Small business owners are busy people. You\u2019re hiring staffers, taming your business\u2019 budget, developing new products and developing marketing campaigns. You\u2019ve even the person in charge of setting your business\u2019 hours and scouting out new locations for expansion. So you\u2019re probably not delighted that business experts are telling you that you have to study big data, too, to have a competitive edge. You might not know what big data is \u2014 the majority of people don\u2019t. But that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not important to the success of your company.<\/p>\n
Defining Big Data<\/strong><\/p>\n What is big data? John Weathington, writing for Tech Republic blog, does a good job explaining: Big data, as the name suggests, are massive quantities of fast-moving information. This information is free, but serves a very important purpose in the marketplace. Big data, if effectively mined and studied, can tell you what your target customers want, what they lack and just how much they will be prepared to pay to have it. In other words, big data can advise you how best to run your small business.<\/p>\n Big Data In Action<\/strong><\/p>\n Big data gives businesses, even small ones, a competitive advantage. CIO Magazine provides three examples. The magazine cites a financial company that uses large financial data sets and data analytics tools to help their clients decide how to best plan their retirements. This, of course, gives this financial firm an edge in attracting clients.<\/p>\n CIO also points to a business called Exmobaby that sells baby pajamas that include built-in biosensors. These sensors send health data from babies to parents. You can bet this use of data sets \u2014 the health information from babies themselves \u2014 attracts parents who want the best for their little ones. Then there\u2019s the start-up Parchment, which analyzes databases of student information \u2014 from grade point averages to SAT scores to college-acceptance data \u2014 to aid their clients, students, choose and apply for colleges. The edge this company provides? It helps students apply to those schools statistically most likely to accept them. Big data, then, helps both businesses and consumers. It will help consumers make smarter choices, and it helps those businesses who provide this data gain new customers.<\/p<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Small business owners are busy people. You\u2019re hiring staffers, taming your business\u2019 budget, developing new products and developing marketing campaigns<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-technology"],"yoast_head":"\n