How to improve your business analytical skills

As a business owner, you’ll sometimes have to make difficult decisions based on the information in front of you. Having the ability to analyse data is crucial to help you find the most rewarding solutions for your company.

This guide will show you how to improve your analytical skills and run your business more efficiently. We’ll cover:

• Why analytical skills are important in business
• Different ways you can improve your analytical skills
• How Countingup can help you make more informed decisions

Analytical skills enable you to solve complicated problems and make decisions most effectively. These skills allow you to see problems from different angles and dig deeper into the matter at hand. 

For example, as a business owner, you need to create budgets for various parts of your business. You use analytical skills to analyse previous data and calculate future budgetary requirements. In other words, analytical skills help you determine how much money you’ll need for different projects, products, marketing campaigns, service expansion, and so on.

Analytical skills also help business owners come up with concrete solutions backed up by provable research and data. The ability to analyse the data to find gaps in the market empower you to find ideas that make your business stand out.

Having the ability to gather, analyse and visualise details will allow you to work more effectively. Analytical skills help you weigh the pros and cons so you can run your business more efficiently.

Here are some ways you can improve your analytical skills:

Sure, watching YouTube videos and Netflix can be an enjoyable and relaxing pass time, but reading is an excellent way to broaden your horizon. Reading improves brain connectivity, which helps with focus, empathy, analytical thinking, sleep, and stress management. 

Reading lots of different books, magazines, and online resources allows you to widen your knowledge and learn new techniques that can improve your analytical skills. 

When analysing data, it’s important to consider different all possible interpretations and outcomes. You can improve your analytical skills by challenging your assumptions and force yourself to consider other viewpoints. 

For example, if you need to create a budget for a marketing campaign. You might want to spend all your funds on advertising because it’s always worked in the past. But maybe you could achieve better results using content marketing or social media?

So instead of immediately jumping in and spending all your money on something you think is best, do some research and ask for opinions from others before deciding. It’ll help you expand your mind and analyse which action is the best one.

Another excellent way to improve your analytical thinking is to practice. There are a ton of ways you can force yourself to think analytically to solve different problems. 

Examples of materials you can use include:

• Crossword puzzles
• Mystery or crime novels (trying to figure out who the bad guy is)
• Sudoku
• Riddles
• Strategic board games

You can use these activities to visualise how different actions will affect an outcome, examine situations from multiple angles, or simply fit objects together. Try engaging with one every day to sharpen your mind and boost your analytical skills. 

Having an analytical mind means you can see multiple sides, scenarios and outcomes when looking at information in front of you. Picking the brains of other people will allow you to get their viewpoints and argue your own opinions. 

Attend networking events for people in your industry and strike up conversations with other professionals. Socialising can help you learn about how people think and react to different situations. 

Engaging in debates and discussions allows you to gain new insights and perspectives that can help you process information better. Travelling to other places can also helo you broaden your perspective and improve your analytical thinking skills.

Taking an analytics course is an effective way to improve and practice your analytical skills. You can focus on content you want to learn, engage with material presented by analytics professionals, network with other peers, and put your analytical abilities to the test. 

You can also attend workshops, training sessions, and seminars to practice analysing data and situations that won’t affect your business negatively if you get it wrong. 

As the old saying goes: practice makes perfect. Taking the time to practice and perfect your analytical skills will help you make the right decisions when it comes to your business.

As you can see, there are many ways you can improve your analytical skills. Put them into practice, and you’ll have the ability to make more informed decisions for your business.

Analysing your business requires accurate data to base your decisions on. The easier it is for your to gather and understand that data, the easier it’ll be to analyse it and find the appropriate solutions. 

That’s why thousands of business owners are using the Countingup app to better understand their finances to help them grow their business. Countingup is the business current account and accounting software in one app. It automates time-consuming bookkeeping admin for self-employed people across the UK. 

With live cash flow insights, automatic expense categorisation, receipt capture tools and instant invoicing, you can confidently keep on top of your business finances and save yourself hours of accounting admin, so you can focus on doing what you do best. Find out more here.