SWOT analysis

[peterjhale]

I'd thought I'd throw this into the mix as I believe this is the most important element when putting your business plan together.

SWOT simply stands for strengths , weaknesses , opportunities and threats.

The first two come ONLY from internal analysis of your business

The second ONLY from external analysis

The best way to perform a SWOT is to be very realistic. Most people can find tons of weaknesses in their business but if a business is making money they must be doing something right ! So be positive as well.

This is the foundation of any planning because this is summarising "where you are today" - without this analysis you can not move forward as you will not know where you are starting from.

I have a SWOT analysis email course if anyone is interested

[carolb]

This is true - you can't move forward until you have undertaken a SWOT

OK there are new ways to analyse your business but why make things complicated ?