Why You Should Learn Database Programming

[billbenson]

I was just thinking about this today and thought I'd make a post:

When I lost my career in 1999 and couldn't find a job in the dot com economic crash I bought a dummies book on web design and conned my way into a web design job. While doing that, I could see the value of databases for web sites. The benefits of giving custom web pages to different customers, quote generators, displaying different products on prior search history etc. So I bought a book on php / mysql and learned to program databases. That's 12 years ago. I'm not a good programmer or fast, but if I wanted something I always have been able to make it work.

What I didn't realize at the time is how important writing database programs would be to a sales business. Because of some luck, my website brings me more business than I can physically handle as a one man show. I started by doing quotes in Excel. I could have done what most people do and migrate to Quickbooks, but since I could do it in php, I just wrote a quote generator in php.

That database has grown into one that automates or minimizes the work required for many aspects of my business. One database can do quotes and orders, track customer activity, create custom web pages etc. What it really does for me is custom automation. Think of it as a custom automatic sprinkler system. Waters the bushes, shrubs, grass at different intervals at the push of a button and can be changed by season or other weather conditions.

Take someone like Ann. It probably doesn't make sense for her now as she has most of her processes in place, but she manages a lot of data that is shared between different functions. Inventory, popular items, customer lists... Had she started a database when she started the business it probably could be far more streamlined today. Ann, I'm not recommending you change, just using you as an example.

For anybody here who is starting a business or even some that have existing businesses it may make sense to learn database design. It took me two weeks in a dummies book but I had some programming in college. MS Access has a user friendly interface, but I suspect you really need to learn to code to take full advantage of the possibilities. Where it really makes sense is if you need to manage a lot of data or if growth will make that desirable.

I actually think this is what made my business successful in spite of a mountain of other errors I have made!

[Spider]

Bill, I accept your analysis of the benefits of choosing to use a database in a business. I take it that being able to write one's own database program is your preference but why is this better than using a ready-made, off-the-shelf application? I'm thinking, if one has built one's own database app. it would likely be difficult for someone else (an employee or consultant) to work on it later. A common program by, say, Microsoft or Oracle (?), would be familiar to consultants for future support and maintenance.

As long as one is going to remain a small business, where the single operator owner will always control and operate the company's software, the need for other hands to mess with it is nonexistent. But, if one is planning a large business, as I am currently, the support and maintenance of any of the company's software should not be dependent upon one person. In this case, it seems to me, a proprietory or open-source database (and other software) would be preferable.

Is that poor reasoning, in your opinion?

[billbenson]

When you use several programs you are effectively using multiple databases. Say you use ACT for sales account management, Quickbooks for book keeping, some other program for inventory etc. None of these programs talk to each other. Go back to my automatic sprinkler analogy. It's like when the sprinkler only waters the bushes once a week and the grass three times a week, and your new flower bed daily, you don't want them to all turn on at the same time or you won't have any water pressure. A sprinkler timer will make sure that that doesn't happen. One complete system.

The manufacturer I represent is a multi billion dollar company. They have acquired various companies over the years. When you go to their website and type a part number into the search bar you will get different results depending on where you are on the site. It can range from product not found (which you never want) to the manual and product images. That's probably because rather than incorporating everything over time into a single database, they are using multiple databases that don't talk to each other very well.

I'll make another analogy. Suppose you sell nuts and bolts as a small business. Most orders includes nuts and bolts, not just nuts. If you rent two storage units in different locations; one for nuts the other for bolts; to fulfill an order you have to go to two different locations. Sounds kind of stupid right?

But that is what you are doing if you keep your data in multiple locations. But think of inventory. You sell three nuts and one bolt the inventory is kept separately if you have different databases. You can't track trends for how many people buy more bolts than nuts? You can''t tell if most bolt orders are shipped to Houston while the nuts go to Iowa farms.

So for any business where information management is crucial to the business, good database management is important.

Then take that a step further and add a website. A good website generates a ton of valuable data. Lets say you use wordpress for your website as an example. It collects all your visitor information, what comments and threads if its a blog draw interest. If you have a shopping cart attached, what customers are buying etc. But here again you have a completely separate database for a specific function that being your website. Along with that you have stats that your website gives you like visitor IP's, browsers used, most visited pages, time on pages etc. Again all important data in different places.

So, ideally you want all of this data in one place. That way you can generate any report you want. Say you want to know what repeat customers you have from Michigan and what they bought. That would take information from your website stats, your customer database, and your products database. That's an odd example but you get the idea.

While all of the above may not be practical, the more information you put in one central place (database), the more information you gain about running your business.

