SWOT Opportunity

Are you tired of wondering whether or not your project and/or business idea actually has some merit? Everyday people have revolutionary ideas for products or services that could change the way people work or travel, but unfortunately they get intimidated by the competition, or they assume that their idea has already been done by someone else. There are ways for evaluating the viability of an idea before you waste all your resources – so don’t get caught crossing centre ice with your head down!

What is a SWOT Analysis?

A SWOT Analysis is a strategic planning tool used by professionals in many different industries to evaluate the viability of a certain idea, product, or project. These initials stand for the tool’s ability to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of a particular idea or project. In order to use the SWOT Analysis tool correctly, you must define the objectives of your project before you start the analysis. Then, you can evaluate each strength, weakness, opportunity, or threat that will be encountered during the project for its potential impact on the objective. If the weaknesses and threats outweigh the strengths and opportunities, you might want to rethink your project.

Benefits of Using a SWOT Analysis

• Identifying Weaknesses – Even though you might like to think that you’ve come up with a fool proof plan or project idea, it’s important to realize that every idea has weaknesses. Although you can often find ways to fix or get around these weaknesses, it’s important to know about them in advance. Using the SWOT to identify areas can help you to anticipate the challenges that might lie ahead.
• Avoid Wasting Money On Problematic Ideas – Although an idea might sound really good when you talk about it in the beginning, the truth is that some ideas are going to be too fraught with difficulties to be worth your company’s time and money. When you conduct SWOT analysis, before you invest, you can find out whether it’s actually worth the effort.
• Anticipating The Competition – The “threats” portion of the SWOT analysis allows you to spend some time thinking about all the ways in which your competitors might be able to impede on the success of your idea. Failing to prepare for an adverse environment usually means the newcomer is the first to go.

Conclusion

Even if your business has been up and running for a while, you should consider running a yearly SWOT analysis on your operations to make sure you’re ready to respond to new challenges. If you don’t already have a great template for conducting a SWOT analysis, visit www.demandmetric.com and download our SWOT Analysis Template.