4 Strategies for Identifying
the Health of Your Home Business
By Iris J Chapman Copyright
©
Date: Tuesday 10:09 pm
"A schedule defends from chaos and
whim. It is a net for
catching days … A schedule is a mock up of reason and order
- willed faked and so brought into being." - Annie Dillard.
Successful businesses build on their strengths,
correct
their weaknesses and protect against internal
vulnerabilities and external threats. They also keep an eye
on their overall business environment and spot and exploit
new opportunities faster than their competitors.
SWOT:
Is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities and
Threats. It is an analysis tool that helps many businesses
to thrive. In short, if you have a home business you will
want:
· to build its Strengths
· to reverse (or disguise) its
Weaknesses
· to maximize the response to its Opportunities,
and
· to overcome its Threats.
To undertake a SWOT analysis, ideally,
the first step is to
make a long list of every factor that defines your home
business situation (including your assets and your debts).
If you have a detailed one-sentence description
of your home
business, this is a great place to start. Next, take a look
at your business plan. Page through and start "circling" the
various factors that describe your home business and the
situation it is in right now.
The next move is to prioritize this long
list in order to
sort the entries into legitimate
· issues - anything that is under
discussion or in dispute
(List A) and
· true problems (List B).
Take List B. Determine which of the "problems"
are likely to
"just go away" and cross them off. Then focus only on List
A -
plus the balance of list B.
For example, Sue wanted the background
for the new website
to be purple and Mary wanted pink. This is an issue that
would be put into List A. Also, the office computer was not
working. This would be a true problem and would need to be
put into List B. If however, the computer were not working
because the electricity was off as a result of a
thunderstorm, this problem would "just go away" on its own.
Therefore, it could be crossed off the list.
Grab a new piece of paper and mark off
four categories
"Strengths", "Weaknesses", "Opportunities"
and "Threats".
Then assign each of the issues on the list to a specific
category. This way you can address important matters in
a timely fashion.
A SWOT analysis should be done at least
once a year. If you
do this you will be able to keep your finger on the pulse of
your home business.
Resource Box:
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programs in the world. Go to
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to get your free
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