Databases for Small Business: Essentials of Database Management, Data Analysis,and Staff Training for Entrepreneurs and Professionals
by Anna Manning
CHAPTER 5
Aligning Your Database With the Goals of Your Small Business
In order for small businesses to get the most out of a database, it must be designed with the goals, metrics, and levers of the business in mind. In summary, goals aim to move the business in a given direction, levers are variables that can be changed with the intention of bringing about such a move, and metrics measure the progress of the goals and the levers. This chapter explains these three components in detail.
A useful database is shaped by the goals of the business, with a large proportion of the data consisting of metrics. If a database is designed properly, the queries and reports produced by it will feed directly into the decision-making process of the business, ...