Small Entrepreneur & Big Data

Not only big entrepreneurs have unused data laying around somewhere that the entrepreneur doesn't know what is in the unused data. The small enterprises have them too. With the small enterprise I mean the Midden & Klein bedrijf in Dutch. Nowadays it is not only in the drawer that there is unused data, but also in storage online. Most people have an e-mailbox with unlimited data storage and 1 or 2 online services where unlimited data can be stored. Think about old course materials, advise, photos, etc. This might not be important, and most people would want to throw it away, but think I might need something in it and keep it forever, but never looking into this data. This can be called Big Data. Big Data has the following features:

• Messy. Example: A data stick with every data not used recently on it. Mostly because the computer got out of memory, and I just put the data on a stick to sort out later.

• The amount of data differs depending on the source using. Example: Drawers with the names 2012, 2013, 2014, etc. Opening the year 2012 drawer I see pictures and the administration of 2012, but if I open the year 2013, I see blog research, Excel course material, administration, etc. And in the drawer year 2014 there is advise, blog research and the administration of 2015.

• Not knowing if data is complete. Example: An Excel course without chapter 2, but all the other chapters.

• Without order in the mess of files. Example: The Excel course is partially online, partially offline, and partially still between the data now in use. It has to be collected from everywhere before it can be used.

Small Entrepreneur & Data

Most zzp'ers and other small entrepreneurs think that data is something used by researchers or IT, but everybody is daily busy with data. A few examples of daily work of entrepreneurs containing using data:

• Looking up a contact in the address book to send an email

• Doing bookkeeping

• Making products or services for clients.

These all are most of the time not Big Data, because entrepreneurs use them daily and keep them neatly. These are data all entrepreneurs can do. Then there is data that knowledge is needed for.

Research All Entrepreneurs Can Do Themselves With A Little Help Of Excel

With the end of the year coming up an annual report is a good example of use of data. Is it research? I would call it small research because there is some analysis needed. With some knowledge of Excel this can be done. The Excel skills needed are:

• Calculating in Excel

• Translating the calculated figures in graphs and Tables.

Together with some text these figures and tables become the annual report and can be seen as a research result (DataViz) that can be done by everyone with Excel knowledge. And then there is the more analyzed research. In this blog I will keep to Big Data analysis.

The Benefits Of Analyzing Big Data In Small Enterprises 

Analyzing Big Data is more specialized, and statistics knowledge is needed. It is about looking into old data for small entrepreneurs with the following result:

• The data can be trashed, because there is nothing interesting in it 

• New products can be developed based on old data

• Or the business can be improved based on past feedback of the clients.

The one analysis the entrepreneur can do thyself is using a decision tree-analysis to decide if the collected old data can be used to develop for example a new ecourse, for writing a book, give advice, etc. I dedicated a whole blog to how a decision tree-analysis works with an example, Blog: ‘Using a decision tree to determine where to go’. Also in the picture below part of decision tree-analysis is showed.