Analysing Your Business Data: Questions Before Numbers

What I am asked for most after delivering any system is one sentence: "give me reports".

And the question nobody asks: reports about what?

So the reports get built, opened once or twice, then never opened again. **And not because they are

wrong — but because they answer questions nobody asked**.

The rule this course rests on

Data does not answer a question you did not ask.

Read it twice.

Data is not a source of ideas — it is an instrument of settlement. **Come to it with a specific

question and it gives you an answer**, come to it with none and it gives you pages.

And the practical difference: start from the question then look for the data ← not **from the data

then look for what it says. And the second is what nearly everyone does**, and it is why most reports go

unread.

Four questions this course answers

And the whole thing is built on them:

1. Where do my customers actually come from? ← and not where I think (lessons five and seven).

2. Which of them come back? ← and this is the most important number nobody measures (lesson five).

3. Is this change real, or noise? ← (lesson four).

4. Where does the answer hide when the total looks normal? ← (lesson six).

And try them now: answer all four with what you know. **And if your answer is "it feels like" or "people

say", that is why you are here.**

Why the report goes unread

And three causes I have seen repeat:

1. No decision behind it ← and a measure that does not change a decision is entertainment, which is

the rule of the "Reading Your Business Numbers" course and applies here word for word.

2. A number with no comparison ← "we sold such an amount this month" ← and how much last month?

(lesson three).

3. Late ← a report arriving two months on tells you what you can no longer change.

And the remedy for all three is one: **write the question first, and state what you will do with each

possible answer — and if your action is the same whatever the number, do not build the report**.

What this course is not

It is not about your financial numbers — profit, cash, margin and break-even are in the "Reading Your

Business Numbers" course, **and here we talk about your customers, channels and products rather than their

profitability**.

Nor is it about building spreadsheets — that is the "Excel for Business" course, **and I assume you can

build a simple sheet and a pivot**.

Nor is it academic statistics. We will compute no significance and no standard deviation — **but

practical rules that stop you deciding on noise** (lesson four).

And I will not name an analytics tool or a service. Tools change, **and the question "what do I want to

know" does not. And everything in this course runs in a simple sheet.**

And I will not mention a single figure of my own. **Numbers belong to each business alone, and the method

belongs to nobody.**

When this course does not concern you

Three cases, and I will say them before you continue:

1. Your business started a few months ago ← you have no history to compare against, and comparison is

half the course ← start recording now and come back in a year.

2. Your customers are few and you know them by name ← ask them, do not analyse them. **And lesson

seven alone is enough for you**.

3. Your problem is that you know the answer and do not act on it ← and this is the most honest.

Analysis then is a polite postponement — **and no number will give you a permission you have not given

yourself**.

And the third is the one people resist: **data improves your decision, it does not take it for

you**.

And I will not promise you this raises your sales. Data does not create demand — **and I will

repeat that in the closing. What it does is stop you deciding on an impression.**

What you need to start

And you need no tool:

• A dated record of your sales — even a paper book
• Something identifying the customer — a name or a phone number
• The source of the order if it is recorded — and if it is not, lesson seven starts here

A year of data is better, and six months is enough to start. **And if nothing is recorded at all, your

first task is to start recording today — data cannot be gathered retroactively**.

Action steps

1. Write the rule and post it: data does not answer a question you did not ask.
2. Answer the four questions with what you know now, and record where your answer was a feeling.
3. Ask of every report that reaches you: what decision will I make with it?
4. Cancel one report you never open — and write down why it was built.
5. Go honestly through "when this does not concern you", starting with the third.
6. Do not buy an analytics tool for the sake of this course.
7. Make sure your record carries the date and something identifying the customer.
8. If the order source is not recorded, start recording it today.