Having great data is the first step to understanding your business better. When you have the right insights, you can make more informed business decisions which can help you make more money and grow. It can help you identify opportunities that you can utilise and give you warning signs to issues to avoid them.
Without the right data, you are running your business in the dark.
Getting insights from your business info can be hugely beneficial, but it requires a little background work to make sure you’re collecting the right information and utilising it.
If you’re looking to use your data better, here are some things you can do to add value to your business data.
The first step to getting valuable data is collecting the right information. If you don’t get accurate information to start with, then you can’t get real insights and you might end up fooling yourself.
Make sure that you are collecting information that gives you an accurate picture and be wary of only selecting data you want to see.
If it’s difficult, time-consuming or finicky to collect data, then you’re more likely to get sloppy, incorrect or incomplete information.
Whoever is responsible for collecting business data, whether it’s your front-line team or supporting staff, it’s crucial to give them the right tools to collect information. That can mean different things depending on your business and your budget, but anything from a paper form to fill in, to a fully automated system will help. At a minimum, you should be looking for the right tools to collect information in real-time to try and encourage accurate data and avoid guesstimation.
Building information collection into your processes will also help make it easy to collect without your team feeling like it is taking time out of their day. There are lots of data collection activities that are commonplace, like clocking in and out. By adding data collection to your processes you can make it second nature in your workplace.
Get more insights: WorkGuru Kiosk Can Uncover Hidden Data in Your Business
Once your collecting information, it’s time to shift your focus onto analysing it. You’ll likely find you can get more from your information by tying it to your business goals.
Set SMART goals and north star metrics for your business that help push your business in the right direction, then decide which data you want to report on that will you track your success. For example, if you are looking to make more money, your goal might be to improve your profit margin by 10% by the end of the quarter. Tracking your project margins on each job will be helpful.
Learn more about SMART goals on business.gov.au
Just like collecting data, reporting on your findings should be easy too, otherwise, it will likely get put on the back burner. Invest in tools that do the heavy lifting for you and present you with the information you need with minimal input.
These might come in the form of widgets that keep track of your profitability and capacity, or easy to review tables with up-to-date information. Schedule regular check-ins with your data and include your findings in team meetings when appropriate to solidify data as part of your business.
WorkGuru Custom Report Builder Puts Powerful Reporting At Your Fingertips
WorkGuru is built to help you understand your business and get better insights. WorkGuru gives you widgets in your projects that let you check in real-time how you are tracking, making it fast and easy to view and act on your business data.
WorkGuru gives you over 40 reports that you can access with a click, as well as a custom report builder to delve deeper into your data while keeping it easy.
Plus, because WorkGuru collects information in one place, including timesheets, stock information and project costs you can get powerful insights that cross-reference all these sources.
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