buyers Want
What you'll have now
- A clear list of every system your business runs on, and who owns each one
- SOPs a new person can run to your standard from start to finish
- New hires who learn from what's written, so training doesn't depend on one person's memory
- Room to step back, so you get to love both your business and your life
When you sell
Buyers pay for what keeps working after the founder leaves.
When a business depends on its owner, buyers see risk. They often respond with a lower offer, terms that tie more of the price to how the business does after the sale, and a longer transition with you staying on to hand things off.
When your business runs on documented systems and a team that doesn't need you, a buyer has far less to worry about. That puts you in a stronger position for a higher valuation, better terms and a shorter transition. For me, it meant no transition at all.
Documentation is an important piece of that, and it's the piece Step Back Foundations gives you.
You know your business. The skills know how to get it out of your head and onto the page, so someone else can run it to your standard without you there.
What's included
Everything in
Step Back Foundations
- The Systems Map by Role skill
- The SOP Builder skill
- The setup guide, from first click to sharing with your team
- A private buyer portal with your downloads
You can use both skills for every role and every system in your business, as many times as you need, including new systems as your business grows. They're built on the same method I use with my done-for-you clients. And if you sell, the license goes with the business.
$1,497$997 launch price
The launch price ends Monday, November 30, at 11:59 pm Pacific.
Secure checkout through Stripe. Instant access to your private portal right after checkout. Licensed for use in your own business. Read the Buyer Agreement.
Fit check
Is This Right for You
This is a good fit if:
- Your business runs well, and its systems live mostly in people's heads.
- You'd like to do this yourself, with a clear method, at your own pace.
- You're ready to record the work and answer questions. That's the part only you and your team can do.
- You use Claude, or you're open to starting. The setup guide walks you through it.
This might not be the right fit if:
- Your business is still deciding how it does things. These skills document the systems you already run. They don't design new ones.
- You'd rather have someone do it for you. That's what my done-for-you work is for, and it starts with a free System Documentation Call.
Frequently Asked Questions
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No. The skills explain everything in plain words and tell you exactly where to click. The setup guide starts at the very beginning.
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Your own Claude account, on a plan that supports skills. Step Back Foundations works in Claude only. The setup guide walks you through every setting.
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You could start there. What you'd be missing is the method behind the questions: how to break your business into systems sized for one SOP each, what to ask so the judgment calls come out, a format a new person can follow, and a check that a new person could run it without asking anything. Step Back Foundations is built on how I document systems for my clients, so you start with all of that in place.
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That depends on how many roles and systems your business has, and how much is already written. Your progress saves between conversations, so you can do one role today and the next one another day.
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That's okay. Many businesses keep most of what they know in people's heads. Anything missing gets covered in the role conversations.
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Any size. The map is built by role, so it works for a small team and for a company with many departments. Department leaders can complete their own sections.
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Yes. The skills learn your business from your documents and your answers. The map also suggests systems businesses like yours usually run, so you can catch ones you might have missed.
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Your Systems Map will be an interactive map like the sample, built in Claude and branded to your business. Your SOPs come as branded Word files, one SOP and one checklist per system. The sample portal is part of my done-for-you work.
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Yes. Your employees and contractors working for your business can use it, including inside your Claude organization. The setup guide shows you how to share it.
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No. The skills run in your own Claude account. I never see your documents, your answers or your SOPs.
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Consultants, coaches, agencies and fractional leaders are welcome to use it in their own business. Each client business needs its own license.
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You do. Everything you create with the skills belongs to your business.
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You'll go straight to secure checkout. Right after paying, you'll create your password, log in to your private portal, download both skills and follow the setup guide. You'll also get a welcome email with your portal link.
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It goes with the business to the new owner, along with everything you've documented.
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Yes. Buyers can book a one-hour strategy call with me for $555.
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My done-for-you work starts with a free System Documentation Call. You pick one system your business already runs on, and I document it for you, and then we talk about what working together on a larger scale could look like.
You Built a Business That Works.
Now It Can Work Without You in Every Room.
When I sold, I didn't have to stay on, because the business could already run without me. That started with writing down one system, and then the next.
You can start with one role today. Your map grows from there, at your pace.
$997 launch price through Monday, November 30, at 11:59 pm Pacific. Regular price $1,497.
P.S. Every system you document gives you time back now and helps make your business more valuable and easier to hand off when you sell.