Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to BK Talks Business, the podcast where we dive into the world of entrepreneurship with practical insights and actionable tips. I'm BK, your host, a project and operations management professional, and I am thrilled to have you join me. Over the next 30 days, we'll be delving into 30 systems in 30 days. Each episode of this series is designed to be short, sweet and power-packed with valuable information geared at helping you get your business to run like a well-oiled machine, and at the end of 30 days, you will have a pretty good list of the systems in your business that, if optimized, can take you to the next level by being more efficient. Let's get started. Hey there, welcome back to another episode.

Speaker 1: 0:56

So one of my mentors often says you cannot grow what you don't know. How true is this? Today, we're adding to our systems list data analysis and reporting, exploring how small or even medium businesses can leverage data to make informed decisions. First things first, if you don't already, you need to love data and have a data-driven mindset. As business owners, it's essential to recognize the value of data in driving growth, whether it's customer feedback, sales trends or even operational metrics or social media data trends, or even operational metrics or social media data. Data holds the key to unlocking valuable insights that can either make or break your success, and by data I mean the numbers. So, to begin with, you need to be clear on understanding your business goals and objectives. You want to define very clearly, for yourself and for your team, your key performance indicators, your KPIs. You want these to align with your goals, such as your sales revenue, for example, or customer acquisition cost, or your website traffic. Once you've identified your KPIs, you need a constant or consistent reporting cadence. Set aside time each week or each month to review your data, to track your progress and to see if you really are advancing towards your goals. Do you input and review the numbers every Monday morning, for example? The key thing is that this is done on a regular basis, and this regular monitoring helps you stay informed about how your business is performing and it'll help you identify areas of improvement in real time.

Speaker 1: 3:08

Another good idea is don't overwhelm yourself with complicated tools and software. If the tech is kind of holding you back and overwhelming you, it's perfectly okay to start with a simple Google sheet. It's perfectly okay to start with a simple Google sheet, something that captures all your KPIs, and then you can work off of that you can invest in specific data analysis tools. Look for tools and software solutions that are intuitive, that are easy to use Um and that can work even with limited technical expertise. Things like Google Analytics, for example, can be great. It is simple enough for even the least technical person to use, but you can still get so much out of it. Even Microsoft Excel and the Google Sheets that I've already mentioned also offer powerful features for analyzing, even visualizing, your data, so you can build simple dashboards without the need for advanced skill or training. But the thing is to start Start tracking your numbers, and then you can work up to maybe more complex analysis or data visualization.

Speaker 1: 4:38

So do you know what you want to measure within your business? Do you know what you should be measuring? It's important for small business owners to be aware of industry standards and benchmarks relevant to their particular niche. So maybe research a little bit about what are the KPIs and the benchmarks that are common in your industry. This will give you a bit of an understanding into how your business performance compares to competitors or peers in your industry, for example. If you are in e-commerce, for example, you might track metrics such as conversion rate, average order value, cart abandonment rate, and the reason for understanding industry benchmarks for these is to help you set realistic goals and to identify areas where you might need to improve or to tweak something within your business to stay competitive. Of course, this also depends on where you are in the world. Some countries have this industry information easily and readily available and some don't. That's okay. In any case, you want to track how your business is doing, track your numbers to make sure that you are indeed moving towards the goals that you have set.

Speaker 1: 6:10

So implementing effective data analysis and reporting processes starts with collecting and organizing your data. Make sure you know what data you want and where to find it. You want to capture relevant data from various sources, such as your sales transactions, your website analytics, your customer service surveys, your social media numbers in the various places. So next, you can just look at the numbers as is. So next, you can just look at the numbers as is as you input them. You can see immediately are numbers increasing, decreasing and you can understand your data from that. But if you want to visualize that data, you can make it easier to understand, make it easier to communicate much faster if you have it visualized. So using things like charts and graphs and dashboards. To present your data in a visually engaging format really highlights key insights and trends at a quick glance.

Speaker 1: 7:28

So, once your reports are generated, it doesn't stop there. We don't just collect, analyze and sit back. We need to take action. So use what your data is telling you to make data-driven decisions that will drive your business growth and to improve your operational efficiency. So, whether you're looking at refining your marketing strategy or optimizing your products or improving your customer service, let the data, let the information that you get from your data, be what guides your next steps.

Speaker 1: 8:09

So having this system will help you in that you'll be able to make informed decisions based on objective information rather than gut feelings or guesswork. It also helps you identify opportunities for growth. It also helps you identify opportunities for growth. You can make the best use of your resources and you can tackle risks more efficiently because you have data to back up your decisions. So, ultimately, using data well can drive profitability. It can increase your efficiency and your long-term success for your business. All right, that's it System number 22,. Data analysis and reporting invaluable tools for small businesses and small business owners who are looking to gain a competitive edge in the marketplace. Thank you for tuning in to today's episode. Chat again tomorrow, same place, new system. Bye for now.