About the library

This library is for owners and team members who run the commercial side of a business and want a written procedure for the job in front of them. It runs from choosing a market and building an offer worth buying, through leads, content, advertising and selling, to keeping customers and money, and then to hiring, leading and building the company as it grows from one person to several hundred, and last to building wealth outside the business. Terms are defined in GLOSSARY.md.

Where the library stops

Things a reader might come looking for and will not find here:

• Law. Employment, advertising, consumer-protection, telephone and text-messaging, data-protection and lending law are not covered. The library does not give legal advice.
• Tax and accounting practice. Pages name tax bills, write-offs and financial statements as things to plan for and track. How tax and accounting rules apply to you is not covered, and the library does not give tax or accounting advice.
• Contract drafting. Pages say what an agreement with a customer, a hire, an agency or an affiliate should settle. The wording of a contract, and whether a term will hold up, are not covered.
• Filming, lighting and editing technique. Pages say what an ad, a testimonial or a sales video must contain, and which changes to try when re-editing an ad that works. How to shoot, light and cut it is not covered.
• Settings inside an ad platform. Pages cover choosing a platform, targeting, and whether to optimize for leads or for return. Bid and budget settings, tracking setup and landing-page tools are not covered.
• Search optimization and keyword research. Search appears only as one channel among others.
• Equity and retirement plans. Pay, raises, commission and benefits have their own pages. Equity, stock options and the design of retirement plans do not.
• Personal investing. Building wealth outside the business is covered in general terms only, on SOP 281, which names no specific fund, stock or other investment. The library gives no investment advice.

What the library holds itself to

These are commitments you can test against the pages.

• SOP numbers are permanent. A cross-reference reads SOP 55 or SOP 55 — <title>, and a number is not reused for a different page.
• Invented figures say so. Where the worked figures on a page are invented, a line beside them says so, in words like "The worked figures on this page are invented."
• Disagreements are shown, not settled. Where two pages, or two parts of one page, disagree, the page gives both readings, often under a marked flag, and almost always closes with "This page does not settle which reading is right." It does not choose between them.
• Each page names its limits. Almost every page ends with a section called "What this page does not cover". It names what is left out and, where another page covers it, which one.
• Statements about law and tax are marked. Where a page repeats a legal or tax statement, it marks the statement as one it is repeating and says that the law is not covered on that page or that the question belongs with a lawyer. Take any such statement to a qualified adviser before you act on it.

Nobody has assessed whether the advice itself is sound. Test it against your own business before you rely on it.