ISO and International Standards help businesses of any size and sector reduce costs, increase productivity and access new markets.
For small businesses, standards can help to:
There is a distinctive feature between small businesses and industry giants. This difference is reputation, and its real consequence is the trust that a consumer develops in your company.
The only reason why big companies are able to create so many sales is because they have developed a trust with their consumers over a long period of time.
As a result of years and years of customer rapport building, meeting customer requirements and creating customer satisfaction, such companies have gotten the reputation of delivering high-quality goods or services.
In contrast, as small businesses are in their infancy, they do not have years of experience to quantify the quality of their product. This is the reason why despite price advantages, consumers choose to work with older or bigger brands. Fortunately, there is a loophole to build customer trust, and that cheat code is acquiring ISO certification. In order to be granted ISO certification, a company needs to go through vigilant and robust certification audits.
Hence, whenever a consumer sees the logo of ISO standards on your product or your services, they understand that your processes, procedures, policies and people are at par with international standards. Therefore, ISO standards build up the credibility of the business, enhance customer trust, showcase commitment to quality, helping small businesses come up to the same level as the big fish in the industry.
The ISO 9001 standard is the most beneficial for small businesses, as acquiring the Quality Management System (QMS) will enable your team to improve its performance, reduce errors, improve efficiency, reduce waste and streamline your processes due to internationally-appreciated management techniques. Moreover, working with the ISO 9001 standard will help your organisation significantly increase the sales.
This is because many government tenders require their potential suppliers to prove that they have a commitment to continual growth and high quality by showcasing their ISO 9001 compliant QMS. In fact, many public sector tenders require the ISO 9001 standard in their pre-qualification questionnaire.
implementing the ISO 9001 standard can help you open up to newer markets, since companies recognise ISO as the highest mark of quality.
As a direct effect, you will be able to enhance your brand’s reputation for providing high-quality goods or services. This in turn can boost customer satisfaction, improve customer retention and consequently increase profitability. However, the most important factor is that implementing the QMS may not be pricey for small businesses. Budget is a great concern for small businesses, and the implementation of the QMS proves to be cost-effective in the long run, as your processes will be improved and streamlined.
ISO 9001 consulting is one of our main services at the ISO COUNCIL, which helps small businesses at all stages.
With over a million certified organisations across 170 countries, ISO 9001 is the international reference framework for the development and implementation of a quality management system (QMS).
With over 300,000 certificates issued worldwide, the ISO 14001 standard provides a framework for the creation of an effective environmental management system (EMS).
ISO 45001 is the world’s first international occupational health and safety (OH&S) standard. It sets the requirements for OH&S management to help employers provide a healthy and safe working environment.
ISO/IEC 27001 sets out the requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining, and continually improving an information security management system (ISMS) to protect the security of information assets.
As you are a budding business, you require a stringent plan to achieve certification:
Begin by choosing someone within your company to oversee the task of creating a management system. Creating a management system essentially means that you need to collect documents which demonstrate how your company carries out its processes. Only the most experienced employees should be considered for this job, and, examples include department heads, managers, or directors of operations.
Next, go on to document your company’s unique practises by including details like your company’s mission statement, specific policies, procedures, or the list of standards you operate in accordance to. This is the most taxing step in securing ISO certification, so conduct a detailed analysis of your company’s production system and internal quality-assessment processes. We have provided you with a checklist of ISO 9001 requirements.
After collecting the relevant documents, assign a qualified employee to compare the information documented in your management system against the company’s day-to-day operations. Based on the reports of the audit, identify areas where your operations do not accomplish the goals established by your management system, and find ways to resolve potential issues in the upcoming weeks.
After rectifying all issues, it is time to select a certification body. Select a registrar that holds the necessary credentials and develop an ISO contract to discuss the provisions of the certification audit process. For more information, read the article on how to implement ISO 9001.
During the third phase of the certification process, submit your management system documents for pre-assessment and wait for the external audit. After the external audit, review your full audit report and submit a plan of corrective actions for resolving minor nonconformities as well as tighten up your operations to deal with major nonconformities. After successfully clearing your certification audit, all you have to do is wait for your ISO certification.
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