Contract Data Analyst for UK Small Businesses
Most SMEs need analytical work done long before they need a full-time analyst on the payroll. The reporting is manual, the data sits in four places, and nobody has time to build the thing that would answer the question properly.
I work with UK businesses on a contracted day rate, typically one or two days a week, building the reporting and analysis an in-house analyst would build. No employment contract, no notice period, no recruitment fee.
The work
Dashboards and Management Reporting
Reporting that updates itself and shows what the business is doing while there is still time to act on it. Built on whatever you already use rather than requiring a new platform.
Reporting Automation
Replacing recurring manual work with scripted processes that run on their own. Usually the fastest payback of anything on this page, because the saving is measurable from week one.
Data Cleaning and Consolidation
Reconciling records across systems, resolving duplicates and inconsistencies, and producing a dataset the business can actually rely on. Unglamorous and usually the precondition for everything else.
Forecasting and Modelling
Demand forecasts, capacity models, pricing and margin analysis, scenario testing. Built so the assumptions are visible and you can change them yourself rather than coming back to me.
SQL and Database Work
Queries, views, data models and extracts. Including the documentation so the work does not leave with me.
Contract versus a full-time hire
The salary is not the cost. Below is a realistic year-one comparison for a mid-level analyst against two days a week on contract. Figures are illustrative and depend on your circumstances, but the shape holds.
| Full-time hire, year one | Cost |
|---|---|
| Salary | £45,000 |
| Employer National Insurance | £6,000 |
| Employer pension contribution | £1,350 |
| Equipment, software, workspace | £2,000 |
| Recruitment fee (one-off) | £7,500 |
| Total | £61,850 |
| Contract, two days a week | Cost |
|---|---|
| £250 per day, 46 working weeks | £23,000 |
| Employer NI, pension, holiday, sick pay | £0 |
| Equipment and software | £0 |
| Recruitment fee | £0 |
| Total | £23,000 |
The honest version of this comparison: two days a week is not five, so a full-time hire gives you more capacity. The question is whether you need five days of analytical work, or whether you need two days of it done well and have been unable to justify a whole role. Most SMEs are in the second position.
Engagements run monthly with thirty days notice on either side. If the work runs out, you stop paying. That is the part a permanent hire cannot offer.
What the work looks like
Two published pieces show the method applied end to end, on public data, with sources and validation checks stated.
The Phuket visitor demand analysis reconciles 44 months of airport immigration records against published national totals and separates a headline decline into two opposing movements underneath it. The Thailand durian supply study was built in PostgreSQL across six SQL modules, using UN Comtrade and Thai agricultural records to test a competitive claim that changes depending on which window you measure.
Neither is client work, which is the point: the reasoning and the sources are fully visible. You can judge the quality before you commission anything.
How it works
I am a British economist based in Phuket, Thailand. Work is delivered remotely, with calls on UK hours. The lower day rate reflects a lower cost base, not less experience or less time on your work.
Data protection
Most analytical work does not require personal data at all. Job records, invoices, pricing, utilisation and financial data can generally be pseudonymised before they reach me, which removes the question entirely and is the default I work to.
Where personal data is genuinely necessary, transfers outside the UK require a specific safeguard under UK GDPR, and I will put the appropriate agreement in place before any data moves. If your organisation has its own data processing requirements, send them at the outset rather than at contract stage.
Continuity
The reasonable objection to a contractor is that knowledge leaves when they do. Everything I build is documented, commented and handed over in a form your team can maintain. If you later hire an analyst, they inherit working systems and documentation rather than starting again.
Who this is not for
If you need someone physically present, in meetings, embedded in the team day to day, hire someone. If you need five days a week of analytical work, hire someone. This suits businesses with real analytical need and no realistic case for a permanent role.
Also advising UK trades businesses on pricing and job profitability: see UK trades and SME advisory.
Tell me what you need built
A first call costs nothing. Bring the reporting problem you have been meaning to fix, or the question your current data cannot answer.