A Beginner’s Business Analysis Cheat Sheet for Quick Learning and Problem Solving

Running a successful business requires making informed decisions. While experience is an excellent teacher, having a cheat sheet of essential business analysis skills as a beginner can drastically improve your problem-solving ability and make you more confident.

Here is a beginner’s business analysis cheat sheet for quick learning and problem-solving.

1. SWOT analysis: SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis is a structured approach to identify and analyze internal and external factors that can affect the business. It helps businesses understand their current situation and make informed decisions. Conducting SWOT analysis requires answering four questions:

– What are the strengths of the business?
– What are the business’s weaknesses?
– What opportunities exist in the market?
– What threats might the business face?

2. Market analysis: Market analysis involves understanding your industry, target market, and competition. It helps businesses identify unique selling points, create marketing strategies, and develop competitive advantage. Market analysis requires examining the following areas:

– Industry trends and growth potential.
– Target market demographics, psychographics, and needs.
– Competitor analysis, including their strengths, weaknesses, and market share.

3. Financial analysis: Financial analysis helps businesses understand their current financial situation, identify areas for improvement, and make informed financial decisions. Some essential financial analysis tools are:

– Balance Sheet: provides a snapshot of the business’s financial position at a particular point in time.
– Income Statement: summarizes the business’s revenue and expenses during a particular period.
– Cash Flow Statement: tracks the cash flowing in and out of the business.

4. Root cause analysis: Root cause analysis helps businesses identify the underlying causes of problems and address them at the source. It involves asking a series of “why” questions to identify the root cause.

– Example: Why is the sales team not meeting targets? Because they are not following up on leads. Why? Because they don’t have time. Why? Because they spend too much time manually inputting data into the CRM system.

5. Fishbone diagram: A fishbone diagram is a visual tool used to identify the underlying causes of a problem. It is also called an Ishikawa or cause-and-effect diagram. A fishbone diagram requires identifying the problem and its effect, followed by drawing a diagram with multiple branches to identify the various causes of the problem.

– Example: The problem is low sales, and the effect is decreased revenue. The branches of the fishbone diagram will include causes such as marketing campaigns, pricing strategy, sales team performance, and product quality.

In conclusion, by mastering the beginner’s business analysis cheat sheet, you can confidently tackle the most complex business problems, make informed decisions to grow your business and avoid costly mistakes. Remember to break down a problem using the five steps, and use visual tools like the fishbone diagram to identify root causes.