When we discuss data analytics, we often do so in relation to big companies and enterprises. Data analytics maybe a necessity for the giants of industry but it is just as useful to your WhatsApp business. It is easy to believe that because of the academic name, “data analytics”, it is an unnecessary burden for your small online kiosk. The truth however, is that data analytics is a necessary tool for the success of any business regardless of scale.
In business, data analytics is the interpretation of customer and market data in order to identify trends or behavioural patterns. Data analytics also provides insight into the activities of a business in order to highlight areas of strength and weakness. The interpretation of data when done correctly, can significantly improve the profitability of a business or ensure the business achieves whatever goal it may have.
It is however common place that many small businesses in Nigeria do not collect data about their business. In simpler words, they do not keep accurate records of sales and purchases. In this case we find that decisions are made based on gut feeling, bias or incomplete information. To remedy this, small business owners need to develop the skill of keeping records in an organized form on paper and not simply in your head.
More so, it is important that the records being kept are not kept simply for the purpose of keeping them. The records need to be stored in a form that makes it easy to use for analysis and to extract information. For example, a WhatsApp vendor that sells shoes, may need to know which of the shoes has the highest or lowest order rate. This can help the vendor know which shoes to drop and which ones to increase its stock. However, without accurate sales records, which for a WhatsApp vendor is likely not a phenomenal ask, a decision like this will be made on perception and not facts.
The key thing to note from all that has been said so far is this: the records of your small business is not simply for records sake. While many small business owners may have some form of accounting records, they are not likely to have marketing records. For instance, a shoe vendor may not have a record of which of their shoes gets the most response? This is important to note because close analysis of such a record if kept well may show that the shoe with the most response gets little or no sale. In which case the business owner will have to a question to answer. Why? It is in the asking and answering of these questions that successful whatsapp vendors begin to record successes and get the best return on their investment.
Needless to say, accurate record keeping is a necessity if you ever want to scale your business from being a typical WhatsApp business. In addition, when meeting with potential investors, having the numbers that back the profitability of our business makes persuasion a lot easier.
My First day at the Lagos Business School