No cow on the ice

My interest in quality systems for independent businesses began when I got an exasperated "What's your hurry - there's no cow on the ice", when a local supplier was asked for a written estimate for supplying and fitting a central heating system in the house we were renovating.

It is a good example of poor quality. After another request for a price and date of delivery was brushed aside, we went for a different heating system. Even though there are many excellent examples of good quality practices, it is the bad ones that remain in the customer's memory.

I live in an agricutural area where things until recently have been based on "that's the way we always do it" and "well, that's how things are". I must say that I have also come across very many highly competent and pro-active businesses here, and things have changed for the better in the last 8 years. More competing small businesses are collaborating as 'konkollegas' who, by working together, are able to handle bigger projects.

My dream is a network of local businesses of all kinds who can handle really diverse projects. The common denominator - apart from being local on Lolland-Falster and maybe the Fehmern area - will be work of a high quality, certified by an independent evaluator. Not necessarily to the lengths demanded by the ISO9000 Standards, but high enough so that our clients know that although diverse trades and skills are involved, good quality work and professional conduct is guaranteed.

This blog, and its assocater Twitter feed, will cover the process for micros and small SMEs from both national and international aspects - we can probably learn a great deal from the experiences of others.

Quality matters - mainly for microbusinesses

Quality matters - what's in it for me?

Quality, high standards, professionalism. Nice sounding words and of course we all hope to live up to these in our daily work.

As a micro-business it is particularly difficult to live up to high standards - we have to singlehandedly manage accounts, marketing, sales as well as delivering a really good end result to our clients, so dead-lines, tiredness and unexpected set-backs can be hard to cope with.

But there are simple routines which can help. I hope to publish blog items about how other mini-businesses manage, the quality systems they have set up - both here in Denmark and internationally- in the hope that we all learn something that will be of help to us and our clients.

I hope that the blog will get lots of comments once it gets established - useful links and hints from other micro-businesses which can be of help to us all.