One of the must know business tools or techniques is the SWOT Analysis technique. SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis can help you identify and understand key issues affecting your business.

When you have a big business decision to make, one of the smartest things you can do during the planning process is conduct a SWOT analysis. It is an analytical framework that can help your company face its greatest challenges and find its most promising new markets.

SWOT analysis enables organizations to identify both internal and external influences. SWOT’s primary objective is to help organizations develop a full awareness of all the factors involved in a decision. It is impossible to accurately map out a small business’s future without first evaluating it from all angles, which includes an exhaustive look at all internal and external resources and threats.

A SWOT analysis focuses entirely on the four elements namely Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

Strengths and Weaknesses: These are the internal factors within an organization.

• Human resources – staff, volunteers, board members, target population
• Physical resources – your location, building, equipment
• Financial – grants, funding agencies, other sources of income
• Activities and processes – programs you run, systems you employ
• Past experiences – building blocks for learning and success, your reputation in the community
• Current processes, such as employee programs, department hierarchies and software

Opportunities and Threats: These are external factors stemming from community or societal forces.

• Future trends in your field or the culture
• The economy – local, national, or international
• Funding sources – foundations, donors, legislatures
• Demographics – changes in the age, race, gender, culture of those you serve or in your area
• The physical environment
• Legislation
• Local, national, or international events
• Market trends, like new products and technology or shifts in audience needs
• Political, environmental and economic regulations

Below is an illustration of a quick SWOT Analysis of The Zimbabwe Business Ideas and Network.

So what next after drafting a SWOT Analysis document?

Your next step should be to come up with an Action Plan which will guide you in terms of follow up strategies. For instance you may want to take advantage of your strengths or take an advantage of emerging opportunities in your environment. You can come up with top priority areas to action, who will be responsible for what  and when. Make it a practice to always review and update your document. You can even include this document whenever you are reviewing your monthly financial performance

We hope to bring you  more Management Tools and next week we tackle Financial Performance.

Some people just follow others when it comes to investment. You watch your neighbour making money from his trucking business and you join in. You hear others at the pub discussing about the profitability of the quail projects and you just follow.

Now the practice of following others is a risky one, some could be making money using some businesses as a cover. As witnessed in 2016, some business like the Quails Project which took Zimbabwe by storm  maybe subject to a ban. Imagine the losses encountered last year by someone who took out a loan to venture into a Quails Project?

So before investing one need to carry out a detailed study of the sector to invest in. You cannot just invest without sufficient information because this increases the risk of failure. One way to obtain information is through market survey reports.

Let’s say you would like to invest in the manufacturing of a new soft drink in Zimbabwe. The following information will be key in your investment decision

1. The state of the economy and projections for the future
2. Performance of the soft drinks sector in the country and the region
3. The size of the soft drinks market, market trends and market growth
4. Consumer preferences and change in tastes
5. The effect of changes in the economy to the profitability of the soft drinks sector
6. Competitors in the industry and level of competition
7. Current Challenges and Opportunities

The information I have given you above is just basic, I can add more if I had time. The bottom line here is that you need the above information in order to:

• Gain competitive intelligence about market leaders
• Track key industry trends, opportunities and threats
• Inform your marketing, brand, strategy and market development, sales and supply functions

This information will assist you in decision making to establish whether to pour in funds for investment into a project or not. Accountants would carry out detailed investment appraisals to determine whether the project would bring a good return on investment or not.

This is a systematic way of investment which reduces the chances of venturing into a project which may be facing a ban or is on a downward trend. You will have a helicopter view of what affects an industry, who are the key players, whether they are making money or not as well as whether an industry has room for more entrants.

So where can you get this information? One easy way is to buy market research reports. How much would it cost you? Currently pricey-it will cost you an arm and a leg. ZBIN Solution-Our solution which is coming in the next few months is that we will be providing detailed market research reports. Some of the reports will be for sale and a few available for free to our members. We hope to ensure that the reports will be available at affordable rates so that the guy in Siyaso can access them. This should save members from investing funds in projects that seem profitable on paper but loss making in reality.