Have you ever walked into a room and been asked your opinion on investing in a new product? Have you ever had to prepare for a pitch to your investors? During the research stage, did you struggle to find a chart that can seamlessly display the high complexity of your data while being easy to understand?

If either of these scenarios sound familiar to you, then the Blackman & Sloop Data Analytics team can help you.

Below is an example of how data analytics can play a role in your business’ decision making journey.

Let’s assume you are a CFO and you run a company that sells cranberry juice. Sales are great and you are turning a profit. Now someone in your meeting asks, “Should we sell craisins too?”

At first glance, everything appears like you should sell craisins. Your finance department can arrange the appropriate funds to buy the equipment to process the leftover berries after juice extraction and turn them into craisins. Your packaging team can create secure packages and containers to ship the craisins to your retail stores. Your sales team can do the marketing to promote the new craisins product to your customers. But the question remains – should you sell the craisins?

Based on the preliminary research from your production and marketing team, the processing cost of turning leftover berries into a six ounce bag of craisins would cost $2.00. The company can sell the product for $10.00 a package.

This information is promising. It seems like selling craisins has the potential to rocket your profits. So you request your accountant to run a pro forma income statement to forecast profits and to determine how long it will take to recoup the initial investment.

When you review the pro forma income statement, you find out that your profits on the craisins aren’t exactly sky high. Huh, why? So far, all research indicated that this product would be a high-seller and reap a high profit.

What you instantly learn from the pro forma income statement is that the processing costs are just one part of the cost of creating the craisins. Your company has other operating expenses, including the rent, shipping, advertising and promotions, and salaries. Your company won’t turn a profit on craisins until all of the operating expenses are paid.

Your accountant has also prepared a pro forma balance sheet to measure the impact on the balance sheet. In order to minimize the manufacturing cost, you would need to manufacture a minimum quantity of craisins and store them in the warehouse. What you quickly learn from the pro forma balance sheet is that selling craisins is going to significantly increase your inventory on the balance sheet. Your investors use your balance sheet to access the financial health of your company.

After reviewing the numbers, you decide to proceed with selling craisins. Each June, you meet with your investors to present the company’s earnings report. You attempt to take this opportunity to discuss with your investors about securing a round of funding to invest in the new craisins product. You have known these investors for years and you know that they are like the Shark Tank hosts. They will be hammering you with a lot of questions and will be seeking as much supporting information as possible from your proposal. Not having the data available for the investors’ questions could mean an increase of chance of your idea being shot down.

Only you and your CEO will attend the meeting. Therefore, you don’t have a big group of analysts following you to run reports and answer questions. You have prepared pro forma financial statements that forecast the estimated revenue, cash flows, and taxes. You also have big sets of marketing data by demography, ethnicity, and age.

You want to present the insights from your data to persuade your investors that selling craisins is going to work. It is going to make money! But the amount of data is overwhelming.

You have 500 pages of marketing and financial data that you could present. You want to keep the presentation focused on the selling points of craisins. You need a way to visualize the data that will rapidly communicate your findings in a way that everyone can understand. You are not sure that traditional excel reports can exactly do the job. What can you do?

You can contact the Data Analytics team at Blackman & Sloop. With our state of the art data analytics tools, we are able to data into insights. If you want to learn more about how we can help in this situation or share your thoughts with us, please contact us to schedule a 30-minute complimentary consultation.