How busy are you as a small business owner? You’re balancing your books. You’re checking on inventory to ensure that you are able to fulfill your incoming orders. You’re deciding which product lines to grow and which services to get rid of. You’re debating whether it’s time for you to expand to a second location. And you’re wondering which of your staffers is talented and dedicated enough to turn into managers. Put simply, you’re extremely busy. There is however one more item that ought to be on your to-do list: You need to analyze big data and utilize that data to develop deeper relationships with customers. Of course, you might have no idea how to do this. And you might not know what big data even is. But here’s why big data isn’t only for big businesses. Here’s why big data can help your small business prosper even in a difficult economy.
Defining Big Data
Here’s what you need to know about big data: It can help you manage your small business more effectively. That’s because it can show you what your core customers want, what they don’t already have and just how many dollars they’ll be prepared to spend to get it. John Weathington, writing for the technology blog TechRepublic, states that big data are large amounts of information that’s moving quickly. The good news? This data is freely available. The difficulty? It’s hard for small business owners to access and analyze these large quantities of information. However, if you have this info on hand? You’ll have a big advantage over your competitors.
Big Data In Action
Big data gives businesses, even small ones, a competitive advantage. CIO Magazine provides three examples. The magazine cites a financial firm that uses large financial data sets and data analytics tools to help their clients decide how to best plan their retirements. This, not surprisingly, gives this financial firm an edge in attracting clients.
Exmobaby uses big data to attract parents who want their babies to be as healthy and well as possible. The company sells pajamas that include built-in sensors. These sensors monitor the babies wearing the pajamas and sends health information in real time to parents. It’s not hard to see how big health data sets help this company attract the business of anxious parents. Finally, the CIO story cites Parchment. This company analyzes such education information as grade point averages, SAT scores and college acceptance data to help students apply to those colleges which are most likely to accept them. By making use of big sets of data in order to save their clients both time and frustration, Parchment is able to steadily build its client base.