2020 | Teik Oh

Dive Into Your Business With A Multi-Level SWOT Analysis

Nov 17 2020

I’m guessing you have heard of the SWOT analysis where you identify the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of your business.

I wrote an article on how you can conduct a SWOT analysis and use it to improve your business, but this week I wanted to really help you to dive deep into your business and conduct a multi-level SWOT analysis on your business.

First, let me explain for the uninitiated.

A SWOT analysis is a critical tool to analyse where your business currently stands in various performance areas. It is used as a key stage during the business planning process.

Strengths and weaknesses are internal characteristics, within your control to develop or eliminate. Opportunities and threats are external influences like the economy, legislation or natural disaster which you cannot control but can to manage their effects.

An analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of your business will help you to identify strategies to improve on strengths and take advantage of opportunities, as well as eliminate weaknesses and mitigate against threats, and thus improve your business performance.

However, did you know that you can use the SWOT analysis to dive deep into every part of your business and develop immediate tactics as well as longer-term strategies to correct weak areas and build up strong ones?

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Your Business SWOT

Nov 10 2020

One of the best and most relatable planning tools is the SWOT analysis.

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

A SWOT Analysis is a great start to understanding where you stand as you prepare a Business Plan. You can get our free Business Planning Checklist that explains the role of the SWOT analysis here.

Strengths and Weaknesses are internal characteristics of what you are analysing, whether it be your business or a part of the business, like a product or a system. You can control what happens to your Strengths and Weaknesses.

On the other hand, Opportunities and Threats are external influences on your business or other parts of your business. You are not in control of whether these Opportunities or Threats crystalise, but you may be able to manage their effects.

You can use SWOT to analyse your business and help you to create business-improvement strategies.

So, how do you conduct a SWOT analysis, and what does it tell you about your business? Read More

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From “Vision” To Reality

Nov 03 2020

Last week I wrote about how all planning starts with a clear vision of where you want to go. I gave you three simple steps to create a vision for your business that also establishes clear measurements of how close you are getting to “success”.

And yet, some pragmatic small business owners are still concerned that spending time on this “vision-thing” is not really productive, They can’t see how a wild and woolly “vision” can really help them succeed amongst their daily grind.

Well, that may explain why they feel they are in a daily “grind” rather than feel that they are successfully building the business of their dreams.

Before I show you exactly how you can use your vision to create a reality in your business – one that ensures everyone in it knows exactly what to do without being told and where everyone is pulling toward the same targets of “success”, let me ask you something.

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Planning – Where Do You Want To Go?

Oct 27 2020

The first stage of any planning exercise is to define where you want to go.

Imagine starting on a journey to visit mum without knowing where she was? Imagine getting on a plane to go on holiday without knowing where the plane was going?

Without knowing where you want to go, you cannot take steps to get you there.

Obviously, it is the same in Business Planning. In order to know what to do to make your business grow and be successful, you need to decide what you want the business to be like when it is successful.

This week, I’m going to show you how to do that in your Business Planning process.

The clearest way to define what your business will be like when it is successful is to create a Vision Statement and define it for measures of success.

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Pre-Planning Your Business Planning

Oct 20 2020

Believe it or not, one of the most important tasks before you start any Business Planning is to plan for how you will actually conduct your planning.

If you start without doing this, you are likely to go awry during your planning process.

To me, this is similar to how you decide on your holiday before you make plans for your holiday.

You have to make certain foundational decisions like when you want to take the holiday and where you want to go.

Without this information, your planning of the holiday could go sideways – you might book the wrong dates that clash with something else, or book somewhere inappropriate for the season!.

The first step in any Business Planning process is to “Get Ready To Plan.”

So let’s go through the decisions you have to make in order to make your Business Planning process smooth and efficient.

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Archive - 2020

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Dive Into Your Business With A Multi-Level SWOT Analysis

Your Business SWOT

From “Vision” To Reality

Planning – Where Do You Want To Go?

Pre-Planning Your Business Planning