SWOT – The 4 Components Of A Successful Business Plan.

To get to know your business better, identify strengths and weaknesses and opportunities for growth, a S.W.O.T. analysis is a valuable exercise to conduct. Consider the internal issues of the business to be covered in the Strengths and Weaknesses categories. The external issues are addressed in the Opportunities and Threats. Be removed an unemotional about going throught the S.W.O.T. analysis, ego should not enter into the equation. If a weakness is discovered admit it and put in place the necessary mitigation plans.

• A Strength is anything you have going for you that will assist you in achieving your goals. In other words, what are all the strong points of your business, your product and yourself?
• A Weakness is a restriction, fault, or shortcoming in the business, product, or yourself, that  will prevent it from achieving its overall outcomes.
• An Opportunity is any favorable situation in the business’s current industry. It’s usually a trend or change of some kind, or an overlooked need, resulting in a higher demand for a product or service. This could be a chance to grow the business by meeting the new demand. Are there new products or existing services you could deliver that are not being marketed to key clients?
• A Threat is any unfavorable situation that could slow down or interrupt your growth. The threat may be a barrier, a constraint, or anything external that might cause problems, or prevent you from achieving your outcomes.

In general, a good strategy is to take advantage of the opportunities you identified, and focus on your strengths to avoid any threats and weaknesses. In other words… be aware of what’s happening in the marketplace and what people are looking for.The first part of any SWOT is to collect all the info you can on your product,  your market place and the customers. Things like market trends, the competition, and marketing, financial resources basically anything that could have an impact on your business.

• Strengths may be represented as exclusive product or service offerings, supply contracts,supply chain expertise, speed of service, employee skills and experience, or proprietary technology.
• Examples of weaknesses: bad customer service, late deliveries, unreliable suppliers, limited products/service. Bad website, low financial funds. Etc
• Examples of opportunities: emerging trend for a particular service or product, closing down of a competitor’s business, change of affiliate commissions.
• Examples of threats: new competitors setting up on the Internet, a particular product or service becoming outdated, cheaper products becoming available.

The second part of a SWOT analysis is to evaluate the information to determine strategies and activities that can be implemented to maximize opportunities, capitalize on strengths and mitigate weaknesses and threats. This can be done independently or by brainstorming in a group.

Once performed the SWOT will produce valuable information. Remember to take the next most important step and act on that information.

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