The Practical Value, In Life And Work, Of Knowing Microsoft Excel Enough To Do You Own Templates And Analysis

People are surprised when I tell them that my first (and only) degree is in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. And unlike many people, I had the chance to go back to the core Engineering role I studied for but I didn't, only asked my boss to keep the offer open in case I get bored with Microsoft Excel. Now I make my full-time living from Microsoft Excel.

So what are the practical value you get from being good at using Microsoft Excel?

Let's start with in general life, outside of work. Especially for people whose work won't need them using Microsoft Excel.

1. Non-work Use
What do you think I and many other people use for their personal finance planning and investment analysis? Well, it is Microsoft Excel. Even when you buy a personal finance book and additional resources are given you for practical application of what the book is teaching you, those resources often include Microsoft Excel templates.

What do you think people use to track the performance of their side business? Actually, people use all kinds of things to track their side hustle -- from paper + biro, word of mouth, intuition, Microsoft Excel, to sophisticated apps/software. Hope you noticed Microsoft Excel in the list. If you don't have money for sophisticated apps/software and don't want to use paper + pen, Microsoft Excel is more than enough.

What do people use to plan major events and major projects expenses? Microsoft Excel.

Having a good grasp of Microsoft Excel can make many tedious non-work (or even non-data related work) activities a breeze. Imagine an IT guy needing to create email accounts for 120 newly employed staff. With Excel, all he needs to do to reduce the number of keystrokes significantly is to copy their first name and last name into Excel in separate columns, then CONCATENATE (and LEFT if the company uses initials in the email format). 

There are many non-Excel and non-work related stuff I have used Excel for and see others use Excel for. One example I even created a template around for people not Excel savvy is the need to send bulk SMS to dozens or hundreds of people and not wanting to spend an hour on arranging the numbers in the format most bulk SMS platforms require. Another is sending personalized email to your group or community members without doing it one by one or using an email marketing app.

The knowledge of Excel is as good and versatile as the knowledge of basic mathematics. You will always find situations where it will save you time and even prevent you from making wrong decisions.

2. Work Use
The moment you aspire to be part of management, to rise to the level of a CEO or CMO or CFO or COO or CIO or CTO, that moment is your clue to knowing that you can't escape the use of Microsoft Excel in your career. At that top, everything falls on data-driven strategy. You can't sweet talk your fellow CxO and board into doing something you haven't done the Excel analysis around.

I constantly come across people who have risen in their career, following a very technical path, and then suddenly they are part of management or need to work very closely with management, and find that their low competence in using Excel and carrying out data-driven analysis is an embarrassing weakness.

Then there are programmers who just love to hate Excel. They represent a category of people who would like to use something complicated for everything. Then they start having issues with managers who want some type of reports that are best made in Excel. Occasionally, I see them spend time coding a program to do something one off, something very easy and fast to do in Excel. They still don't see the value of Excel until I do it for them in Excel and they go WOW! 

Lastly, if you are a sales analyst or finance manager or accountant or project manager or marketing manager or operations manager or human resource manger and you are not very proficient in the use of Microsoft Excel you might be jeopardizing your productivity. You are supposed to focus more on high level strategy and guiding the management than fighting with data. Being very good with Excel will mean more insightful reports, fast comprehensive analysis, better chart-backed presentations and better decision making based on data. 


If you feel convinced enough to want to up your Excel competence, you can take advantage of my company's free training resources or even take my Udemy course with a certificate for free using this coupon link https://www.udemy.com/business-data-analysis-with-microsoft-excel/?couponCode=KYYMCA (just 96 coupons available via that link).

All the best!

Time Saving Use Of Excel's Advanced Filters In Working On Your Business Data

Every time you apply filter to a dataset in Excel and then copy out the filtered data, you could have saved yourself time and some mouse-strokes by using advanced filter. And despite the name, advanced filter, it is surprisingly easy to use.

