SWOT Analysis Threats is one f the worst events in Internet Business like any other businesses. How do you deal with the threats when it finally realized in your Internet Business? How do you mitigate it to an extend that it does not hurt your business and future growth?  Below are some tips that are derived from my own Internet Business. I also included some important points to for you to understand how SWOT Analysis Threats are identified.

How SWOT Analysis Threats can be identified?

Firstly, in most cases, threats in Internet Business are external factors and beyond your own control. However, having said that, you still need to find a way to identify them because it is detrimental to your own business profitability and future growth.  Below are some source of information about threats to Internet Business:-

1. Subscribe to Internet News from search engines, your hosting company and pay attention to news that may have impact to your internet business. It is not easy as it normally do not have direct indication as a Threat.
2. Join forum – and be an active member. Search for similar topics and see how the members response. Evaluate them and compare that with your own internet business for its impact.
3. Join websites like yahoo answer, answer dot com and look for such question in their questions section.  Ask the question yourself if you can’t find any
4. Collate your own problem encountered so far and collect similar information from friends. Do an evaluation and confirm whether those problem constitute to be a threat to your own Internet Business.

How to mitigate SWOT Analysis Threats

Ideally, your should totally eliminate any threats to your Internet Business. If you can’t, then you have to think of a way to mitigate or reduced its impact when it really happen to you. It is better be prepared than sorry later.

“TAKE PRECAUTION” maybe the most appropriate action to take for you to mitigate any threats to your own Internet Business. And to do it effectively,  you need to use the SWOT Analysis Matrix. What you need to avoid is get into other problem while trying to prevent threats from happening. Therefore, instead of looking at the threat in isolation, you need to look at SWOT Analysis Threats holistically. Always refer back to the SWOT Analysis Threats together with other SWOT factor like those stated in the table.

Tips to Mitigate SWOT Analysis Threats

Below are some common tips to mitigate SWOT Analysis Threats to your Internet Business. While it may be a long list but you need to screen them to suit your own purpose.

1. Avoid using one hosting company if you have multiple websites or blogs
2. If you can afford, use a paid hosting. If you ever use free hosting, pick those reputable companies such as blogger or wordpress ( note: this companies are my own evaluation and I do not guarantee they are reliable. You use them at your own risk )
3. Always back up your website or blog, database, etc. And do it as frequent as you can so that your latest information are backup.
4. Use different company for domain and hosting. If anything wrong the hosting company, you still can transfer the domain to another hosting company and upload your backup data.
5. Do not violate any law of any country and terms and conditions of search engines
6. Do not conduct spamming activities.
7. If you depends on search engine ranking, always keep your website listing on top 10 of the search engine listing
8. Use multiple traffic generation to your website such as article marketing, list building, email marketing, social networking etc to overcome your website being sandbox by search engine.
9. Have multiple source of income to your website. If you use CPC as an income source, look out for other source of income such as CPA, Textlink, Affiliate Marketing etc

In summary, every business has its own threats though some are small and short term while some are major and has long term effect to the business. While you want to total eliminate them, the best solution is to take preventive action so that you do not suffer any loss during any recovery. Look at the SWOT Analysis Threats closely and do your best to mitigate it.

Typical example of SWOT Threats

This is the title of a blog post in http://torrentfreak.com/u-s-authorities-shut-down-wordpress-host-with-73000-blogs-100716/ . This blog published an article looks very much like a SWOT Threats. It has published an article abut the U.S. authority shut down 73,000 blogs hosted by some free hosting company. This has pub 73,000 blogs on dead road. Since the hosting has been ordered to shut down, there is nothing the owners of these affected blogs can do except for those who has done their own backup. This nature is SWOT Threats is massive destructive

SWOT Threats

Typically, this is an excellent example of SWOT Threats that can happen to any Internet Business. And with this incidence, all bloggers and Internet Marketers should take similar precaution to mitigate the threats. Do not let the common saying ” It do not happen to me” .  This is only one of many detrimental examples of SWOT Threats. Some other serious cases like :

• Prolong interruption due to host server caught fire
• Virus attack the server database which can take up to weeks to recover
• Partial interruption by transmission gateway of your country

See other examples of  SWOT Threats

Impact of SWOT Threats

Before any threats happen to you, many of us are not to take any precautionary action. But when a crisis occur and causes serious threats to your Internet Business, then only you act.  What can you do to mitigate such a big scale threats? Well, the least you could do is to perform regular backup of your blog or your website. This is

Do not take it too lightly that it may not happen to you. Precaution is better than cure. Look out for non obvious SWOT Threats in your own analysis

In the Internet environment, you could have realized that big announcement of some Internet or even IT players about their big plan in the internet business. Those infrastructure related news about upgrading of Internet access, Mobile Internet like 3G, Palm top computing gadgets like iPad etc. If you take all these merely as a business news, then you have missed the golden opportunities to your internet business. On the other hand, if you take the time to evaluate them, you may be able to discover a venue for your business expansion. Below are some examples of an opportunities in Internet Business:-

The above examples seems to be a product related launches in the market place, how do you take it as an opportunities for your Internet Business? Well, it really take a while for you to able to identify what is happening around you and make a judgment how you can make use of them to growth your Internet Business. If you are able to formulate this possibilities, then it become an opportunities in the SWOT.

