Are you recording, measuring and analysing enough of the data being generated by your business?
With so many apps and digital solutions now available to businesses, there's a wealth of useful data to trawl through – and plenty of hidden insights for you to benefit from.
Here are 5 ways to get more insights from your business data
1. Track your business finances
Managing your business accounts used to be something you left to your accountant. But with cloud accounting now the norm, every business now has 24/7 online access to detailed information about its financial position and performance. Deeper analysis and insights are usually available at the click of a button, helping you spot the pitfalls and potential opportunities.
Your accounting software can show you:
Profit & loss reports and balance sheets, with real-time data to help decision-making
Cashflow forecasts and projections, to help plan your future cash position
Budget tracking and spending reports, to stay in full control of your expenditure.
2. Review your credit score
The credit risk rating your business "is given" by the big credit agencies can have a huge impact on your ability to borrow. A high risk-rating will mean that banks and other lenders will be reluctant to offer you funding. And suppliers will be less open to offering you trade credit.
Some credit bureaus, like Experian, now offer ways to check your business credit score. With a better understanding of your credit data, you can take action to improve your score.
To get in control of your credit position, you should:
Find out your current credit score and how this is impacting on your ability to borrow
Check out your payment history and take action to improve performance
Regularly check this credit data to track improvements or drops in your score
3. Monitor your sales and marketing data
Steady sales are a must for any business that wants to grow, but how much oversight do you have over your historic and future sales data?
An online sales and marketing platform can help track your sales, and campaigns – giving you important data to analyse:
Key data areas to analyse will include:
Which products and/or services are making the most sales, and why
Which customer demographic is the biggest spender, and why they’re advocates
Which campaigns are delivering the best return on investment (ROI)
4. Track your staff performance
Your people are one of your businesses most important assets. But do you know how well your employees are performing, or how engaged they are with the goals of the business? Today’s HR software makes it easy to set goals and track how each team member is performing over the course of the year.
As an employer, you can:
Set performance and training targets, and see how your employees are tracking
Run satisfaction surveys and staff feedback to check in on team engagement
Use your data to drive improved performance and happiness in your workforce
5. Measure your performance against targets
One benefit of tracking your business data is the ability to measure your performance against a given target. Whether it’s a sales target for a new product or service, you have the performance data at your fingertips. This helps you motivate the team, work towards a common goal and ‘gamify’ your progress as a business.
If you share these targets and performance data with your team, this can work wonders for motivation.
When your employees are all aiming for the same goals, you’re a more effective team.
Talk to us about getting more from your data
Transforming your business into a digital business may seem like the end of the process. But the reality is that getting in control of your numbers and performance tracking, is the genuine goal for any ambitious business in 2023.
We can help you focus on analysing the most important data for business success.