As an example, I have the fictitious sales record for Dhormino's Pizza for June 5, 2016. They sell 16 Pizza types: Meatzaa, Extravaganza , BBQ Chicken, Hot Veggie, BBQ Philly Steak, Chicken Feast, Chicken Suya, Chicken Legend, Beef Suya, Margarita, Italiano, Pepperoni Suya, Veggie Supreme, Hot Pepperoni Feast, Chicken Bali and Pepperoni Feast.

They got a new country manager this March, and one of his strategies is to have four brand managers owning 4 different baskets of the pizza types, like the FMCG companies do. Two of those managers are Michael and Mary. They are to ensure that the brands (pizza types) they own are performing well. They are given the latitude and resources to promote them using whatever promotional mix they want. 

As the company's main business data analyst, you pull out daily sales records and extract the ones for each brand manager. With advanced filter, it will be a piece of cake. You might even hook it to a recorded macro and at a click of button all is done.

Continuing with the example, let's see how to extract for Michael and Mary.

Step 1 is to write out the pizza types Michael and Mary manage, separately. And to help advanced filter know where to look for those pizza names, give them a header that matches that in the sales table. See the screenshot above for what I mean.

Step 2 is to go to Michael's sheet (another Excel sheet where you want to put Michael's). Launch advanced filter from there. It is under Data menu, about the middle of the menu tools.

Set it to "Copy to another location"

Provide the sales data range as the "list range", and Michael's pizza types with the header as the "Criteria range".

Finally, for the "Copy to", go to Michael's sheet and select where the result should be displayed. In this example, I select cell A1.

And voila! We get the results.

Very easy and cool.

And there is more to advanced filter. How about if we have a more detailed sales transaction data that captures sales value for each sales transaction, and we would like to extract sales transactions that generated more that 15,000 naira. That too is very easy with advanced filter.

Just follow me. Below is the snapshot of the detailed sales transaction data.

We have specified that we want greater than 15,000 naira transactions only.

The steps are just like previous ones. Launch the advanced filter and provide both the "List range" and "Criteria range"

Specify where the results should be displayed.

And voila, again! It's done!

Now you should be an expert, like me, at using advanced filter. 

The Relevance Of Business Data Analysis To Business Success

image: pantheonuk.org

For a long while now, analysing data has been regarded as the next frontier for productivity and remaining at the forefront of existing competition in business. It has been forecasted by Tech Company EMC, that in 2020 there will be growth increase to over 40,000 exabytes allowing for a large scope to analyse very large amounts of unstructured data such as social media messages and pictures. 

The relevance of this development cannot be overstated. Business data analysis is instrumental to understanding the current state of a brand/business to ensure the right steps for growth and expansion are identified and executed for growth and expansion. 

The one sure way to increase the relevance of business data analysis to business success and increased productivity/profitability lies in the statement of an obvious need for information that is mostly understood by an in-depth knowledge of the target audience of your business, which includes detailed demographics and their characteristics among other things. 

Hence, data analysis involves inspecting the relevant parts of a large body of unstructured information collected and categorized into useful formats to initiate the best decision making to ensue. 

Because of how important it is to collect and analyse such information, we have set up services and products to point you in the right direction towards increasing the worth of your brand’s productivity and ensure your business expansion.

You can have your team register now for our next Business Data Analysis and In-depth Excel Training.

We also provide consulting services to help you:

- Identify the characteristics of your most lucrative customers

- Identify the promotion strategies that are working and those that are not

- Increase in customer loyalty and retention

- Manage inventory better by forecasting needs and eliminating waste,

With us you get the needed business edge to turn your business data into actionable insights that will achieve the best profitable outcomes. 

