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ISO 9001 is an internationally recognised standard for internal quality management that has been set by the International Organisation for Standards. In other words, it is a certification that can be achieved by businesses once they have a certain level of internal quality management system in place. Internal quality management covers everything from taking orders and handling complaints, to tracking sales data and managing HR procedures. All of these small procedures in your business work together and will ultimately be a factor is assessing whether your company is a success or not.

Many small businesses neglect their internal processes because they are at the stage where if something goes wrong with them, it doesn’t have a major impact on efficiency or output. But when your company grows, there is a far greater risk of something going drastically wrong where you don’t have the correct procedures in place to deal with them.

But why ISO 9001? Many would argue that you don’t need a certification in order to put these processes in place – and they would be right. Of course you could appoint someone in your company to make sure that everything is running smoothly and that as changes occur within the business, a new process is implemented and everyone is trained in accordance. But the main advantage of ISO 9001 is that is proves that your company can be trusted. Any long-term customer or supplier wants to know that they are dealing with an organisation that isn’t going to topple, and isn’t going to get things wrong too often, if at all. ISO 9001 reflects your company’s commitment to quality.

Many large companies including those in the Public sector actually look for suppliers and partners to be ISO certified – so the certification can have a huge impact on your business growth, opening up new avenues for you.

Not only does it appeal to clients and partners, but ISO 9001 can support your business through any period of change or growth. Once you have robust, core processes in place, your time is free to be spend elsewhere and new services, products, acquisitions and adaptions to the business can easily be integrated.

While ISO 9001 can be achieved by organisations of any size, it is usually companies who have four or more employees that want to take this step. One-man-band type companies don’t often have the need to certify their processes as they are their own master! But, if they have aspirations and want to grow significantly, it won’t be long before the certification will be of benefit to them. It is actually far easier to make the changes to your company necessary to achieve the ISO 9001 standard in a small business, because if a process is absent or wrong, it can easily be rectified. The problem comes in large organisations that are set in their ways with ineffective processes – as it can be a huge impact on the business in order to set them straight.

It is worth considering whether your company would benefit from ISO 9001 certification. Millions of companies worldwide have already achieved the standard which helps them to better manage their businesses and stop wasting valuable time and money.