As a small business, every decision we make has to count. Time, money, and energy are precious resources, and that reality was especially clear this time last year. In January 2025, Catalina Associates was starting the new year with our first prime government contract fully ramped up. After spending the fall preparing for and launching the project, we entered 2025 as fledgling prime contractors. The process of creating new forms, policies, tracking, and reporting, combined with a 30% increase in staff, stretched our administrative resources. As we navigated this growth, we knew that we needed a more structured way to ensure our time and energy work for us more efficiently. ISO 9001 was already on our radar, and we knew that as we grew it would only become more difficult, but also more necessary, to become certified. Fully aware of the significant commitment we were about to make, we took the leap to begin the certification process.
ISO 9001 is an internationally recognized standard for quality management systems, providing a framework that helps organizations create a quality management system (QMS) to ensure they are consistently meeting customer needs, while also continuously improving how they operate. The principles of ISO Quality Management are customer focus, leadership, engagement of people, process approach, improvement, evidence-based decision making, and relationship management. These principles closely mirror what Catalina strives to live out every day, so we knew that we were heading in the right direction.
Our journey started with many long discussions among the leadership team – educating ourselves about the process, identifying what was already working, defining the scope of our QMS, and determining ownership for each section. We wrote policies to firm up practices that we were already following. Many of us spent time outside of our billable hours to pour time into this process. We were nervous about completing this process on our own. We were committing many hours, and a great deal of personal conviction about the kind of company that we want to be, without any guarantee of certification. When we felt confident in our QMS, we contacted an accredited ISO 9001 certification auditor, and went through two levels of audits. In November 2025, we were proud to receive our ISO 9001 certification.
Becoming ISO 9001 certified required us to take a close look at every part of our business – from how we handle customer requirements, to how we track performance and handle our resources. It pushed us to ask hard questions, clarify responsibilities, and document processes that previously lived only in people’s heads. While the process was challenging
at times, it was also incredibly valuable. It helped us identify inefficiencies, strengthen communication, and build more resilient systems that don’t depend on any one individual.
We are so proud of this achievement, not just because it provides a framework for scaling up in the future, but because it delivers tangible, practical benefits to our clients today. Our clients can expect the same high level of service every time. While this has always been our goal, our QMS now provides clear processes and regular reviews to help ensure nothing falls through the cracks. Defined roles, documented procedures, and measurable objectives make our work transparent and our team more accountable.
ISO 9001 isn’t the finish line. One of the key principles of this system is ongoing evaluation and improvement. We can’t wait to keep showing up for you in 2026, with our commitment to doing things thoughtfully, consistently, and with our clients at the center of everything we do.
