You think you know your business. You know that Thursdays are slow and that "Mama John" always buys the super rice from the shop. But what if I told you that your "gut feeling" is costing you millions of shillings a year?
Most Ugandan business owners are sitting on a gold mine, but they treat it like trash. I’m talking about your sales logs. Whether it’s a dusty stack of receipt books, a chaotic Excel sheet, or your Mobile Money merchant statement—that isn't just "record keeping" for the taxman. It is a map of exactly how to double your profit.
"Data Mining" sounds like something for tech giants in Silicon Valley. It’s not. It’s simply the art of asking your old sales records: "Who is actually paying the bills, and what do they want next?"
Here is a reality check; You restock based on what you feel is running out. You run promotions when you feel business is slow. If this sounds familiar, it’s because we are emotional creatures.
You remember the one customer who complained loudly, but you forget the ten quiet ones who bought the same high-margin item. Without data, you are driving your business with your eyes closed, hoping you don't hit a pothole.
Let’s fix it. Try the "Grynd" Framework.
1: Audit your customer basket. Look at your last 50 receipts. Don't look at how much they spent; look at what they bought together.
The Insight: Do customers who buy cement almost always buy nails? Do clients who pay for a logo design usually ask for business cards two weeks later?
The Action: Stop waiting for them to ask. Create a "New Builder Bundle" or a "Brand Starter Pack." Upsell the second item before they go to a competitor.
2: The Staffing Analysis: Take your sales records and group them by hour of the day or day of the week.
The Insight: You might find that 60% of your sales happen between 4 PM and 7 PM on Fridays. Yet, you have the same number of staff on duty at 10 AM Tuesday (when it's dead) as you do during the rush.
The Action: Shift your roster. Put your best sales rep on the floor during the peak hours identified by the data.
3. The Retention Strategy: In almost every business, the 80/20 rule applies: 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your customers.
The Insight: Identify the top 10 customers by total value spent in the last year. Not the ones who visit most often, but the ones who spend the most.
The Action: Contact them personally. Not with a generic "Dear Customer" text, but a personal call or a VIP offer. "Data mining" just told you exactly who pays your rent—treat them like it.
Here’s some proof that Data mining is not Magic, but Math
A local hardware store in Kampala started digitizing their sales logs and realized that 30% of their "Paint" customers came back 3 days later for "Brushes." They moved the brushes next to the paint counter and offered a 5% discount if bought together. Sales of brushes went up 40% in one month. That is the power of data.
The Daily Grynd Challenge
Open your sales records (physical or digital) from last month. Find your Top 3 Best-Selling Items. Now, find the one item that is most frequently bought with them. Next week, put those two items next to each other on the shelf or in your catalog.
In the next The Daily Grynd Newsletter, I’m sharing a free Google Sheets template that automatically calculates your "Best Customers" for you. You just punch in the sales, and it does the mining. Make sure you’re subscribed so you don't miss the link.
