What’s the most important aspect of your business?
It could be the cash coming in, the money that pays you and your employees. It could be the workplace ethic, and how you treat the people working for you. It may be the brand that sells your image and product across the globe. It might be the way you treat your customers.
The truth is, almost every single aspect of your business is important. From the customers coming in the door to the computer systems doing all the work.
We’re focusing on a small niche today. We’re going to refer to the capabilities that the digital world grants us and focus on data. Sites like FiveThirtyEight show the qualities of data very well.
Data is a simple thing, but it can help you out if you find yourself struggling. Data brings repetition and patterns to the table. It opens up options and can help you make informed decisions. Truth be told, there’s no reason to ignore data, and it’s easy to access. Data might not be able to give you the answers you need, but it can give you a clear picture. That’s better than most!
Data is almost everywhere. Do you record your sales? If so, you’ve got data on your hands. Convert your purchases into a spreadsheet, and you can see your month-by-month sales in a numerical form. Do you sell more in July than May? Why? You’ll ideally be able to answer that dependent on your own business, but data can present the question to you. If you can answer the questions that data poses, you can make small and timely changes to your business to maximize potential profits based on your month-by-month sales data.
Do you know your target market? Is it something you’ve specifically chosen? Your website holds the keys to all sorts of knowledge, and you can unlock it with Google Analytics. You’ll have a comprehensive breakdown of your website’s traffic, and you’ll know exactly where your customers are based. Are you selling more in Canada than in Florida? Again, data can bring questions for you to answer. What about your social media game? Analyze your followers on Twitter and Facebook (FB gives you comprehensive tools for this) and get a clear picture. Are things linking up? Do more Canadians follow you than Floridians?
Your business is by now, going to hold a lot of data and data is the premier target of cyber criminals as they can sell it on at high cost to third-parties without leaving a trace. Backup and secure your data with something like BackupVault to ensure that you’re not putting yourself and others at risk. Of course, this should be saddled with regular virus scans and basic computer security techniques! Backing up your data also provides you with security as you can’t afford to accidentally erase it.
Data poses a lot of questions, and hopefully you’ll have the answers. At the very least, data will give you a lot to think about and ideas to take your business forward. Your target audience might be a lot different than what you expected, but thanks to data, you’ll be armed with the knowledge to know that in the first place!