Barry Richardson

Business / personal name

My Fathers Business Ltd

Primary telephone number:

01494673407

About you and your business ( please complete)

Reached 61 without too many traumas! Originally trained as an engineer but in 1992 set myself up as a sort of management consultant but that developed into being involved in all sorts of areas and activities and eventually focusing down to Database Development and assisting both small and large companies to gain ISO accreditation. In recent years my database work has focused on lawn treatment and garden maintenance/landscaping companies. I am a keen allotment holder (1.5 allotments) and chairman of the local association. Married to Janice for 38 years. Janice has recently retired from an infant teacher career and we enjoy holidays, interesting food, theatre etc. Two grown up kids - Sam who is a graphic designer and Lucy who teaches Latin and Classics. No Grandchildren yet!!!! I do cross country running, Pilates and Gym; Pilates for a bad back! - Result of too much squash! And it works!. Like ballroom/Latin dancing but Janice has had an injured foot for some months – not resulting from me treading on it!! I have an active Christian faith, member of a local Baptist church and I am involved with several charities. Seer Green is a lovely village in the Cotswolds, surrounded by woodland and open countryside and therefore a delightful place to live and work.

Business category

Database Development and ISO Accreditation

Where did you hear about Landscape Juice

Worked with Phil and Mike Seaton of Weed Free

"It's meant to demonstrate buying preferences in general Dave .
Quantity over quality is it false economy ? , You could apply it to secateurs £10 ones or pay much more for a pair which will last you the duration of your work life hopefully if you…"

"But the shoe analogy doesn't work as when the tool that you using lets down when you need it then most when used in the field to fix something to get job finished and your cheap socket shatters or the gap in the spanner has loads of slop in it."

I've always been sceptical about using this fuel as I just reckoned it a waste of money at 3x the price at the pumps. Anyway, read you can leave it in machines for years with no problem and having some tools that just get used once a year at the…

I do not disagree. In my experience with SMEs there is already some form of quality assurance but there are no reliable procedures in place . It is far better for the business to set up their on system because it means that the procedures are more likely to be followed. There can be fiction when a set way of doing something needs to be changed. If there is buy in from the top then this is not a problem but is does mean that there will a a culture shift in the way the business captures, stores, retrieves and disseminate information. The financial costs of accreditation should easily be covered by being able to charge a premium for having accreditation. Bearing in mind that the accreditation means that the business is guaranteeing consistent quality (to what ever standard that happens to be) AND can prove it. It is the last bit some people have problems with.

Comments

Jeremy Redwood November 26, 2009 at 3:01pm

I do not disagree. In my experience with SMEs there is already some form of quality assurance but there are no reliable procedures in place . It is far better for the business to set up their on system because it means that the procedures are more likely to be followed. There can be fiction when a set way of doing something needs to be changed. If there is buy in from the top then this is not a problem but is does mean that there will a a culture shift in the way the business captures, stores, retrieves and disseminate information. The financial costs of accreditation should easily be covered by being able to charge a premium for having accreditation. Bearing in mind that the accreditation means that the business is guaranteeing consistent quality (to what ever standard that happens to be) AND can prove it. It is the last bit some people have problems with.
Jeremy Redwood November 25, 2009 at 4:41pm

ISO accreditation can be costly specially in terms of time. I take it is ISO 9001:2008 (ISO 9002) Quality Assurance you might be interested in or ISO 27001:2005 Information security management systems?
Jeremy Redwood November 23, 2009 at 4:23pm

Always happy to talk. You have an interesting niche market. I can act like a Rosetta Stone between the technical side and the users side.
PRO

Phil Voice April 25, 2009 at 5:07pm

Hi Barry

Do a basic write up - maybe with some screenshots and add it as a blog or forum post with links, where appropriate, back to your site.

Once others have an idea of what you can provide and how it works then I am sure that a conversation would start to roll and questions roll in.

Hope that helps.

Phil
Richard Lilley April 25, 2009 at 2:33pm

Hi Barry
Thanks for contacting me. I am configured as a lawn treatment company, and I also run a small landscaping side as well for non-lawn related work. The lawn company is a franchise but I am not happy with the franchisor (but that's another story).
I currently run QuickBooks for my accounts and my scheduling is somewhat reliant on memory and Outlook

Can you give me an idea of costings for a small company?
Thanks Richard
Graeme @ BGS April 25, 2009 at 1:30pm

Barry - I note that you have left a few comments for people regarding software packages. I would be very keen to find out more.
PRO

Phil Voice March 26, 2009 at 3:28pm

Hi Barry

Glad you have joined us and I hope that you can get help with your belt.

All the best

Phil

This reply was deleted.

Barry Richardson

Comments

Project Photos

Members

LJN Sponsors

More on LJN

Featured business articles

About LJN