{"id":539,"date":"2018-01-26T11:38:36","date_gmt":"2018-01-26T09:38:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sage-new-clone.local\/en-za\/blog\/?p=423"},"modified":"2026-02-04T16:43:58","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T14:43:58","slug":"big-data-for-small-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/big-data-for-small-business\/","title":{"rendered":"There\u2019s big value in small business data"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header has-dark-background-color entry-header--has-illustration entry-header--has-illustration--generic\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__row row align-center\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col col-lg-7 col-xlg-6 entry-header__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"component component-single-header\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__misc text--subtitle text--uppercase text--small\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/category\/growth-customers\/\" class=\"entry-header__link\">Growth &amp; Customers<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-title-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"entry-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThere\u2019s big value in small business data\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"entry-header__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"single-post-details container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"posted-on \"><time class=\"entry-date published\" datetime=\"2018-01-26T11:38:36+02:00\">Jan 26, 2018<\/time><\/span><span class=\"reading-time\"> min read<\/span>\n\t\t<button\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\tclass=\"social-share-button button button--icon button--secondary js-social-share-button\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-title=\"There\u2019s big value in small business data\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-url=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/big-data-for-small-business\/\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-text=\"Please read this interesting article\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__share-label\">Share<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-label\" hidden>Copy Link<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-tooltip\" aria-hidden=\"true\" hidden>Copied<\/span>\n\t\t<\/button>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-post-author has-dark-background-color alignfull\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"co-authors\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-author-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<a class=\"entry-author\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/author\/keirthomasbryant\/\">\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/04\/Keir-350x350.jpg\" class=\"entry-author__image\" alt=\"Keir Thomas-Bryant\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/04\/Keir-350x350.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/04\/Keir.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 40px) 100vw, 40px\" \/>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"entry-author__name\">Keir Thomas-Bryant<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>I read an interesting article the other day about how&nbsp;<a><\/a>a novel targeted at young, single females and housewives wasn\u2019t selling as well as expected. When the publisher looked deeper into its sales data, it found that this market segment made up only a small portion of readers \u2013 and that the majority of buyers were actually older women and men!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The publisher acted on this information, adjusted its marketing strategy and book sales increased substantially. It made me think about the value of data to small businesses and the transformative impact data-driven decisions can have on companies of any size \u2013&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/industrynews\/216398-this-is-how-data-driven-sa-businesses-are.html\">especially on the bottom line<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet small business owners are still wary of data, believing they don\u2019t have access to the tools and skills needed to process huge volumes of information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><mark class=\"highlight-and-share\">The truth is that your small business has been producing data for a long time and, by not acting on that information, you could be missing out on unexpected growth opportunities.<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-why-should-small-businesses-care-about-data\">Why should small businesses care about data?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s easy for a small business owner to get overwhelmed when faced with mountains of data. Often, they don\u2019t know where to start or what questions to ask of the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My advice is to start small. Identify a specific business problem and play around with your data until you have an answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-some-questions-you-might-want-to-ask-include\"><strong>Some questions you might want to ask include:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Am I targeting the right audience?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Why is product X selling so well in one area but not another?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Why did my sales peak on this specific day and how do I repeat that?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Even if you don\u2019t have a lot of data in your internal systems, you can still access free public data sources \u2013 like weather, mapping, market research and government data. The most powerful data \u2013 from your website traffic patterns and social media sentiment \u2013 can be easily accessed and analysed using tools like Google Analytics and social listening platforms (such as&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/buffer.com\/\">Buffer<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/hootsuite.com\/\">HootSuite<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-user-friendly-tools\">User-friendly tools<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Data analytics tools are getting easier to use. Most good solutions today feature powerful visualisation tools that let you see a trend as a graph or a chart, making it easier to understand. Many others use familiar interfaces like Excel so that you don\u2019t need lots of training to make sense of your data. The barriers to entry are becoming lower, thanks to these easy-to-use tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The other good news is that small businesses have less data to worry about but the insights they can get from that data could have a massive impact on their operations and profit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The more you know, the better decisions you can make for your business. It starts with knowing the problem you\u2019re trying to solve and being agile enough to act on the insights you find in your data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-insights-you-could-uncover-using-data-that-s-already-freely-accessible-and-readily-available-to-you-include\">Insights you could uncover using data that\u2019s already freely accessible and readily available to you include:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Analysing your\u00a0<strong>sales data<\/strong>\u00a0to get a better picture of your customer so you know who to target.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Analysing\u00a0<strong>customer feedback<\/strong>\u00a0on social media and phone transcripts to improve your product or service, as well as your customers\u2019 experience of your brand.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Understanding what your\u00a0<strong>competitors<\/strong>\u00a0are doing and the public sentiment around their product.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Understanding why a certain\u00a0<strong>product<\/strong>\u00a0sells in one area but not another. People who live in areas with cooler temperatures are more likely to buy bulky jackets, for example.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Making use of the built-in data analysis and business insights tools in your cloud accounting and invoicing software to better understand your busy and quiet periods and how to prepare for them by adjusting your\u00a0<strong>inventory<\/strong>\u00a0levels.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Identifying\u00a0<strong>trends in customer spending habits<\/strong>, like which products sell more on Wednesdays, for example.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Using free tools like Google Analytics to measure the\u00a0<strong>traffic<\/strong>\u00a0to your website and to see how people interact with the content. These tools also help to track Internet searches of your company or the products it supplies.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Analysing\u00a0<strong>search pattern trends<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 freely available from Google \u2013 to optimise your website and content for SEO.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n<div class=\"single-cta\">\n\t<div class=\"single-cta__positioner\">\n\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__wrapper has-dark-background-color\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"single-cta__title h3\">Subscribe to the Sage Advice enewsletter<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Get a roundup of our best business advice in your inbox every month.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"#gate-84fe79b5-668d-41f8-a0cc-6229018c4ac9\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"single-cta__button button button--primary\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t>Subscribe<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1440\" height=\"810\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1181404518-1440x810.jpg\" class=\"single-cta__image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1181404518-1440x810.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 48em) 33vw, 100vw\" \/>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\tData analytics tools are getting easier to use. Most good solutions today feature powerful visualisation tools that let you see a trend as a graph or a chart, making it easier to understand. Many others use familiar interfaces like Excel so that you don\u2019t need lots of training to make sense of your data. The barriers to entry are becoming lower, thanks to these easy-to-use tools.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":280,"featured_media":68322,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"post_featured_image_hide":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,24,28,44],"tags":[315,327],"business_type":[2],"lilypad":[],"context":[],"industry":[],"persona":[16],"imagine_tag":[63,65,68,85,81],"coauthors":[405],"class_list":["post-539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-getting-customers","category-growth-customers","category-technology-innovation","category-todays-tech","tag-business-intelligence","tag-data-analysis","business_type-small-business"],"sage_meta":{"region":"en-za","author_name":"Keir Thomas-Bryant","featured_image":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/07\/resize-1675x1275-38.jpg","imagine_tags":{"63":"Business intelligence","65":"Data","68":"Grow your business","85":"Small business","81":"Technology and Innovation"}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice South Africa","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/280"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/68322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539"},{"taxonomy":"business_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/business_type?post=539"},{"taxonomy":"lilypad","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/lilypad?post=539"},{"taxonomy":"context","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/context?post=539"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=539"},{"taxonomy":"persona","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/persona?post=539"},{"taxonomy":"imagine_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/imagine_tag?post=539"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}