Becoming an entrepreneur isn’t as easy as snapping your fingers (unfortunately). You have myriads of decisions to make, from tiny ones that will lead to zero consequences to those crucial ones that can make it or break it.

And you know what sets apart great entrepreneurs from those who fail? You guessed it – it’s how they make those big decisions.

A great entrepreneur looks into the data before even weighing in on their options – the business’s performance, the target audience, the market itself, you name it. Thanks to this, they have all the ammo they need to make well-informed decisions.

For example, they can see that, yes, it makes sense to get research paper writing help to free up more time for the business. Why? Because the sales are up, and so are the profits. So, investing more time in the enterprise is not going to go in vain.

But you don’t have to be the next Elon Musk or run a Facebook rival company to use business analytics in your enterprise. Here are six tools that will facilitate the process – and help you make data-driven decisions to grow your business.

1. Google Analytics

• Pricing: free
• Platform: web
• It’s great for tracking and analyzing your website’s performance metrics

What could be a better way to kick off this list than with the most popular web analytics tool there is?

Yes, Google Analytics is unrivaled in this field. It can gather and visualize everything you need to know about your website users and their behavior, your Google Ads’ campaigns’ performance, as well as sales and other e-commerce metrics.

2. Buffer

• Pricing: the paid plans start at $5 per social channel/month (a free plan is available – but it comes without any analytics features)
• Platform: web, iOS, Android, browser extensions are available
• It’s great for gaining insights into all of your social media channels in one place – and improving your social media strategy

Buffer came to be famous for making it possible to schedule social media posts for a variety of channels in one place. But that’s hardly the only thing it has to offer these days.

Buffer’s paid plan allows tracking your social media content’s performance across all of your accounts. So, if you want to laser-focus on this part of your strategy, Buffer is your best friend.

3. Wave Accounting

• Pricing: free
• Platform: web
• It’s great for keeping track of your cash flow – and making data-driven financial decisions

First of all, yes, there is a free accounting tool for small businesses – so, don’t miss out on this opportunity.

Second, in addition to the accounting itself, Wave has great tracking and analytics features. So, if you need the financial data for your decision-making, Wave has you covered with its exportable reports.

4. Power BI

• Pricing: plans start at $9.99 per user/month
• Platform: web, Windows, iOS, Android
• It’s great for automatically bringing data from more than 100 sources into one place

Many tools offer analytics and reports. But then you end up with up to a dozen different data sets. How do you make sense of all of them? How do you see the correlations and causations all across the board?

This is where Microsoft’s Power BI comes in. It allows integrating various data sources into one pool and visualizing it in a user-friendly dashboard. Plus, it’s affordable enough for beginner entrepreneurs – most other enterprise tools come with a price tag of up to $100 per month.

5. Zoho Analytics

• Pricing: a free plan is available; paid plans start at $24 per user/month
• Platform: web, Windows, iOS, Android
• It’s great for visualizing and analyzing data from multiple databases

Zoho Analytics can be a free alternative to Microsoft’s Power BI – but you’ll have to invest a not-so-insignificant amount of time in setting it up. The tool’s free version allows only integrating data in spreadsheets or other database files. Direct integrations with other tools like Shopify, Twitter, or SurveyMonkey are available only in the paid plans.

On the other hand, if all you need is predictive, what-if, and auto analyses, Zoho Analytics has you covered. Plus, you’re not restricted in the number of reports and dashboards even in the free version.

6. Geckoboard

• Pricing: plans start at $28 per month; a limited free plan is available
• Platform: web
• It’s great for consolidating and visualizing all of your data in one place

Finally, there’s Geckoboard. Just like the two previous options, it serves the same purpose – bringing all of your data into one place. (Its free plan allows importing spreadsheet data only, though.)

Is there anything that sets it apart? There are two reasons why Geckoboard is worth your consideration. First, it allows showing your dashboard on a TV – its interface is designed with that in mind. Second, its visualization capabilities are top-notch.

6 More Honorable Mentions

These six tools listed above aren’t the only ones you should consider adding to your toolkit. Here are six more solutions to enhance your business analytics inquiries:

1. Google Trends (free) – for analyzing what’s trending in your niche;
2. Hotjar (a limited free plan is available) – for visualizing user behavior on your website;
3. Moz (free tools are available) – for gathering metrics to satisfy your SEO needs;
4. BuzzSumo (a limited free plan is available) – for data-driven content research and social listening;
5. Active Campaign (starts at $9 per month) – for gaining insights into your email marketing campaigns and customers;
6. Microsoft Excel (the online version is free) or Google Sheets (free) – for the nitty-gritty statistical analysis and visualization.

In Conclusion: 8 Steps Towards Smart Decision-Making

So, you’ve signed up for the business analytics tools that you think will come in handy. But that’s not all. Now, it’s time for some decision-making.

Here are 8 steps to help you ensure your decision-making is on the right track:

1. Pinpoint the exact problem you need to solve;
2. Gather all the relevant information – and pay attention to the details;
3. Dig deep to understand the root cause of the problem;
4. Don’t confuse correlation with causation;
5. Understand what options you have at your disposal;
6. Weigh in on their pros and cons;
7. Test your solution – and your hypothesis together with it;
8. Evaluate the results and decide whether to stick with the current option or try an alternative.