Essential Analytics For Solo And Small Business Owners

Harness the power of Excel toolpak. ROCK your statistics! MASTER data driven decision making. Your success depends on it

What you'll learn
Build a basic analytics skill set crucial to small business success
Learn and practice charting techniques to visualize data
Understand variability - what it is, why it's killing your ability to recognize meaningful trends, and how to measure it
Learn why the shape, or frequency distribution of data is important
Practice finding frequency distribution of data sets using histogramming techniques
Learn simple tips on data collection and organization
Understand how to choose key performance measure(s) unique to your business
Create a model by "characterizing" those key business performance measures
Establish a performance baseline for your business
Learn methods and strategies to plan and implement change
Learn how to use a fishbone diagram proactively when planning change
Mathematically predict how long it will take to get statistically significant results
Learn to practice discipline and vigilance during change to reduce external influences
Understand and internalize that correlation and causation are different
Understand what "confidence level" means, and how much confidence is reasonable to expect
Learn step by step how to conduct a t-test on before-and-after data sets to see if they are different in a statistically significant way
Learn how to interpret t-test results
Understand the Pareto technique to create a long term success plan by prioritizing change
Understand why incremental failures can be constructive, and how to leverage that data to best advantage
Practice all the skills and techniques taught, start to finish, on two project businesses (using workbooks)
Requirements
Suitable for beginner Excel users.
Ideal for students who learn quickly when shown, and who appreciate lots of examples.
Description
This course teaches basics of business analytics, and translates that knowledge into practical application. Students will come away from this course knowing how to apply simple analysis tools to characterize key performance measures of their business both before and after a strategic change, and to expose and quantify statistically significant results even in the most variable business climate. Students will learn that the critical need to differentiate a business introduces a complication: business strategies that work for the competitors might not work for them. A bit of trial and error is necessary. By designing a strategic approach and applying analytics as taught in this course, students will put their small or solo business on a steady upward trajectory.

Overview

Section 1: Course Introduction and Overview

Lecture 1 1.01 Introduction

Lecture 2 1.02 Full Course Description with Syllabus

Lecture 3 1.03 Is This Course For You?

Lecture 4 1.04 Course Value

Lecture 5 1.05 Project Business Introduction

Section 2: Get Ready

Lecture 6 2.01 Get Ready

Lecture 7 2.02 Choose a Data Set

Lecture 8 2.03 Data Collection and Mining

Lecture 9 2.04 Characterizing a Data Set

Lecture 10 2.05 Understanding Variability

Lecture 11 2.06 Electric Bill Example

Lecture 12 2.07 Charting Overview and Demonstration

Lecture 13 2.08 Homework - Charting

Lecture 14 2.09 Installing the Excel Analysis Toolkit

Lecture 15 2.10 The Shape of Data

Lecture 16 2.11 Introduction to Histogramming

Lecture 17 2.12 Histogram Demonstration

Lecture 18 2.13 Homework - Histogramming

Lecture 19 2.14 Non Normal Adjustment

Lecture 20 2.15 The Power of Outliers

Lecture 21 2.16 Salon Example

Lecture 22 2.17 Web Instructor Example

Lecture 23 2.18 Project - Salon

Lecture 24 2.19 Project - Web Instructor

Section 3: Get Set

Lecture 25 3.01 Get Set

Lecture 26 3.02 Establishing a Baseline

Lecture 27 3.03 Considering Change From Varying Angles

Lecture 28 3.04 Planning a Change

Lecture 29 3.05 Isolate Influences

Lecture 30 3.06 How Much Data Is Enough

Lecture 31 3.07 The Calculation Explained

Lecture 32 3.08 Salon Example

Lecture 33 3.09 Web Instructor Example

Lecture 34 3.10 Homework - Determining Experimental Sample Size

Section 4: Go!

Lecture 35 4.01 Go

Lecture 36 4.02 Implement Change

Lecture 37 4.03 Data Collection

Lecture 38 4.04 Monitoring for Interference

Lecture 39 4.05 Correlation Versus Causation

Section 5: Soar

Lecture 40 5.01 Soar

Lecture 41 5.02 Analysis Introduction

Lecture 42 5.03 Variance Comparison

Lecture 43 5.04 Confidence Levels Explained

Lecture 44 5.05 T-Test Demonstration

Lecture 45 5.06 Homework - The t-Test

Lecture 46 5.07 Salon t-Test Example

Lecture 47 5.08 Web Instructor t-Test Example

Lecture 48 5.09 Homework - Practice the t-Test Using Business Data

Section 6: And Beyond

Lecture 49 6.01 Beyond

Lecture 50 6.02 A Case for Constant Collection

Lecture 51 6.03 Issues of Practicality

Lecture 52 6.04 Introduction to Pareto Analysis

Lecture 53 6.05 Pareto Demonstration

Lecture 54 6.06 Homework - Pareto Analysis

Lecture 55 6.07 The Amazing Factorial

Section 7: Supplemental

Lecture 56 7.01 Summary and Supplemental

Lecture 57 7.02 Instructor Bio

Lecture 58 7.03 Tools Used to Develop the Course

Lecture 59 7.04 Student Resources

Anyone thinking of quitting their day job to pursue a dream of self-employment,Anyone concerned about the variability of demand for their product or service ,Anyone embarking on solo or small business ownership, but confused about how to predict performance in a volatile and ever changing market,Small business owners ready to invest in marketing, but nervous about getting quantifiable results,Anyone frustrated with advertisers who take your money and don't deliver on promises,Anyone in a business rut, searching for ways to raise their game,And also statistics students looking for less math and more context and examples in their instruction