Imagine you’re driving a car with no dashboardâno speedometer, no fuel gauge, nothing. You wouldn’t know how fast you’re going or when you’d run out of fuel. Running a business without analytics is exactly like that.
In this course, youâll learn how to harness the power of data to make informed business decisions rather than relying on gut feelings. By the end, youâll be able to:
Complete the course and take the quiz at the end to earn your certificateâperfect for showcasing your skills to friends and colleagues!
Prefer watching? Click play below! Prefer reading? Scroll down for the full text-based course.
At its core, business analytics is the process of examining data to extract insights that help businesses make smarter decisions. It answers three fundamental questions:
What has happened? This involves analyzing past performance.
Why did it happen? Here, we identify causes and correlations.
What should we do next? This helps in planning for the future.
Imagine you own a fashion boutique in Lagos. If your sales suddenly drop in January, analytics can help you determine whether the cause was seasonal trends, a new competitor, or a change in customer preferences. Once you identify the reason, you can take corrective actionâperhaps by offering discounts, increasing marketing efforts, or adjusting your inventory.
Business analytics isn’t just for large corporations. Even small businesses can leverage it to improve efficiency, increase sales, and reduce costs. Whether youâre running a retail store in Accra, a restaurant in Kumasi, or a logistics business in Abuja, data-driven decisions will always give you a competitive edge.
This is the simplest form of analytics and answers the question, âWhat happened?â It involves reviewing past data to identify trends.
For example, if you run a bakery in Accra, descriptive analytics might show that your highest sales come from birthday cake orders on weekends. Recognizing this pattern, you could launch weekend promotions to maximize revenue.
This takes historical data and uses it to make predictions about what might happen next. If last yearâs December sales doubled compared to other months, you can reasonably expect a similar increase this year.
A business owner in Lagos selling ankara fabrics may notice that sales peak before weddings and festive seasons. By using predictive analytics, they can stock up on popular patterns before demand surges, ensuring they never run out of inventory.
This type of analytics goes beyond predicting what will happen and suggests the best course of action to achieve a desired outcome.
Imagine you run a grocery store in Ibadan and notice that sales dip on Mondays. Instead of just acknowledging the trend, prescriptive analytics might suggest running Monday morning discounts or offering free home deliveries to boost sales on slow days.
When something unexpected happens in your business, diagnostic analytics helps uncover the root cause.
For instance, if your restaurantâs sales drop despite steady foot traffic, analyzing customer feedback might reveal that customers are unhappy with longer wait times. With this insight, you can work on improving service speed, adjusting staffing levels, or streamlining the ordering process.
To make business analytics effective, you must follow a structured approach. Think of it as baking a cakeâif you miss a step, the outcome wonât be as expected.
Before analyzing data, ask yourself: What problem am I trying to solve? A tailor in Kumasi might want to know which clothing styles are most profitable, while a barber in Abuja might want to identify peak customer hours. Clearly defining your goal will help you focus on relevant data.
Data can come from various sources, including:
Sales records â How much are you selling daily, weekly, or monthly?
Customer feedback â What do customers like or dislike?
Marketing data â Which advertising strategies are working?
For example, an electronics shop in Lagos tracking its sales might realize that customers frequently ask for a payment instalment option. This insight could lead to the introduction of a “Buy Now, Pay Later” plan to increase sales.
Once data is collected, it needs to be organized and cleaned to ensure accuracy. This means:
â Removing duplicate entries.
â Fixing errors (e.g., wrong currency values).
â Organizing information logically.
An online clothing store in Ghana might analyze customer location data and realize that most orders come from Accra. This insight could encourage them to open a physical store in Accra to increase brand presence.
Numbers alone wonât improve your businessâyou must interpret them and take action.
If a restaurant owner in Nigeria sees that jollof rice sells out every Friday evening, they might decide to:
Increase the quantity prepared.
Offer a special Friday-only meal deal.
Raise prices slightly to boost profits.
Analytics is an ongoing process. After making changes, track the results and adjust as needed. If your changes donât work as expected, tweak them until you find a winning strategy.
When analyzing your business, focus on these five areas:
1ď¸âŁ Customer Data â Who are your best customers? What do they buy?
2ď¸âŁ Sales Performance â Which products sell best? When do sales peak?
3ď¸âŁ Operational Efficiency â Are there delays or bottlenecks in your processes?
4ď¸âŁ Financial Metrics â Revenue, expenses, profit margins, cash flow.
5ď¸âŁ Market Trends â Industry shifts, competitor performance, customer demands.
đš Example: A bakery tracks its best-selling pastries and discovers that croissants sell best in the morning while cakes sell more in the evening. This insight helps optimize production schedules.
Data Quality Issues: Poor or incomplete data leads to unreliable insights.
Lack of Technical Knowledge: Many entrepreneurs struggle to use analytics tools effectively.
Bias in Interpretation: Sometimes, business owners twist data to match what they want to see rather than whatâs actually happening.
Use the Right Tools: The Oze Business App makes it easy to track sales, expenses, and generate insights without technical expertise.
Analyze Data Regularly: Donât wait for problems to arise before checking your numbers.
Take Action on Insights: Analytics is useless if you donât apply the learnings to improve your business.
Business analytics empowers you to make data-driven decisions that improve profitability, customer satisfaction, and operational efficiency.
â Challenge: Apply one analytics technique in your business this week.
â Test Your Knowledge: Take the quiz linked below to reinforce your learning.
â Explore Oze: Use the Oze App to track your business performance and get real-time insights.
The businesses that succeed are the ones that understand their numbers. Make sure yours is one of them!