data analystWhen you have a bad day in the office, it might be tempting to try and forget about it and move on. The only problem is what if tomorrow is as equally as bad a day, and the whole week continues in a similar fashion. If you run a business, you could end up losing a lot of money or even worse, put the future of the company in jeopardy. Instead of trying to forget about it, it’s important to analyse everything that happens in business. That includes how successful your good ideas were, and how unsuccessful your bad ideas were. Here are some ways that analysis can help you improve your business.

Start collecting data

When you start any new project or make any big change in business, it’s important to be able to recognise whether it was a good decision or not. The best way to do this is to collect data before the change, during the change, and after the change has been implemented. For example, if you run a car wash and decide to up the price of a service, it’s important not just to record how many people have visited your site since you put the price up. It’s important to know how many people visited before the change so you can compare the numbers. It may also be important to record how many people return to the business once they’ve realised the price has gone up. Only by analysing all of that data can you be sure whether or not it was a worthwhile decision.

Analyse that data

Once you have all the data you need, it’s important to be able to analyse it quickly and accurately. Taking the car wash example from earlier, if you’re not able to quickly recognise that putting the price up has meant customers are going elsewhere, you could be losing more and more customers every day.

The best way to analyse this data isn’t by using an old notebook and a calculator. Instead, find a digital tool that can carry out all the calculations for you instantly. When it comes to choosing business intelligence software, it can often be extremely complicated as there are a lot of options on the market. Each one will have its own special features, including software that can spot trends in the data, protect data and even source other relevant data from external sources to help with any comparisons. Make sure you read independent reviews on each piece of software to make sure it has the most suitable features for your business before buying.

Learn from it

Once you’ve analysed data, make sure you act on the findings. In the car wash example, if you were losing too many customers the obvious change would be to revert to your old pricing strategy. You may also need to go further and market your new price to try and attract those who you have lost during this period. Make sure your whole team realise the effect of any decision and exactly what needs to be done next.