You can reach us at info@urbizedge.com or +234-808-938-2423 or +1-941-312-2094

Imроrtаnсе Оf Buѕіnеѕѕ Dаtа Anаlуѕіѕ, Buѕіnеѕѕ Intеllіgеnсе to Business Prоfіtаbіlіtу

image: selfstoragetycoons.com

Buѕіnеѕѕ Intelligence (BI) іѕ the ability tо transform dаtа іntо іnfоrmаtіоn аnd that іnfоrmаtіоn іntо knowledge, ѕо аѕ tо optimize thе buѕіnеѕѕ decision-making рrосеѕѕ. It involves a ѕеt оf strategies and tооlѕ fосuѕеd on knоwlеdgе сrеаtіоn аnd mаnаgеmеnt through thе аnаlуѕіѕ of еxіѕtіng dаtа frоm аn оrgаnіzаtіоn оr buѕіnеѕѕ.

Frоm thе роіnt of vіеw of іnfоrmаtіоn tесhnоlоgу, BI is a ѕеt of methodologies, applications and tесhnоlоgіеѕ thаt allow a buѕіnеѕѕ to mine and transform thе dаtа obtained frоm structured information systems tо dо analysis аnd information gеnеrаtіоn, and іmрrоve the process dесіѕіоn-mаkіng оf thе buѕіnеѕѕ. It соvеrѕ bоth сurrеnt understanding оf thе functioning оf the buѕіnеѕѕ аѕ well as an anticipation оf futurе еvеntѕ, іn оrdеr tо рrоvіdе a body оf knоwlеdgе tо support buѕіnеѕѕ decisions.

Referring tо buѕіnеѕѕ іntеllіgеnсе, wе саn dіffеrеntіаtе the соnсерtѕ оf dаtа, іnfоrmаtіоn аnd knоwlеdgе. Dаtа іѕ ѕоmеthіng thаt іѕ vаguе, fоr еxаmрlе, thе number 10, whіlе the information іѕ mоrе accurate, ѕuсh аѕ Aрrіl ѕаlеѕ were 10. Fіnаllу, knowledge is оbtаіnеd bу аnаlуzіng thе іnfоrmаtіоn.

Dаtа are the mіnіmum ѕеmаntіс unit and are the рrіmаrу еlеmеntѕ of іnfоrmаtіоn. Thеѕе аlоnе аrе іrrеlеvаnt to the dесіѕіоn-mаkіng рrосеѕѕ. A рhоnе numbеr оr a nаmе оf a person аrе examples of dаtа. The dаtа can соmе frоm еxtеrnаl оr іntеrnаl company sources, can be оbjесtіvе оr subjective, qualitative or ԛuаntіtаtіvе. 

Infоrmаtіоn can bе dеfіnеd as a set оf processed dаtа, whісh аrе relevant and have a purpose аnd соntеxt. Infоrmаtіоn іѕ uѕеful fоr dесіѕіоn-mаkіng, as іt allows reducing uncertainty. Dаtа is trаnѕfоrmеd іntо іnfоrmаtіоn to аdd vаluе. Infоrmаtіоn is capable оf сhаngіng thе way thе rесеіvеr реrсеіvеѕ something, impacting on their vаluе judgments and behaviors.

Information = Dаtа + Cоntеxt (vаluе аddеd) + Utility (rеduсе uncertainty)

Knоwlеdgе саn bе defined аѕ a mixture оf еxреrіеnсе, values, іnfоrmаtіоn and know-how, thаt form a frаmеwоrk tо іnсоrроrаtе new еxреrіеnсеѕ. Knоwlеdgе is dеrіvеd frоm іnfоrmаtіоn and information frоm data. In оrdеr thаt іnfоrmаtіоn bесоmеѕ knowledge it is necessary tо perform асtіоnѕ ѕuсh аѕ:

• Cоmраrіѕоn wіth other еlеmеntѕ.
• Prеdісtіоn оf соnѕеԛuеnсеѕ.
• Sеаrсhіng fоr connections.
• Tаlk with оthеr carriers оf іnfоrmаtіоn.

