Business analysis is crucial to keeping your business growing and moving forward and therefore will certainly demand some of your time. That being said, if working on your business analytics is eating up more and more of your life, then it’s time to explore more effective methods.
Keeping a small business afloat in these troubled economic waters requires using all of your resources efficiently, including your time. It’s easy to get stuck in a business rut where you pour over all your data for weeks or months without coming up with any new insights to help you reduce costs or increase income.
Continuing to spend more time looking at the same information without any new perspective is not going to help dig you out of that rut and it wastes valuable time that could be given to other avenues of your business.
Knowing you need to make a change and actually making one are, we know, two entirely different things. So what are some things you can do to get you out of your business analysis rut?
Get a Fresh Perspective
Reaching out to someone outside of your inner circle of business contacts can help you see things that the complete immersion in your own company may be blinding you from. Useful sources of new ideas and opinions can come from anywhere; anyone from casual business acquaintances to hired outside professionals can bring new ideas into the fold for you to consider. Even if you ultimately don’t use those new ideas, they gave you new angles to think about.
Don't Turn Every Conversation about Your Business Into a Pitch
You’re a small business owner, so of course you want to be successful and make sales. Therefore, it can be tempting to turn every encounter you have with people into a business pitch. It may be difficult to stop viewing everyone you speak to as a potential client, but as soon as you start pitching your business, the whole conversation becomes about, well, pitching your business – as it is now. The person that you’re talking to doesn’t know that you’re looking for new ideas or that you have concerns.
Next time your business comes up when you are talking to someone, keep it conversational. When you are discussing instead of pitching, you’ll feel more comfortable. People can’t resist offering their opinions, so you may get some great ideas.
So, how much time do you spend on business analysis? If you feel like it’s too much, take the time to contact Oates & Company today.