The best time to start this is when you are starting your business. The worst time is when you have a large business with a mess of databases. The multi billion dollar company I represent is an example of that.

And that is only scratching the surface of what you can do with information. Custom web pages for your customers from Michigan etc...

Again, it doesn't really apply to businesses that don't need the data, but all will if they grow beyond a certain point.

[Zodcole]

Makes me never want a white collar job.

[greenoak]

our databases are crucial too....but so different from w hat you need.....some part of our crew probably knows 80% of our database in a face to face way...we are small and have face to face with our customers...and our business changes...for us everything depends on them, the buyers, coming to us, not us selling to them on line or arranging things on line...
..we have 3 parts....3500 on the snail mail .....almost 25oo on the email....and almost 2100 on the facebook data base.....the facebook part is about 2 yrs old and the snailmail part has some folks who have been on for 20 yrs!!!
i would love to hear w hat you would do with this database....i value our data a LOT... even tho its pretty primitive ... we only have 2 categories....retail and wholesale...

[billbenson]

Its hard for me to say, Ann as I don't know your business. The beauty of what happened to me is I started from day 1. My programming skills weren't that good but all I needed was a quote generator. As my business has grown, so has the data I retain and I continually improve my database.

I also don't use social media so I don't know how you can get the the information there into your own database. It sounds like your information is being hand entered. Perhaps in an excel sheet?

Let just say you have your information in excel sheets. Say your snail mail. has columns for customer name, address, phone, what products they like, etc. Is that same information duplicated in perhaps the email database. Are they on facebook as well. Somehow you want to get all of your information in one central database. That way you could stagger promotions based on what they like by snail mail, email etc.

If you include inventory and assign categories to your inventory, and incorporate that into your database, you could do mailings based on inventories and new products to people who like those products. When you do your face to face in the store, ask them if they would like a card or email when some product comes in. Maybe carry a tablet with you in the store to enter that information.

Because my initial needs were so simple, it was easy for me to start. I didn't have any data and just needed to write quotes. I've been at this for over 10 years now to slowly grow the db as I have time. If you do something like this, go in baby steps. Maybe get your email and snail mail combined into one database. Then start modifying the db so it has all the information in it to generate all the reports you need or even print out the snail mail you want when new inventory comes in etc.

Your problem is you are so far along that there is a lot of work here to make it productive for you. It's something to start when you are just getting started.

[Spider]

Bill, I get the potential problem with multiple databases and that it is the likely outcome of using multiple applications. I wasn't contemplating that. When I said, "..it seems to me, a proprietory or open-source database (and other software) would be preferable..," I meant a single proprietory database that all other software would feed into.

Maybe that would mean buying all one's software from a single source - like going totally Microsoft - MS Office, MS Excel, MS Project, MS CRM, MS ERP and so on.

Or, perhaps, various sw apps from different sw companies can be fed into a single proprietory database?

I am just concerned that a specially-written app would not be wise for a large organization because if the app-writer suddenly falls under a bus (or just wants to quit) bang goes one's company.

No?

[billbenson]

Yes, and you will probably need to do that in some form. For example, I don't have the money to build a custom ecommerce site. I wrote software that automatically downloads the info from the ecommerce site to my master database.

For a large organization, you would probably have a web / IT department so no one person is a key point of failure. If you are large, but farm out database management, I'd make it a joint project between more than one person. Perhaps have one person write the spec and another organization implement it using standard coding practices.

My post, however was pointed mostly at the people starting up or those that are pretty small still. If their business model is to grow, and they anticipate have substantial data over time, its worth the effort. Particularly since you can go in baby steps at that point.

My business has grown to a point where I get a large number of phone calls and emails a day. If I don't quote, it never becomes an order. I couldn't do it without my quote generator, so in and of itself it was worth learning it. Yes you could do that function in quickbooks, but as explained above you can't use that information for anything described above that quickbooks doesn't natively provide.

[greenoak]

thanks bill....we a re pretty streamlined.we record date and wholesale and retail thats about all....we delete by date sometimes..and not interested in adding too much, unless there was a big reason.... ...it all kind of works together and we sure dont want to coomputerize our inventory.....we are all about getting them to come here to the store....kind of general...
ours is simple but super valuable....to us....actually we could be a lot bigger and still use this simple plot...

[billbenson]

I think, Ann, if you had started from the beginning with what I am suggesting in this thread you would be glad you did. But you now have all your processes in place and don't seem to be interested in adding new stores etc., so its certainly something I wouldn't recommend for you unless you perchance had a relative who was a programmer or the likes. Your ROI wouldn't make sense.

I do think your business is a good example of one that would have made sense if you started it at the beginning of the business.