There is no substitute for someone showing you how to finesse your SWOT, today you can follow a simple adaptable approach to compete your SWOT in a fraction of the normal time.

Making up the acronym, SWOT, there are internal Strengths and Weaknesses and external Opportunities and Threats.

Most people will find the concept of a SWOT analysis relatively easy to grasp. However, without guidance, they will struggle to complete a thorough analysis of their three strategic environments. That is where you can be different. Today you will learn all about analysing your three strategic environments,

• Internal Environment

• Industry Environment

• Macro Environment

Now let's find out how

Possible Internal Environment Strengths / Weaknesses

Your internal environment can be divided into two categories

• Tangible

• Intangible

Some possible tangible strengths/weaknesses that you may find in your business

• Consider your assets including plant and equipment

• Do you have long-term rental contracts for your business locations?

• Are your products unique or market leading?

• Have you got sufficient financial resources to fund any changes you would like to make?

• Do you have any cost advantages over your competitors?

• Do you use superior technology in your business?

• Is your business high volume?

• Can your scale up your volume if you need to?

Some possible intangible strengths/weaknesses that you may find in your business

• Do you have or stock strong recognizable brands

• Your reputation - are you considered a market leader? or an expert in your filed?

• Do you have good relationship with your customers? (Goodwill)

• Do you have strong relationships with your suppliers

• Do you have a positive relationship with your employees?

• Do you have any unique alliances with other businesses?

• Do you own any patents or proprietary technology?

• Do you have a proven advertising process that works well?

• Do you have more experience in your field?

• Are you managers highly experienced?

• Do you have superior industry knowledge?

• Are you involved with industry associations?

• Is your business Innovative?

You will find almost no organisation will put leadership down as a weakness, the reason for this is that most of the time it is those leaders who are competing the SWOT analysis.

Possible Opportunities

When completing your analysis you will find that your Opportunities will generally fit into two categories

Industry Opportunities

• Industry opportunities are opportunities in your industry environment and generally reduce the level of price competition in your industry.

Macro Opportunities

• Macro opportunities are in the broader environment that generally affect all businesses in your region.

Some possible Industry Opportunities are

• Expand your product range

• Diversify your business interests

• Expand into your customer's field (Forward Integration)

• Expand into your supplier's field (Backward integration)

• Expand your customer base (Geographically or through new products)

• Placid competition

• Export opportunities

• Products or service in growth

Some possible Macro Opportunities are

• Favourable changes to legislation

• Favourable changes to any import/export constraints

• Favourable economic outlook

• Favourable cultural shifts

• Technology that your business can utilize such as Ecommerce or Internet sales

Some Possible Threats

You will find that your threats will fit into two categories

Industry threats

• Industry threats are related to an increase in the competition in your industry or a reduction in market size. Generally industry threats threaten to reduce your businesses profitability.

Macro Threats

• Macro threats are the kinds of things that affect all industries in your region. These also generally result in a risk of reduced profitability.

Some Possible Industry Threats Include

• Low cost imports, the threat of low cost imports affects almost any manufacturer in the developed world, with the possible exception of food manufacturing.

• Consumer ability to shift to a substitute product and changing demand for substitute products, consider the manufacture of nails used in the assembly of house frames, if housing developers shifted from timber frames to steel framed houses, demand for nails would drop significantly.

• Slow market growth or decline in market size, western countries the demand for alcoholic drinks remains pretty flat

• Shifts in customer or supplier buying power reducing your margins, consolidation in the retail industry has shifted buying power to the retailer who can place suppliers for generic products under high price pressure.

• The changing needs of buyers, (customers), take the McDonalds fast food chain as an example, Faced the threat of Australian customer needs changing towards a healthier life style. In response to this threat McDonalds has introduced several healthy eating options.

Some Possible Macro Threats Include

• Shifts in foreign exchange rates impacting your imports or exports

• Demographic changes, the aging workforce making it difficult to get skilled workers in many developed countries.

• Industry Regulation, a good example is aged care facilities who are impacted by increasing regulation and increased costs to administer these new regulations.

Now, you have enough information to get started on your SWOT Analysis.