A 5-step onboarding SOP cut time-to-first-draft from 11 days to 4

A 5-step onboarding SOP cut time-to-first-draft from 11 days to 4
New clients used to drift for a week before the first draft — waiting on logins, product samples, and brand answers nobody owned.

We standardized onboarding into 5 steps, each with an owner and a deadline:
— Day 0: Signed SOW + 50% deposit invoice sent
— Day 1: Intake form + brand kit collected
— Day 2: Product shipped or digital access granted
— Day 3: Kickoff call (30 min, agenda fixed)
— Day 5: First concept drafts delivered

Across 12 new clients, average time-to-first-draft went from 11 days to 4. Deposit-up-front also killed two ghosting risks before any work started.

Save the 5 steps. Owner + deadline on each, or it slips.