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Do you want to grow your business, innovate, drive efficiencies, &/or create new revenue streams? Of course, you do! Well data is the starting point…and this is the only data-focused roundup you’ll ever need!
DATA TIPS
In DATA DATA DATA, I want to share the most important lessons learnt that I’ve realised in the last 5 years since I set up Data3 and started working with SMEs on their data challenges and data opportunities.
This time, it’s – focus on the upside.
I get it. Tackling your data challenges takes time, effort, resource, and money. So, it’s totally understandable that you put it off until another day…a day when there’s more time, effort, resource, and money available. But, what if by delaying things, you’re missing out on data opportunities that could make or save your business money?
Because data-driven businesses do make and save more money. Don’t take my word for it, listen to the likes of McKinsey, Forrester, and Harvard Business Review. There are some amazing statistics out there showing that businesses that have harnessed their data create 19 times more profit, acquire 23 times more customers, see an 8% increase revenue and are 5% more productive. Wouldn’t you want those stats? Yet 88% of business data is unused…and often businesses are spending more money on storing data, than they are deriving value from it.
So, when you think about a data project, remember the R side of the ROI calculation – what’s the return on the investment?
- How much money could you make your business through automating manual tasks so you don’t need to recruit at the same rate in future? Could that amount to £50k per year saving in 2023 for instance?
- How much cash could you make by improving your conversion rates? If you improve your conversion rates by 10%, how much would that equate to per annum?
- And how much revenue could you generate from brand new revenue streams from data-driven products and services? If you charged £X per product, and sold X in 2023, what’s your revenue prediction?
By delaying the investment in data, are you also delaying the return?
So, start focusing on the upside today.
DATA THEMES
In the first four issues of DATA DATA DATA, I focused on the four most frequent questions, the team and I get asked – Microsoft or AWS? Power BI or Tableau? Off-the-shelf or DIY? And recruit in-house or use a data consultancy?
This time, the question is – ‘do we need a data engineer or a data scientist or a…?’
When it comes to that first data recruit in your business, what role do you hire for first? I get it. You’ve got a limited budget. You’ve got one role signed off. You’re super excited and you want to get someone in fast. So, what’s the job title you’re putting on the job advert?
I think of data roles in five broad camps, and this is how we structure our team at Data3:
Because one person is NEVER great at all five of these roles, and most people specialise in one of them to become an expert. Even if people straddle a couple of these roles, they usually have a preference, or they usually excel in one significantly more than the other. Watch out for people who say they’re experts in everything!
So, what role do you recruit for first? I’d say a Data Engineer. Data Consultants and Data Architects can be brought in on demand, for a fixed project, to create the data strategy, design the technology stack, and get you up and running. But the data engineer will be the one to wrangle all your data into one place for you. And you need to do that before you can visualise the data into dashboards and before you can create data science models. So, start with a Data Engineer, that’s my usual answer.
In future issues of DATA DATA DATA, I’ll cover other frequent questions that I’ve come across when talking data with our clients…anyone want to guess what they are?!
DATA QUOTES
Love a data-related joke? I do too. Well, you’ll absolutely love this list of the 80 best data-related jokes in the world! Who know such a list existed?! Fortunately, Google came to my rescue when I needed to make data fun in my networking group. https://upjoke.com/data-jokes
Watch out though – some of them are for over 18s only! And one of those landed a treat with my networking group!
In future issues, I’ll share more quotes I hear, quotes I read, quotes you tell me about, and more – what’s your favourite data-related quote? Let me know and we’ll find a data-related prize for the best one.
DATA FREEBIES
Want a FREE 1-hour consultation call with one of our data experts? You got it.
Drop us a line with the following information:
- What’s the data challenge or data opportunity you need help with?
- What are the specific questions you want answers to?
- What would good look like at the end of a 1-hour consultation call with us?
If we think we can help you, we’ll set up a call with you and provide our data expertise for you, for FREE. Nowt. Zero. Completely free. Drop us a line at hello@data-cubed.co.uk by 30th November 2022.
In future issues, I’ll share links to super useful, completely FREE videos, guides, templates, and similar…so, there are loads more freebies to come.
Thank you for reading…I’ll be back soon with more data news.
And, if you’re in data hell, I’m data Hels!
Recommend a friend or colleague to join our mailing list for DATA DATA DATA – hello@data-cubed.co.uk or connect with me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/helentanner/