SWOT Analysis for Business Plan
A SWOT analysis is a powerful tool that tells the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of your business. It contains great importance in front of investors and lenders when you are asking for loan. It tells them how your businesses is operating internally and are you capable enough to earn large amount of profits or not.
SWOT Analysis:
The SWOT analysis is prepared to know the strengths and weaknesses (internal capabilities of the company) and opportunities and threats (external parameters that are affecting the company). It contains great importance in your professional business plan. It is used to analyze the core areas on which the strategy of business depends; weaknesses your company have; opportunities that you have in market, in order to expand your business; and the external threats of which the company has to be aware.
Every business has competitors, so avoid the lines such as, "We have no competitors" or "We are the best." These lines will create negative impact on your business. Use of bullet points is the best way to begin. Avoid adding irrelevant and unrealistic material.
STRENGHTS:
The positive attributes of your organization is described under the category “Strengths.” Strengths are within your control. It contains:
• What do you do well?
• What resources do you have?
• How unique is your product as compare to your competitors?
• Positive attributes of your employees
• Your tangible assets: available credit, capital, equipment, etc. within the business.
WEAKNESSES:
Gather all the weaknesses that your business has with the organization. It is also within your control. It tells you which area of your organization you want to improve. It might include:
• Lack of expertise
• Lack of technology
• Limited resources
• Poor location of your business
• Inferior service offerings
These are the things you can improve in order to get superiority over your competitors.
OPPORTUNITIES:
This part of SWOT analysis tells you where you exist in your market, what opportunities you have in order to expand your business and how these opportunities provide you benefit. It may be the result of:
• Market growth
• Lifestyle changes
• Positive market perceptions about your business
• Changing trends of business industry, etc.
THREATHS:
Threats are also external but you have no control over them. You must be well-aware of the changing trends of your organization as well as of your market in order to control threats; it may include:
• Competition
• Intolerable price increases by suppliers
• Governmental regulation
• Economic downturns
• Devastating media or press coverage
• A shift in consumer behaviour that reduces your sales
It is necessary that your customized business plan contains all essential information of SWOT analysis. You have to be very careful when preparing your SWOT analysis. Writing business plan is not an easy task, as it requires skills of writing and years of experience. You can hire professional business plan writer to have them write a good business plan for your business or can buy business plan from business plan services which are easily available online.
