Data – It Can Make You or Break You

Data is crucial to run a business. Analyzing the business data and taking the appropriate actions accordingly are key elements to better business practices. A friend of mine had a very lucrative digital printing and computer business where he used to repair/troubleshoot customer computers and had a big digital printing plant. The business was running well, but the main problem was he never preserved or archived the sales data and never bothered to look or analyze it. He didn’t realize the importance of archiving data, tracking trends e.g. best selling services, where the weaknesses laid, which products or services needed to be reconsidered or discontinued in order to increase profitability. A few years later he was at a point where he thought he might be losing his business but he never dared to look at the data and analyze it. His hunch was that the overall costs of goods were going over the overall sales.

For example…

Sales
	Items	Total Sales
	Laptop Repair	$220.00
COG
	Labor	Parts	Others	Total
	$100.00	$120.00	$50.00	$270.00
Revenue
	($50.00)

On one instance, he lost $50 for one laptop repair. This one instance lead to a number of repeatable instances which never were realized until later on when one day he was unable to buy materials to run his business because there was no money in the bank.

But since he never looked at the sales data, he couldn’t control this reoccurring troublesome trend brewing without his knowledge. In the end he had no money to pay the rent and his bank had a negative balance. To run a business, data is very important and he realized that right after he had lost the business.

To run any kind of business, everyone should have a good understanding of the sales data, so he/she can gain more control on the overall business. Then they would not hesitate to make the right decision because they would have the right information at hand. Due to my friends lack of knowledge regarding his businesses operational data hindered his ability to stay in business. There always is a proper way to handle data and slice and dice it correctly to suit your business needs. Being naive towards enterprise data can make our lives miserable.

Afm Rahman, Data Migration Consultant, Utopia, Inc.