How to Conduct a SWOT Analysis
When you’re planning out a business opportunity, you want to do everything you can to ensure your success. Proper planning is the first step, followed by execution of those plans. In order to properly define your business model, it’s important to do a SWOT Analysis before undertaking any potential business venture.
What is a SWOT Analysis?
SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. The strengths and weaknesses of your company are the internal factors, and the opportunities and threats are external factors that could potentially affect your business. After you’ve defined your objective, it’s time for you to define the internal and external factors that may help or hinder the attainment of your stated objective.
The first step in a SWOT analysis is defining your strengths. These are internally focused, and can include:
• Your personal marketing experience and expertise
• The strategic location of your business
• An innovative service or product your company offers
• The high quality of your products or services
The next step is to define your company’s weaknesses, such as:
• Poor-quality goods or services
• A bad business location
• Lack of differentiation in the marketplace
• A damaged reputation
After you have established the strengths and weaknesses of your company, you need to determine the opportunities available in your marketplace. These external factors can include:
• A new avenue for sales, such as e-commerce
• A new market segment
• The removal of a competitor from your market
• Mergers or strategic alliances
Next, it’s time to define the threats to your company, such as:
• A price war with an existing competitor
• The addition of a new competitor to the marketplace
• Government intervention or new taxation on your product or service
• The launch of a new, innovative product by a competitor
When conducting a SWOT analysis, it’s important to be as realistic, honest, and specific as possible. This will help you discover areas in your business that need improvement, as well as potential places that provide you with an edge over the competition. Click to find out more about conducting a competitive analysis.
SWOT analyses should be an ongoing process, conducted on a regular basis. It’s important to stay abreast of the current market in order to better understand your strategic position within it.
Have you ever used a SWOT analysis before considering a business opportunity?
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I think its really informative. I really like your other posts. Keep up the great work. If you can add more video and pictures can be much better. Because they help much clear understanding.
thanks