Surprised by statistics

Lots of things ping into our inbox and Twitter feed these days and if you are like me most of it gets ignored or sent to trash. The other day though I saw a tweet from a bank about local insights. Following the link I was able to drill down to my constituency, 'Hitchin and Harpenden' and see some interesting insights about consumer spending, business growth, business start ups etc

Some of the insights were as expected but several were not. It made me think that as a small business owner I should pay more attention to this kind of data.

Here is an example of some statistics I was a little surprised by. Apparently growth in the construction sector has declined compared to the same quarter last year whereas retail is thriving. That does not fit with my own experience where broadly our construction clients are doing very well indeed and some of our retail clients are still finding it tough. Overall small businesses grew by about 5% compared to the same quarter last year. The professional and administration sector is booming with growth above 11%.

Perhaps the most surprising statistic (well it was for me) is that nearly one in 3 of people living in Hitchin and Harpenden are over 60.

A statistic I have heard many times that still holds true is that more than one in three new businesses fails within three years. Most of these new businesses appear to be started by people who are, how should I put it, passed the first flush of youth. The average age for someone starting a business is 48. The average age for small business owners overall is 52, so I am pushing the average up a little now. The proportion of female business owners is 20%. I don't have this statistic to hand in my business but I'm sure that our proportion of female business clients is significantly higher than this.

So as someone once said, 'There are lies, damned lies and statistics', but what are the lessons to be drawn from these facts and figures? Well for me there are several. Number one is I need to make more use of this local information to help with business planning. Number two is I need to work a bit harder - if our sector is growing by 11% we need to do much better than this. Number three is I need to think more carefully about marketing to business - I may think I know the profile of business owners, but the stats may say something different. I hope there is some useful learning here for your business too.