Information on Big Data:  Why people don’t want to look at data.

Information on Big DataCan I be frank here?  We’ve been told for years now that data is the future, yet SO MANY businesses refuse to embrace it like they should.  I see it left and right in this line of work and I’m realizing that there are a lot of reasons why… and they have nothing to do with numbers.

Data is scary.

Data is confusing, overwhelming, and scary sometimes.  If you’re not a numbers person, data feels literally like someone is speaking Russian to you.  We know it’s confusing.  Let’s just start there with that understanding.  IT. IS. CONFUSING. But that’s why we’re here.  We speak the language of data and we also speak English too.  If you know you need data in your business strategy, a team like ours is great because we’ll help translate the data into digestible chunks that you can actually understand.

Don’t wanna face the music…

Frankly, I think this is one of the biggest reasons why people ignore data analytics for their business:  they simply don’t want to face the music.  They’re scared the data may show that they’ve mismanaged their business or that they could’ve been doing something better. Why are we so scared to name our flaws?  We’ll tell you, we’ve made mistakes along the way, and by knowing our weak spots we’ve been able to improve instead of recycle mistake after mistake.

Cost

Data analytics and business intelligence are definitely investments in your business.  The fact is, up until the last year or two, data was too expensive for most small and mid size companies. While it’s attainable, it’s not going to be dirt cheap, and if someone is offering dirt cheap, I guarantee, you’ll get what you paid for and be paying more in the long run.

Realize this, though, data analytics reports can help you streamline your operation so that you know who to target, where to target, how to eliminate wasteful services, hire smarter, and more.  All of these things can add up to thousands upon thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars in many situations.  When you consider the potential savings that BI and data services can provide, your original investment usually pays for itself multiple times over.  Don’t let original proposals cloud the anticipated rewards you’ll get over time, not to mention the basic foundations of data collection or organization that you’ll get as a result too.

Pride…AKA Ego

We come across a lot of egos in business, but please, please, please, don’t let your ego get in the way of making smart decisions.  You may think you know your business better than anyone or anything, but we’ve always been able to shed new light with the help of data.  Even those who think they know all find out new insights from doing data analysis within their business.  Business is done very differently today than it was even fifteen years ago.  Don’t let old-school methods of business cloud your judgment to think you don’t need data in your business model.

Too New

While data feels new, it’s really not that new.  Businesses have been utilizing data analytics, BI, data warehousing, and more for years already.  But, within many industries and brackets of businesses, it “feels” very new.  Just like website felt new too twenty-five years ago and now are an essential tool, data “feels” very new but is really an essential tool for your business. Don’t make the mistake of implementing data too late.

I know I probably hit a sore spot for you because most people fall into one, or all, or these reasons.  My heart is truly that business owners understand what they need in order to be successful in business and data is the key to that.  I’d encourage you to recognize your own reasons why you have been hesitant to use data to grow your business.  Recognizing it will help you understand what mindset shifts need to happen in order to be successful working with a data analytics company or BI solutions company.