RSS feedDrowning in data
Recently I’ve been drowning in data - my company has been asking local entrepreneurs for their opinions on the business environment. I’ll admit that the data entry side isn’t particularly exciting, but the answers have been illuminating. I won’t go into detail because we’re still at an early stage of the analysis, and of course my company of course should be the first to publish the results, not me. However, one thing is clear. Small business owners have complaints about many things: the government, tax, councils, availability of premises, and so on. But, when asked “Would you do it all again?”, an overwhelming majority says yes.
Good for them. There’s a lot of support available, but there’s no hiding the fact that ultimately running a business is very hard work. I think it would be fascinating to compare this trend against those in ‘regular’ employment. My hunch is that if you asked the average office worker whether they’d choose the same path again, you’d get a substantially less positive result.
Data can be powerful and persuasive. It can easily drag you along in its current, and that’s something I need to be cautious of. As a species we’re notoriously bad at working with statistics and understanding probabilities. It’s why we fund anti-terrorism activities above cancer charities. It’s why we go to casinos and put everything on Red. Hell, 5% of us believe that there is a conspiracy to harm us. Daniel Gilbert talks more about this in an excellent speech at SXSW Interactive (29MB, mp3).
I really enjoy working in business support, it’s a challenging and important sector. It’s vital though (and I think our customers would agree) that we look beyond the data and turn it into action. That’s the real challenge, and it’s where the real benefit lies.
Tags: smallbusiness, sme, entrepreneur
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