Undoubtedly, the toughest challenge of running a new business is that you have to take on a wide variety of roles, often at the same time! From managing sales opportunities, to dealing with the payroll, to actually delivering your service. It's hard to imagine having any spare time to work on growing the business, let alone freeing up some time for a holiday!

However, growth can be inhibited by an affliction that many of us suffer from - a fear of losing control. Whilst this is understandable - you've worked hard to get where you are - there comes a point where there are only so many hours in a day. Ultimately, a key factor of growth is being able to trust others to take on duties that you have previously taken sole ownership of.

Of course, this is easier said than done; you need to have up-to-date procedures to ensure everyone's singing off the same hymn sheet and also invest time in ensuring your staff have the training in order to deliver.

Fortunately, there is already a tool out there that over a million organisations use - it's called the ISO 9001 quality management standard.

ISO 9001's ethos is about establishing the best way of delivering service that results in satisfied customers and, ultimately, a profitable business. It's a standard that was developed with global input, and is intended to be used by any organisation, of any size, in any sector.

The standard has a number of requirements that are based around creating, reviewing and continuously improving on your procedures. For your people, this helps everyone know what to do, how to do it and when. Not only does this prevent frustration from brewing within the office, delivering a consistent service can only be good for your customers too!

A business winner

Consistency in delivery becomes even more important in supply chains where responsibilities are handed up and down the line.  It's for this reason that standards like ISO 9001 are specified in tenders and expected when bidding for public sector work. 

From a customer's point of view, consistency in delivery is both demanded and expected.  Imagine going to your favourite restaurant to have your favourite dish, only to have the ingredients change every time. Wouldn't you be inclined to try another restaurant next time round? It's for this reason that ISO 9001 has become so popular within the tendering process.

The great news is that there are a lot of opportunities out there for small, growing businesses.  Government has stated that - by 2015 - 25% of central government procurement spend, by value, will flow to SMEs both directly and through the supply chain. Common areas of spend includes construction, information technology, communications and travel, to name just a few.

Adding to your credentials

You can achieve third-party certification to ISO 9001 to demonstrate that it's not just you saying what a great job you do! Certification is usually expected when bidding for contracts, so there's no surprise that in a recent survey 81% of respondents said they were more competitive or had won business as a result of becoming certified to the ISO 9001 quality management standard.

In summary, ISO 9001 has the power to improve your business whilst certification can unlock new opportunities. Many small business owners have the belief that they simply don't have the time to try new ideas. Do you really not have time to implement ISO 9001?

For more information on the benefits and process of achieving ISO 9001 certification, visit the British Assessment Bureau's website at www.british-assessment.co.uk or call on 0800 404 7007 for free advice.