I read this article few days ago, and approached few of local BA related association, one of them ACS foundation call me this morning for documents collecting, as they are int he last 2 days before close some of the scholarship application. That’s awesome.

I will keep you posted about how my career going, got friend of mine referred me to his manager for volunteer job for PA position as well after I posted my advertise online say looking for volunteer job, someone say: hi, maybe I could help you.

I see my BA career approaching me day by day…….

Crystal

Great post! You’ve helped me realize what it is that I can do for a friend of mine who recently started a small wine importing/consulting business. I was already thinking about how to help him build a simple inventory application; but now it has become clear that I can help him by defining his business/importing process as well. Thanks!

What I’ve found is that most small businesses, including my own, are very reliant on their owner. Everything from the vision to the details of customer service, finance, and marketing are all in the owner’s head. This makes it very difficult to bring on new staff and scale the business.

I think someone with the aptitude for business analysis can help that business owner break down their day-to-day work into repeatable processes, establish roles and responsibilities, etc. Basically, I’m talking about giving a view into the structure of the business–it’s there in the owner’s mind but it isn’t exposed and documented in such a way that intelligent decisions can be made around it. You might do this on a large scale (the whole business) or a small scale (take one part of the business or even one process).

The best book I’ve found to help me through this process is E-Myth by Michael Gerber.

In terms of where would one start, I’d say you start by talking to a business owner that might be interested, understand their pain points, and provide some suggestions as to how you might best help.

Best,
Laura

You are a wealth of information and it’s been very informative to read through your articles.

When you suggest helping someone you know who runs a small business, what type of work do you envision one being able to do? Even to take the example you mentioned (mother runs a bakery) – where would one start to become involved in this process?

Thanks in advance,
Anthony

Your last point Laura, about documenting processes and such for small business is an amazingly untapped area. While it’s generally not something where an analyst can walk in off the street and request access to the inner working of a firm, there are many organizations that we as individuals know someone in charge or the owners. They typically don’t even know that it’s a good idea to have practices in place to govern daily operations. An analyst’s value is very high in these situations, as the small business in today’s economy needs all the strengthening it can get. Concurrently, volunteering leads to exposure of many different business types and models for the analyst to add to his or her experiences.