This post is provided by Jason Dirkham.
If you’re running a small business, you’re going to have to get to grips with all sorts of subjects that you may never have considering getting involved with before. Data is just one of them. But, at the end of the day, data is absolutely integral to your business’ success and if you fail to pay sufficient attention to it, your business’ growth could become stunted and you could find yourself facing various different problems. So, let’s take a moment to see what data’s all about!
What is Data?
Defining data can be relatively difficult and you may want to use a professional data management service to fully get to grips with it. But a simple way to explain is to say that data is any piece of information that your business takes. This sounds broad, so let’s break it down a little. Data could be a fact, it could be a figure, it could be a number. It could be a measurement, or you may find data in a simple observation. Data can be sourced from all sorts of things.
How Data Can Help Your Company
Storing every single piece of data pertaining to your company can prove to be difficult. After all, there’s so much of it! So, be selective in the data you monitor and keep. Two types of data that you might want to consider looking into and storing include:
Interaction Data – You want customers to interact with your brand. Every time a customer does interact with your brand, you can use the data associated with this interaction to gain insight into what your customers are doing, why your sales are up or down or anything else that can inform your business decisions.
Sales Data – You can also use sales data to gain insight into what causes your sales to increase and decrease. You can then make better informed business decisions based on this information.
Storing Data
Data storage and the way you use data comes hand in hand with all sorts of data prot cru in laws. These laws apply to you no matter what your company sells or does. You are required by law to store data correctly! In terms of protecting customers, you need to ensure that their personal information isn’t shared with third parties or accessible to hackers. Data that you might need to be careful storing include their full name, email address, postal address, card details and other personal information.
Storing this information correctly prevents your customers from having to deal with fraud and identity theft. Securestorage can be carried out in-house or outsourced. Either way, follow protocol. You should also invest in a shredder so that any sensitive or personal information that has been printed out can be shredded when it is disposed of too.
Data really is integral to your business’ success, but as you can see, you need to take precautions when it comes to storing it too. This is a big responsibility that can really pay off!
This post is provided by Jason Dirkham.
