Mayor Harris: Do you know your business’s strengths and weaknesses? - Preeceville's Main Street with the Mayor Garth Harris for Thursday August 29th 2019 8:35 am

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Preeceville's Main Street with the Mayor Garth Harris for Thursday August 29th 2019 8:35 am

With GX94's Craig Wallebeck > see him @ http://www.gx94radio.com/craig-Wallebeck

This week we focus on: Do you know your business’s strengths and weaknesses?

Hello Garth,

Preparing a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) is a vital element of your strategic planning.

It’s one of the best ways to figure out how to harness your company’s strengths, address its weaknesses and target its opportunities.

You’ll be surprised just how much information will come to the surface once you sit down to get it done.

In this article, we explain each element of the SWOT analysis, along with lots of examples.

To your success,

The BDC Team

bdc.ca info@bdc.ca

Business Development Bank of Canada
5 Place Ville Marie, Suite 100
Montreal, Quebec H3B 5E7
Toll-free number: 1-877-232-2269

Do you know your business’s strengths and weaknesses?

Use this tool to improve your strategic planning

"An analysis of your company’s strengths and weaknesses should be a key component of your strategic planning process. This easy-to-use tool also identifies your company’s opportunities and any threats it faces (hence the term “SWOT”).

This analysis helps you see how you stand out in the marketplace; how you can grow as a business; and where you are vulnerable. The process takes into account both internal and external factors your company must navigate.

Address issues in your planning

Don’t make the mistake of preparing a SWOT analysis and then ignoring it as you develop your strategic plan. Instead, your plan should include concrete steps to harness your company’s strengths in order to target the opportunities identified in your analysis. The plan should also include specific measures to address the weaknesses and threats you face.

Here are more details on the four elements in a SWOT analysis.

1. Strengths

Make a list of your company’s internal strengths. These are any competitive advantage, skill, proficiency, experience, talent or other internal factor that improves your company’s position in the marketplace and can't be easily copied.

Examples include solid financing, a superior brand, valuable intellectual property, superior technology, modern equipment and/or machinery, a well-trained sales team, low staff turnover, management expertise, operational efficiency, high customer retention, good supplier relationships, etc.

2. Weaknesses

These are the factors that reduce your company’s ability to achieve its objectives. Examples include unreliable suppliers, outdated equipment and/or machinery, insufficient marketing efforts, lack of financing, management weaknesses, gaps in expertise, etc.

Be as honest as you can when identifying these deficiencies. Ignoring weaknesses means you can’t make decisions that will strengthen your company.

3. Opportunities

Opportunities are external factors that allow your business to grow and be more profitable. Examples would include new potential markets; innovations; technological advances; consumer trends; support from governments, the community or business partners; etc.

One way to identify your opportunities is to closely analyze your competitors’ weaknesses.

4. Threats

Threats are external obstacles your business must overcome. Threats may include a declining economy, a consumer shift to other products, technological change, a labour shortage, community opposition, legal or regulatory changes, etc.

It’s often useful to take a close look at your competitors’ strengths to identify external threats to your company. Again, be as honest as possible.

A SWOT analysis doesn’t have to be a long, complex document. Two or three pages of point-form notes are usually sufficient. Free templates for a SWOT analysis are easy to find on the Internet.

You can put your SWOT analysis findings in the table provided below:

It’s worth revisiting your SWOT analysis at least on an annual basis, particularly when you review your strategic plan."

"It's important to know you are doing good, not just thinking you are doing good"

https://mayorharris.blogspot.com/2014/02/be-your-own-boss.html

Events:

Bingo 606 Harvard Preeceville Air Cadets Squadron Sponsoring Committee BINGO. Every Thursday at Club 60. Doors open at 7pm, first game starts at 8pm.

2019-2020 Preeceville Nursery School Registration - September 5, 2019

The Preeceville Nursery School is holding a Registration Night for the 2019-2020 school year on Wednesday, September 5 from 5:00 to 7:00 pm.
If your child was born in 2015 or 2016 and they will be attending Preeceville Nursery School for 3 year old or 4 year old nursery school in the upcoming school year, you need to attend this registration night.

To get more information please
phone or text
Calla @ 547-7999 or
Lori @ 547- 8745

Or email pvillenurseryschool@gmail.com