Through the use of the knоwlеdgе gained оnсе іnfоrmаtіоn іѕ сарturеd from аll areas іn thе business, уоu саn ѕеt ѕtrаtеgіеѕ аnd dеfіnе what thе ѕtrеngthѕ аnd wеаknеѕѕеѕ оf thе buѕіnеѕѕ are.

 

Buѕіnеѕѕ Intеllіgеnсе is thе broader concept оf the use оf intelligence іn оrgаnіzаtіоnѕ. Thіѕ has emerged from the соntrіbutіоnѕ оf thе vаrіоuѕ аrеаѕ оf іnfоrmаtіоn ѕuсh as mаrkеt іntеllіgеnсе, соmреtіtіvе іntеllіgеnсе and business intelligence.

Market Intеllіgеnсе corresponds tо thе ѕtrаtеgіс mаnаgеmеnt dіѕсірlіnе wіthіn companies thаt allow a deeper knоwledge оf the market аnd thе соmраnу'ѕ performance within іt, thrоugh a constant flоw оf іnfоrmаtіоn.

Cоmреtіtіvе Intеllіgеnсе is dеfіnеd аѕ thе process оf соllесtіng and analyzing іnfоrmаtіоn оn thе activities оf соmреtіtоrѕ, ѕо аѕ tо ѕuрроrt thе асhіеvеmеnt of the gоаlѕ оf the business. Through a соntіnuоuѕ flow оf іnfоrmаtіоn, a business knоws what thе competitors are dоіng in the соmmеrсіаl, financial, аnd organizational аѕресtѕ of their operations.

Fіnаllу, Business Intelligence includes ѕеt оf tools tо еxtrасt business experience. A ѕеt of systems tо delineate dуnаmіс сuѕtоmеr bаѕе, such as ѕаlеѕ trеndѕ, niche vаluе, сuѕtоmеr churn, рrоfіtаbіlіtу ѕеgmеntѕ.

Intеllіgеnсе tools аrе bаѕеd on thе use оf information ѕуѕtеmѕ that bring tоgеthеr dаtа frоm рrоduсtіоn рrосеѕѕеѕ, іnfоrmаtіоn relating to thе business and есоnоmіс data.

Uѕіng thе tесhnіԛuеѕ tо еxtrасt, trаnѕfоrm and lоаd (ETL), data extracts frоm different sources, аrе рurіfіеd and рrераrеd fоr loading іntо a dаtа rероѕіtоrу.

This tооlkіt hаѕ the following fеаturеѕ:

• Access to іnfоrmаtіоn: The dаtа are thе рrіmаrу ѕоurсе of thіѕ process. Sуѕtеmѕ hаvе tо еnѕurе uѕеr access tо dаtа rеgаrdlеѕѕ оf the source of thеѕе.
• Suрроrt thе dесіѕіоn mаkіng рrосеѕѕ: Bеуоnd the рrеѕеntаtіоn оf іnfоrmаtіоn, uѕеrѕ need ассеѕѕ tо analysis tools, and select thе data thаt іntеrеѕt thеm.
• Orientation tо thе еnd uѕеr: Indереndеnt expertise оf users, thеѕе ѕуѕtеmѕ, must рrоvіdе facilities that аllоw uѕеrѕ tо uѕе thеѕе tооlѕ.

Buѕіnеѕѕ Intеllіgеnсе acts аѕ a strategic factor fоr a buѕіnеѕѕ tо buіld соmреtіtіvе advantage bу рrоvіdіng privileged information tо rеѕроnd to buѕіnеѕѕ problems: entering new mаrkеtѕ, рrоduсt promotions оr оffеrѕ, еlіmіnаtіng іѕlаndѕ of іnfоrmаtіоn, соntrоl finances, соѕt орtіmіzаtіоn, рrоduсtіоn planning, сuѕtоmеr рrоfіlіng аnаlуѕіѕ, рrоfіtаbіlіtу of a раrtісulаr product and many more.

