A hands-on 10week short course that teaches small business owners, managers and analysts how to turn everyday data into decisions that grow revenue and cut costs. You’ll stop guessing and start measuring: learn how to collect the right data, build simple dashboards, run basic analyses that answer real business questions (Which product is most profitable? Where are we losing customers?), and use those insights to prioritise actions that move the bottom line. The course focuses on low-cost, practical tools and templates that work for Ugandan SMEs - no PhD required.

What You Will Learn - 6 modules (10 weeks)

• Module 1 — Data for Business Questions: identify high value questions, map data sources (sales, inventory, customers), and design simple data collection routines.
• Module 2 — Clean, Store and Protect Data: basic data cleaning, simple spreadsheets as databases, file organisation and practical data privacy basics for SMEs.
• Module 3 — Descriptive Analytics and Dashboards: build sales, cashflow and inventory dashboards; visualise trends and seasonality with charts that tell a story.
• Module 4 — Customer and Sales Analytics: cohort analysis, customer lifetime value basics, segmentation and simple churn indicators to prioritise retention.
• Module 5 — Inventory, Pricing and Margin Analysis: SKU profitability, stockturn calculations, pricing experiments and simple margin optimisation techniques.
• Module 6 — From Insight to Action: A/B test basics, setting measurable KPIs, creating a 90day analytics action plan and communicating insights to teams and investors.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course you will be able to:

• Frame business problems as data questions and identify the minimum data needed to answer them.
• Build and maintain simple, reliable dashboards that track sales, cashflow and inventory in near real time.
• Segment customers and prioritise actions that increase repeat purchases and average order value.
• Run quick profitability checks to stop lossmaking lines and scale high margin products.
• Design low-cost experiments (pricing, promotions, channels) and measure their impact.
• Present data-driven recommendations that your team and funders can act on.

Impact
SMEs that adopt these practices typically see clearer cashflow visibility, faster decisions on pricing and stock, improved customer retention and better evidence when seeking finance. Small, consistent analytics habits often translate into measurable revenue gains within three months.

Who Can Apply

• SME owners and operations managers.
• Sales and marketing leads, finance officers and business analysts in small firms.
• Consultants and advisors supporting SME growth.
• Entrepreneurs preparing for scale or investor conversations.

Delivery Model

• Blended: four practical workshops (in-person or virtual) + weekly online microlessons.
• Hands-on labs: build a live dashboard using spreadsheets or low-cost BI tools; run a customer segmentation exercise.
• Toolkits: dashboard templates, data collection checklists, KPI scorecards and experiment trackers.
• Applied assessment: submit a 90day analytics action plan and a working dashboard for your business or a case study.
• Optional bespoke: onsite coaching and dashboard setup for organisational cohorts.

Cost and Duration

• Tuition (Standard): UGX 600,000
  
• Tuition (Intensive): UGX 800,00
• Duration (Standard): 10 weeks
• Duration (Intensive): 6 weeks
• Study Load: 4 hours per week

Cohort Start Dates
January, April, July, October (2026–2028) - bespoke cohorts available on request.