Penny Hopkinson

About Penny Hopkinson

Penny Hopkinson is the UK’s pre-eminent expert on planning and developing profitable Operations Manuals and author of the industry's definitive No. 1 Amazon Bestseller, Manual Magic: Create the Operations Manual Your Franchisees Need to Succeed.

She is the founder of Manual Writers International®, a leading operations manual publishing, coaching and mentoring consultancy founded in 1986.

She specialises in capturing know-how and process, reimagining dull operations manuals as dynamic, engaging knowledge-sharing ecosystems.

She founded Manual Magic AI Limited in 2025 turning her Manual Magic three-step process into a "Done with You, Done by You' SaaS product making SOP and Operations Manual development up to 75% faster.

An operations manual expert with over 35 years of experience, she helps start-ups, SMEs, multinationals, and social enterprises faithfully replicate their business model for success.

She works with business owners and COOs to solve their most complex challenges: organising their scattered IP assets, sharing their knowledge, and engaging their team(s) with visual operational content.

Penny was appointed a Companion of the British Franchise Association in 2011 for her 'outstanding contribution' to the BFA and franchising in the UK.

A former trade and tech journalist, she became Launch Editor of Media International, The European Journal for Planners of International Advertising, in 1973.

After a brief flirtation with Public Relations, Penny spent over a decade as a socio-economics correspondent and travel writer reporting on the emerging Arabian Gulf States and Saudi Arabia, interviewing ministers, merchants, and members of the ruling families.

Since January 2024, she's guested on 40+ podcasts globally.

Themes include: "The Knowledge Trap: Why SMEs Lose Their Most Valuable Asset Every Time Someone Leaves": Every time someone walks out the door, they take their know-how with them—and most businesses never see it again. 🟠 Perfect for: Entrepreneurship, SME, scale-up podcasts. "The TikTok Test: Would Gen Z Use Your SOPs?" If your ops manual was a TikTok, would anyone watch it?

If not, why are you still writing it like a textbook? 🟠 Perfect for: Leadership, organisational culture and business process shows. "The Silent Saboteur: When Knowledge Hoarding Cripples Growth" You can’t scale if your systems live in someone’s head. "Manual Magic: How to Create a Living, Breathing SOP System That Grows With You" SOPs aren’t about control.

They’re about freedom.

But only if you write them for the humans using them. 🟠 Perfect for: Thought leadership, tech-for-good, process innovation podcasts.