Big data is an important part of any business on today’s competitive environment.
However, it is just as essential to know what to do with Big Data (and what not to do) to ensure that access to all of that information provides benefits to your small business.
Know Why You Need Big Data
If you are going to accumulate a large amount of data, you need to know why you want it and what you will do with it.
This helps you know exactly what kind of data you want to use. If you have limited storage, you don’t want to collect a lot of information you won’t ever plan to use.
Having a pre-planned purpose for your data ensures that you don’t just keep collecting it without putting it to use.
Otherwise, you can be a great collector but a poor analyst.
You will think that Big Data has no benefit for your company, when the truth is that you didn’t utilize the advantages.
Know What to Collect
Once you have a purpose for collecting Big Data, you will know what information you want to collect.
If you are trying to analyze how people share information and what information they share, you will want to monitor people’s social media usage. If you are looking at people’s buying habits, you will follow data accumulated from various purchases.
You may be interested in demographics or methods of purchase. You may even want to know the time of day people make certain purchases.
The fact is that you will collect a lot more data than you will ever use, so you need to know what you are looking for and how to retrieve it.
As the article, “5 Toxic Mindsets to Avoid If You Want to Leverage Big Data“, says, the idea that you need all of the data you can get isn’t beneficial.
You don’t want to collect data just for the sake of collecting.
Don’t Get Overwhelmed
On the other hand, you don’t want to assume you already have enough data.
People are always changing and their habits, attitudes and behaviors change as well. What was true yesterday will not always be true tomorrow and may already be obsolete today.
While you don’t want to accumulate large amounts of data that you won’t use, you must continue collecting the kind of data that you do utilize. This information can change by day and by customer and you want to be on top of the changes before they happen.
For example, if you spot a trend that says customers are purchasing a new kind of electronic gadget and another one is becoming obsolete, you will want to stock that new item while keeping less of the old one in inventory.
Big Data can help businesses of all sizes if you avoid the main pitfalls of collecting it.
Know what you want to collect and why and make sure you continue collecting the information that helps your business to meet customer needs.
About the Author: Joyce Morse is an author who writes on a variety of topics, including finance and running a small business.