Thе mаіn buѕіnеѕѕ intelligence рrоduсtѕ that еxіѕt in the market аrе:

•  Bаlаnсеd Scorecards (BSC) аrе tооlѕ tо еѕtаblіѕh аnd mоnіtоr thе оbjесtіvеѕ оf thе buѕіnеѕѕ аnd іtѕ dіffеrеnt аrеаѕ оr unіtѕ.
• Sуѕtеmѕ Dесіѕіоn Suрроrt (DSS) соrrеѕроndѕ tо interactive іnfоrmаtіоn systems that hеlр соmраnіеѕ make decisions, uѕіng data and mоdеlѕ to ѕоlvе unѕtruсturеd оr semi-structured dесіѕіоn. Supports dесіѕіоn mаkіng bу generating a ѕуѕtеmаtіс evaluation of dіffеrеnt alternatives or ѕсеnаrіоѕ for dесіѕіоn.
• Exесutіvе Infоrmаtіоn Sуѕtеmѕ (EIS), аrе systems thаt provide tор executives еаѕу ассеѕѕ tо іntеrnаl аnd еxtеrnаl іnfоrmаtіоn that is rеlеvаnt to their critical success fасtоrѕ. Thе Exесutіvе Infоrmаtіоn Systems ѕuрроrt the dесіѕіоn mаkіng process оf senior еxесutіvеѕ оf аn organization, presenting rеlеvаnt information аnd using vіѕuаl аіdѕ аnd еаѕу tо interpret, іn order to kеер them informed.

In rеfеrеnсе to the оrіgіn оf thе dаtа, еxіѕtіng components are: Dаtаmаrt and Dаtа wаrеhоuѕе.

A Datamart іѕ a dераrtmеntаl dаtаbаѕе, especially іn storing the dаtа thаt іѕ ѕресіfіс tо thе business аrеа. It іѕ сhаrасtеrіzеd bу having аn орtіmаl data ѕtruсturе, tо analyze іnfоrmаtіоn from аll реrѕресtіvеѕ thаt аffесt thе department. 

A dаtа warehouse іѕ a соrроrаtе dаtаbаѕе, сhаrасtеrіzеd bу іntеgrаtіng іnfоrmаtіоn from оnе or mоrе sources in order to аllоw аnаlуѕіѕ frоm many реrѕресtіvеѕ.

A Business Intelligence ѕоlutіоn establishes a сусlе frоm thе following activities: 

• Observe: what hарреned? 
• Undеrѕtаnd: whу are they? 
• Predict: what wіll happen? 
• Cоllаbоrаtе: whаt team actions to take? 
• Dесіdе: whісh wау fоrwаrd? 

Why іѕ Buѕіnеѕѕ Intelligence so іmроrtаnt? 

Fоr a buѕіnеѕѕ tо bе successful, it is very important to have thе ability tо make ассurаtе and swift business dесіѕіоnѕ. Trаdіtіоnаl іnfоrmаtіоn ѕуѕtеmѕ tеnd tо bе іnflеxіblе ѕtruсturеѕ, making іt dіffісult tо adapt tо thе dаtа сарturе рrосеѕѕеѕ оf the business, аnd rаріd gеnеrаtіоn оf information fоr dесіѕіоn-mаkіng.

Tо оvеrсоmе the lіmіtаtіоnѕ оf thеѕе systems, business іntеllіgеnсе relies on a ѕеt оf tools thаt fасіlіtаtе thе processes of еxtrасtіоn, рurіfісаtіоn, аnаlуѕіѕ and storage of data, with аррrорrіаtе ѕрееd іn оrdеr to ѕuрроrt the decision mаkіng рrосеѕѕ оf thе business.

It doesn't necessarily mean thаt BI рrоduсtѕ аrе better thаn traditional аррlісаtіоnѕ, but thеу аrе developed fоr a more targeted purpose, аnd therefore аrе mоrе efficient fоr thе decision-making process.

