Using Data to Build Business

Using Data to Build Business
Practice

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
Pattern of barriers........................................................................................................................1
Highlighting interesting findings...............................................................................................11
Recommendations......................................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Data analytics is the concept of analysing the raw data in order to mine meaningful insights
from that data. This concept acts as a procedure in which raw data is first cleaned, then
transformed so that it could be used for analysis. Using the tools and methods of business
intelligence, this data is then analysed and for the purpose of effective communication, data is
presented and visualised into graphs charts and tables. The main aim of this report is to identify
the data requirements for effective business decision making and developing an understating
regarding appropriate analysis.
In this report, the data of Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) is used.
Using this data, patterns of barriers to take up external advice are identified by highlighting
interesting findings. At last, recommendations about areas which require further support are also
devised.
MAIN BODY
Pattern of barriers
The research data of Department for Business Innovation and Skills is given which is a big
data. This data has total of 6 tabs which has the data that is acquired from owners of small
entrepreneurial services. By analysing the questions asked in this research from respondents, it
has been observed that the data is gathered from total of 1203 individuals. These respondents are
6 questions having sub 356 sub questions and 3 demographic questions. The aim main of this
report is to compare the businesses of South East region with the North West region. The data is
analysed by reviewing each and every question which is asked from the respondents.
From the data provided, it has been observed that the aim of this research is to gain
information from entrepreneurs about how frequently they have seek external professional help
for smooth business conduct, survival and growth. This information is gained by BIS to analyse
why entrepreneurs do not prefer to take professional help when they are unable to run their
business smoothly and earn profit. BIS is a ministerial department which invests in skills and
education to promote trade, boost innovation and help inspiring entrepreneurs to start their own
business. This specific research of which data is given was conducted to ask people whether they
have used external help or not and if not then what are the reasons.
1

The first question which is asked from respondents is that what is their SIC code, the SIC
code is Standard Industrial Classification which is a four digit code used for classify the
industrial areas. The numbers of industrial areas included in this are agriculture, construction,
retail trade, services, public administration and many more. Out of various questions which are
asked from respondents are reviewed and out of these questions, only few are selected for the
purpose of analyses.
The questions which are selected to identify the pattern of barriers are Region,
URBANRURAL_2, Q3_1, Q3_3, Q3_19A, Q4_4, and Q5_5. First the entire data given
reviewed and then last question of Region was considered. From the values tab of the given data,
it has been seen that there are total of 9 regions which are East Midlands, South West, South
East, London, West Midlands, North West, Yorkshire and The Humber, East of England and
North East. Out of all these regions, the regions which are required to be focused upon are South
East and North West. It is require comparing the barriers of these two regions. For this purpose,
the entire data is first filtered using the Microsoft Excel function “FILTER”, using this function
entire data is reduced to only two regions. The reduced data is then copied into a new Excel sheet
which will have the analysis of data.
The selected and reduced data set only has respondents which have a business in South
East and North West region. Using this dataset, a PIVOT table is developed which has further
reduced the data. This data only includes those questions which are considered to be relevant for
the purpose of identifying the barriers. For effective presentation of the data, the variable of
region is set as column label and Urban Rural variable is set as row label; all the other questions
are included in values and their values are summarised as COUNT. Along with PIVOT table,
descriptive statistics and graphical representation for each question has been also done in Sheet 3
and 4.
The first analysis using the reduced data is done for the aim of identifying number of Rural
and Urban businesses in South East and North West region. For this purpose, a part of PIVOT
table and graph are attached below:
Row La-
bels South East North West Grand Total
Urban 166 121 287
2