How Spark Marketer Empowered Their Employees’ Confidence With Standard Operating Procedures

Last Updated on April 30, 2021 by Owen McGab Enaohwo

Co-founder of Spark Marketer Carter Harkins switched careers from being a musician to a marketer when he realized that music was not going to get him all the money he wanted with the introduction of MP3. He and his business partner began to record some success in providing marketing services to chimney businesses in the home services industry.

One meeting with a business consultant opened their eyes to the operational loopholes in their business that they were oblivious of. They had been working without standard operating procedures (SOPs) all along and had no idea what it meant. Going forward, they decided to adopt a system to create SOPs and streamline their business operations.

Carter tells us how the SOPs have fostered employee efficiency and accountability in his organization.

Carter Harkins of Spark Marketer

About Spark Marketer 

Spark Marketer is the go-to marketing agency for small and medium-sized local businesses that want to leverage digital marketing to grow their businesses. Its dedicated team works closely with businesses to navigate the digital space and achieve measurable results. 

Committed to offering its clientele a custom experience, Spark Marketer offers more than basic online services. It creates marketing campaigns with the unique attributes of each business to generate continuous income.

The Nashville-based company has a track record of success working with chimney businesses in the home services space and currently has 21 employees.

Listen to the audio interview

Subscribe for more business success stories

The Biggest Pain Point

A lack of documentation was one of the biggest problems suffered at the organization. Employees depended on tribal knowledge to get things done—an approach that resulted in disorganization in the workplace. Employees who dropped the ball were let go without pinpointing their deficiency to them because there was no system to track their performance.

“When you’re doing work to a standard then you can measure against that standard. Before, we would have these nebulous conversations when we had to let someone go: ‘Well, we don’t feel like you’re really doing the job well.’ ‘Show me where I wasn’t doing it well and I’ll change.’ This is horrible to admit now. I’m almost ashamed to say it but, you know, there was no objectivity.”

Carter reveals that he had no idea what SOPs were at the time. The absence of these SOPs created a lack of confidence in his employees’ performances because they could drop the ball at any moment since they were not guided by any operational standards. 

“There’s this constant feeling like you’re being drawn back into the daily task–level stuff to keep things running,