Knowing the numbers

10/2/2024

Tracking data has become a fundamental part of running many businesses. It helps determine the needs of customers and businesses alike. In the current digital age, data is more accessible than it ever has been. Now, more than ever, businesses are using the information they gather from their sales, social media and events. So, what do they do with all that information? 

 

Sales 

Tracking sales is an obvious way to collect data, but how does a business owner know what is selling, and how does that information help him or her decide what to do next? 

Paws and Pints, a dog retreat in Des Moines at 6218 Willowmere Drive, brings dog lovers in central Iowa together for social events and fun. With the many activities it offers, it is important for staff to know what sells and what they should keep doing. 

Jamie Lamb, Paws and Pints marketing director, said dog ownership spans all walks of life, so they don’t have a target audience beyond the broad category of dog owner. However, Tanna Smallwood, guest liaison and head of sales, says they get a lot of information about those customers from the reports they generate. 

“We pull how many members showed up to an event, or how many dogs we had checked in, total sales, or how many humans came,” Smallwood said. “It helps us figure out what to expect for next time.” 

To help anticipate what else Paws and Pints may encounter, they operate with two Point of Sale systems. One POS is through the Paws and Pints app, which manages customer profiles, records dog vaccination records, tracks use of motel and spa services, and maintains customer memberships. 

The business’ retail and bar services use a different POS system. 

“We look at all data from both sides to determine whether the event was successful,” Lamb said. “For example, our birthday party had 1,300 people who were interested on Facebook, and we saw how many dogs checked in online, and then we looked at the amount in sales. With that, we can start attributing some of that data to our successes.” 

 

Data for a small business

Annelise Tarnowski and Tony Tandeski are co-owners of The Rook Room, a pop-up board game business. Since they don’t have a building yet, engagement is an important tool to connect them with their customers. 

Using the web, Tandeski has been able to set up surveys for customers that have guided their work. The Rook Room has even started conducting long-form interviews to gain qualitative data. 

“With small businesses versus bigger businesses, when it comes to data, specifically, we have it and look at it as much as we can.” Tarnowski said. “But when you are a small business run by two people with a big audience, we are our own everything. So, data, while extremely important, is not something that we have the luxury of being able to look at and work with every day.” 

Tarnowski and Tandeski said they rely on data from sources outside their business, such as the census analysis the Des Moines Partnership has put together. 

However, analyzing big data can be slow. It takes a while for the owners to dig through to remove bias. 

“Unfortunately, the last census being in 2020 means trends have changed since then. Where people live, whether they’re older or younger, whether they’re spending more or less, whether they’re coming to events, a lot of that stuff has changed,” Tarnowski said. 

The two review any external data they can find; however, their biggest source of information is their audience. 

“We know what our next demand is, and that is opening a space,” Tarnowski said. “A lot of that has been based on data, and we’re lucky that we have people willing to give us information so we can make some solid business decisions as we make the big leap from being a pop up to owning our own space.”

 

Expansion 

Data is an important tool for businesses wanting to expand. 

Before HappyDSM, a gift shop specializing in creating unique gift boxes, was at 234 Fifth St. in Valley Junction, it was in the Beaverdale neighborhood. 

When the company first opened its doors in Beaverdale in 2020, it occupied a space of less than 1,000 square feet. Amy Hilmes, owner and creator of HappyDSM, details that one-third of the building was used for retail and shopping while the rest was for her office and packing boxes. 

“Despite a pandemic, I was fortunate to grow year over year thanks, in part, to online sales and corporate gifting,” Hilmes said. “During the fourth quarter of 2022, I had to move boxes and product to my house and use the basement as a second workshop. Great problem to have, but I knew it wasn’t going to be sustainable.” 

Determining that a move would be feasible, and that the additional costs of a larger storefront could be afforded, meant a careful review of sales data.

Hilmes knew she had the success to grow but wondered how to gain foot traffic from new customers and people unaware of HappyDSM. With the desire to reach a new audience and add space to craft boxes, it was inevitable that Hilmes would set her eyes on a new building in a shopping area with a track record of drawing the foot traffic she was looking for. 

“In January of 2023, I started looking at my options to relocate. Valley Junction was very appealing because of its thriving shopping district and the wonderful support of the Valley Junction Foundation for the small business owners. I feel very fortunate to be in my current spot on the corner of Fifth and Elm,” Hilmes said. 

 

Event planning 

Event planning can be a great method of gaining data about your customers and what they want. 

Since Paws and Pints is such a unique concept, Lamb says they can’t predict how new events will go. However, using attendance and tracking signups on their app and social media can help them predict what they want to do next. 

“That helps us figure out what deals we want to run for the next event,” Smallwood said. “Seeing if we had a lot of dogs checked in or if we had really good sales, it is a lot of different reports to get to one idea for events.” 

Similarly, The Rook Room uses data from previous events to determine what games are popular and predict what their audience wants to play. 

“We have a store website, our main website, and we’ve used event aggregators in the past,” Tandeski said. “Knowing that analysis takes time, a lot of the time we’re scraping off the top key performance indicators and then using that to inform our decisions.” 

Uniquely, The Rook Room uses a lot of their business partners to see what type of events bring in the most people. Their partners have realized that, because they bring in The Rook Room and its games, that more people will show up to the venue. The venues can then share the data they collected to help inform The Rook Room about what is working.

“They’re able to give us the average costs of what people are spending on a night that we’re there. So, we can get a good idea of how to project revenue for what we’re building once we open our own space,” Tarnowski said. 

Today, data clearly drives numerous business models and guides many owners in their strategies to target customers. 

“We have a plethora of data, and we are definitely using it. It informs the brands that we sell, how often we’re switching our menus, to what we’re running promotionally on social media, and everything in between.” Lamb said. “Our goal is to be focused on what guests want because we have so many different guests from all over.” ♦