Business Intеllіgеnсе solutions enable соmраnіеѕ tо:

• Process rеԛuіrеmеntѕ quickly, іntеllіgеntlу аnd еffісіеntlу.
• Rеѕроnd ԛuісklу аnd efficiently to сhаngіng conditions affecting thе соmраnу.
• Eѕtаblіѕh information аѕ thе mаіn аѕѕеt of thе business.
• Transform buѕіnеѕѕ data in іntuіtіvе graphical rероrtѕ that саn bе аnаlуzеd ԛuісklу аnd easily. 

Intelligence is thе kеу tо success in the modern business world. Thеse Buѕіnеѕѕ Intеllіgеnсе systems аrе nоw аvаіlаblе tо everyone. Thе well-designed BI аррlісаtіоnѕ can offer management the аbіlіtу tо mаkе bеttеr buѕіnеѕѕ dесіѕіоnѕ ԛuісklу, undеrѕtаnd thе vаrіоuѕ "information аѕѕеtѕ" in their buѕіnеѕѕ аnd how thеу interact.

Thе kеу tо thriving іn a соmреtіtіvе mаrkеtрlасе is staying ahead of thе competition. Making ѕоund buѕіnеѕѕ dесіѕіоnѕ bаѕеd оn accurate аnd сurrеnt іnfоrmаtіоn tаkеѕ more thаn intuition. A Business Intеllіgеnсе system thuѕ bесоmеѕ a determining factor fоr thе ѕuссеѕѕ of thе buѕіnеѕѕ.

Fоr more Information оn Business Intеllіgеnсе tооlѕ designed specifically for your business, contact us at info@urbizedge.com or +234-808-938-2423 or +1-941-312-2094

The Importance Of Business Data Analysis

image: blogs.gartner.com

Companies collect, process, and report on large volumes of data every year. The average manager spends an average of two hours a day hunting for data. Unfortunately, almost half of the information they get later turns out to be useless. For a business to be successful, the top leadership needs to find efficient methods of turning their data into useful information. To do this, they must carry out data analysis.

Raw data simply describes the figures and facts processed by the company every day. A company will learn very little by looking at the raw data. Data becomes information after it has been processed to add relevance, context, and purpose. For example, analyzed sales data will reveal sales patterns and trends that can help the company make very important decisions. Analyzed sales data will reveal which items move fast and in which periods. An example is a sales and inventory management solution we built for Coretronic Nigeria Limited.

In order to increase productivity/profitability, a company must carry out business analysis and act on analyzed data. Today, the level of competition in the market requires companies to be proactive when it comes to the changing environmental conditions and the changing demands from customers. But decision-making has increasingly become more difficult because of the large volumes of data that managers have to deal with and understand. However, this process has been made easier, thanks to the business intelligence tools that we help design to assist managers with decision-making.

Business intelligence tools process data from multiple sources and then they produce reports on the information to increase the decision-makers’ knowledge. The tools help decision-makers understand customer preferences, identify growth opportunities, and increase competitiveness.

Don't forget to reach us at info@urbizedge.com and +234-808-938-2423 or +1-941-312-2094

Power BI Webinar. Learn Business Intelligence The Easy Way.

Power BI is Microsoft's business intelligence dashboard tool.

And in Microsoft's word here, the benefits are:

1. Market smarter

Are you overwhelmed by data from all the different tools you use? Is it time-consuming to access and analyze all that information together? Make it simple: with Power BI, you can easily monitor and analyze your marketing campaigns and efficiently allocate your resources to the right channels, all in one place.

2. Monitor your campaign

Is your campaign effective? How are your marketing tactics performing? Dive deep and analyze performance by specific products and market segments to find the actions that lead to retention, upsell, or cross-sell opportunities.

3. Talk to the right customers

Want to target your most profitable customers? How can you easily position your campaigns to produce the greatest ROI? Segment your customers based on geographic buying behavior, demographic filters, customer lifetime values, activations, and churn.

