If you want to open a new company or relaunch an existing product, you have to do a SWOT analysis for your business in order to define the right way of future development and the company’s strategy. The purpose of the method is to study the state of the business and find out its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

In order to conduct a high-quality SWOT analysis, you have to analyze the market, its players, and your consumer. The information obtained will help you to predict the future of your market, check out the competition environment, define the profile of your customers and consumers and decide on your next steps. First of all, list all the players of the market, describe the products and services they provide, evaluate their marketing and pricing strategy. All the information obtained will help you to list their strengths and weaknesses as well as to define the marketplace of your product or service. Conduct a thorough comparative analysis of the prices of your competitors and you will be able to choose an effective pricing strategy that will let you take your own niche on the market. All the strengths of your products and services will become your competitive advantage on which you should capitalize in future.

It is important to know not only the market and your competitors but also your customer and consumer. Study your customer’s or consumer’s needs, behavior trends and measure their worth. All this information will become a base for the development of your company’s philosophy toward the marketplace and correct evaluation of the distribution channels that will best suit your customers. It will also be easier for you to develop the right promotion strategy. If you are going to launch a new product or open a new business, SWOT analysis will help you to develop the right brand image, marketing strategy and communication to reach your consumer.

The next step of the analysis is to define all the existing threats and predict the possible challenges that may arise on the market in order to be ready with a decent answer to them. Don’t forget about macroeconomic factors that also influence the market and the consumers. You have to prepare your strategy for the worst case and calculate thoroughly your P&L. If you calculate your cash flow and see that you stay in black, then it will be a right decision to launch a new product or open a new business.

One of the most important parts of the SWOT analysis is the conclusion. You have to highlight all the main points of the exercise and make the right implications out of them. Take advantage of your strengths and opportunities of the situation, work on your weaknesses and prevent the business from all the possible threats.