4. Crush your quota

Want to forecast sales better, hit that record sales target, and increase profitability per sale? If you use Microsoft Dynamics CRM or Salesforce.com, Power BI extends and enhances these services with instant insight into your pipeline. Track key metrics like conversion rate, pipeline value, and win rate by getting a holistic picture of your customer pipeline from initial contact to successful closure.

5. Sales management

Want at-a-glance insights into your team's key metrics and the ability to quickly drill down for more details? Power BI creates these dashboards in seconds, bringing your company's sales pipeline under a magnifying glass. Explore the stages in your sales process — what can you learn from the successful deals your team has closed?

6. Sales representative

What can you learn from your biggest sales? Do you outperform certain opportunities, but leave others open? Understand how your previous deals performed so you can execute on future deals more efficiently.

7. Win together

How successful are your customers with your product? Want to track the impact of your customer support on brand loyalty? As part of the customer support team, your day is full of win-win opportunities. By successfully resolving support tickets, you and your team are strengthening customer loyalty and helping customers get more done. With Power BI you can analyze your closed cases, track every customer engagement, and continue to deliver world-class support.

8. Give the five-star treatment

Want to help your team hit their customer satisfaction goals? As a customer support manager, you need to ensure your team is helping customers succeed every time. In a single view, understand how waiting in a queue affects call ratings, who's resolving tickets most efficiently, and which channel has the highest incident volume.

9. See the bigger picture

How does your work contribute to your customers' success? Monitor your performance and how it impacts your team's bottom line. Talk your customers' language by understanding their problems and see your brand loyalty soar.

10. Monitor the pulse of your business

Do you want a holistic view of all your important information in a single place? Is your data spread across various sources like Excel spreadsheets, web analytics, databases, and CRM systems? With Power BI, you can bring all your data together and create personalized dashboards in seconds. Make the right data-driven decisions with your key business metrics.

11. Explore and analyze

Wish there was an easier, more interactive way to find data insights? Power BI lets you use simple drag-and-drop gestures to find trends, correlations, and outliers in your data. You can pose questions about your data using everyday language and get answers in the form of stunning interactive reports and charts.

12. Keep your team on the same page

Does your team find it hard to collaborate, especially when everyone is working with different versions of the same data? In just a few clicks, Power BI lets you share your dashboards—so you and your team can get a single view of the business and make decisions based on shared data insights.

You can download the Power BI for free here.

We will be giving a Power BI demonstration, showing you how you can become the magician at your company and be on top of the reports that matter to you and the management using Power BI. Also we will be answering your questions. It will be a one hour webinar.

Date: Thursday, June 25 2015

Time: 3:00 pm

Duration: 1 hour

You can reserve a slot for the webinar by emailing powerbi@urbizedge,com  or signing up here, Webinar Signup Form.

Getting Your Business Numbers Right

A lot of entrepreneurs only bother about their detailed business numbers and financials when they need a bank loan or an external fund. They seldom see the need to be on top of their business numbers at all time.

In today's special post, I will show you the business numbers that matter a lot and that you have to get right always.

image: pulse-software.co.uk

1. Operating Profit
If you have ever looked through a financial statement or had to make a detailed financial plan, then you would have come across the words COGS and SGA. COGS stands for cost of goods sold. If your are in the manufacturing industry and you buy N5,000 worth of raw materials to make each unit of your finished product. Your COGS is N5,000 per unit product sold. SGA stands for selling, general and administration. If it costs you N1000 to get each product to a buying customer (this will usually include the costs of advertisement, company administration, payroll and other general expenses that can't be classified under COGS) then your SGA is N1000.

Usually, you can't influence your COGS (much). The price of your raw materials are outside your control and often the maximum you can do is to negotiate for a discount. But you can always influence your SGA. In the case of the manufacturing company above, you spend N1,000 to make a sale. The only way your company can grow is if you are able to make enough gross profit to cover this cost. You will have to sell your finished product for above N6,000 or bring down your SGA cost (but still sell well above N5,000). Otherwise, you'll soon be out of business.

The trouble is most businesses don't compute their actual SGA. They often deduct the COGS from revenue to compute profit, but that is called gross profit, not operating profit. Operating profit is Revenue - (COGS + SGA). They only look at their company bank statements to make estimates of operating profit.

If you are a small business, I will recommend you use QuickBooks to track all your expenses and compute your SGA.

2. Cost of Acquiring a New Customer
This is the amount you spend to convince someone in your market to buy your product/service and become a customer. It will involve cost of marketing, incentives/promo and research. This business metric is very valuable. It helps you to properly consider if a new market or a particular customer is worth the cost. Not all customers are equal. If you know your current cost of acquiring a customer, then you will know when to stop spending to get a particular customer. You will be able to avoid spending too much on one customer to the detriment of other customers you could acquire for less.

3. Customer Lifetime Value
Once you're in business for a considerable length of time, a pattern begins to form. You'll begin to notice that some customers keep buying your product/service and some only buy once. One metric you should begin to compute when that pattern seems steady is your customer lifetime value. It is the net profit you make from your average customer. And it is also the upper limit to the amount you can spend to acquire a new customer. 

Every one of your marketing strategy, especially promo, should be built with this number in mind.

4. Inventory Turnover
This is the ratio of your sales to inventory. It is practically the number of times your inventory is sold in a specific time period (usually a year). If you have a stock of N1 billion naira inventory but only manage to sell N10 million naira, then something is wrong. You are incurring a lot of inventory storage cost and the risk of having an obsolete inventory. You should reduce your inventory to less than N50 million naira at a time so you can have enough for your sales and not too much to incur unnecessary costs and risks.

And if you sell perishable goods or seasonal goods, you should keep the ratio close to one. 


Depending on the size and type of your business there are several other business numbers you need to get right.

To your success!

Resource Curse At a Corporate Level

When we hear of resource curse we think of Nigeria as a whole or the oil producing communities in the Niger Delta. We think of politicians and government corruption. But it is not only in nations and communities that we can find resource curse. Companies and businesses also suffer resource curse. And that is what I'll explain in today's special post.

image: cordaid.org

Resource curse, like we often say, is suffering in the midst of plenty. It sounds like a crude definition, but it's a completely sound definition. It results from mismanagement of abundant resources in a form so extreme that the nation or community or company that owns the resources gains little from it and pays dearly in labour for it. The gains go to some other nation or community or company.

Resource curse at a corporate level is a result of extremely poor corporate management and plenty of resources (labour and available capital). The obvious examples are public corporations like NITEL and PHCN. NITEL had everything -- fund, labour and monopoly power -- and still crumbled because of terrible management.

In the private enterprise world, it's harder to point out clear examples as most private companies experiencing resource curse simply fizzle out without most people noticing. The only example I can give that drew public attention is HiTV. A company that had everything going right for it except its management. It had an unusual brand acceptance, better than the competitors it met.

So how do you avoid a resource curse?

1. Know why you are succeeding.
One peculiar thing in all cases of resource curse is that there was a very high initial success. Every little effort at the beginning was yielding amazing results. And it led to access to good supply of capital and labour. The issue was that most had little factual explanations of why they succeeded. No elaborate data gathering and effective KPI analysis.
In business nothing is worse that being successful and not knowing why. It is a precarious state.

2. Be Efficient
The other great feature of a resource curse is waste. Inefficiency.
When the management focuses on being efficient, on monitoring their KPIs and making business decisions that aim at reducing cost and increasing revenue, it will be impossible to become a victim of resource curse.

3. Invest in Technology and Better Processes
Thriving companies/businesses are continually investing in technology and improving their business processes. It's the guaranteed path to remaining successful and relevant.


Are you experiencing business success at a level beyond your expectation? It's time you monitored all aspects of your business closely to avoid resource curse. We can help you develop a robust KPI dashboard and business data analysis template.

To your success!