You can read the Threats of SWOT here

If you operate your internet business for a living and rely heavily on Search Engine Optimization to get traffic from it, then one of the most detrimental event in an Internet Business is the Threat that result in lost of website ranking from Page #1 to nowhere.

If you website listing move within page #1, you may still can relax and work on it to maintain its position. You may enhance your content, do more link building etc. In many cases, your website or blog may move out from page #1 and landed in say page 2, you still have chance to move it back.

SWOT Threats

The worst SWOT Threats is that your website or blog just went missing, When this happen, it is likely that your website or blog being penalized by the search engine. Then you have lesser chance to bring it back to page #1 provided you are willing to put up alot of work. However, it is not as easy when you could not find your website of blog within the 10 pages.

But the worst detrimental SWOT Threat in Internet Business is some technical error to your website or blog. Example, something wrong with your hosting company where the server operate your website or blog caught fire or harddisk crashed until all data in the server is not recoverable. Though hosting company supposed to have back up but nobody can guarantee that.

There is nothing more than damaging than your internet business income drop to zero due to your website is our of action due to various known and unknown threats. In the SWOT Analysis template, it is a four quadrant matrix in which the four factor of SWOT occupied each quadrant separately. For the purpose of illustrating the SWOT Threats, I have listed the threats in internet business in the 4th quadrant as shown below:-

In conclusion, SWOT Threats has the most negative impact to your Internet Business and therefore it should be taken seriously whenever you discover it. to help you to identify SWOT Threats, check out from SWOT Example here

The ideal is if you can total prevent it, otherwise, try to mitigate SWOT threats to the least impact to your Internet Business.

SWOT Strengths is one of the key Internal SWOT factors. It is one of the four quadrant in the SWOT Analysis template. It is quite easy to identify strengths within your organization, business or even operation. As this is the internal factors, you should focus on those you really in control. Below are some examples:-

1. Financial independent with no borrowing
2. Widely spread distribution network all over the world
3. Many product model range from high end to low cost product
4. Knowledgeable and experienced senior workforce
5. Almost zero employee turnover
6. Readily available stork for immediate delivery
7. Benchmark Starbucks Practices

All the above a good example of strengths within your organization or operations. Without them, you are likely run into product backlog, late delivery to customer etc.

In a SWOT Strength; A Strength itself is not a Strength

You may not agree with me but think deep enough with some of the SWOT strengths listed above. It is indeed a strength by itself, h

owever, it is not really a strength when you relate that with your competitor. Take for an example of a typical SWOT Strengths:

“Financially independent ( No borrowing )”

This statement indicate that the organization is strong in financial and perhaps uses it own funding to run the business ended with no borrowing. Let examine this “strength” with an another perspective for the sake of discussion.

Assume that you have lots of fund generated from your profit. As such, you use the extra fund to pay off your creditor fast, and at the same time use case to make purchase maybe to an extend your do not have creditors. There are two points of view with this approach:-

1)   It is likely you do not invest further for the future because you do not borrow money. therefore, your growth in business is somewhat restricted.

2)  Since you used up your cash to make purchases, your do not have enough reserve (assume) for emergencies, crisis, or opportunity to buy cheap investment .

What is this SWOT Strengths got to do with the competitor?

Sure it does, you assume it is a strength as opposed to your competitor who do have borrowings,  but your competitor’s cash management is well ahead of you in terms of using the cash for reinvestment into business expansion, buying modern machinery. If your competitor

really use the borrowing for these purpose, they are well prepared than you to capture extra business when economy turn around.

Therefore, to examine the SWOT Strengths further, I your can turn around as reclassified the statement as ” not using extra cash for reinvestment” or “poor cash management” .  Once you have reclassified it, then it becomes a “Weakness”  .  See more example of SWOT Weaknesses to recognize some of the SWOT Strengths

When you deal with the SWOT Factors in the SWOT Analysis Template, be sure to list as many of the SWOT weaknesses as possible. do not attempt to filter any of them at this stage. The key benefits to list them all is for you to have a second to evaluate your own weaknesses and its relevant impact to your business or operation. Below are normal listing of SWOT weaknesses:-

1. poor quality
2. high inventory
3. low productivity
4. slow worker
5. long waiting time for truck
6. Take long time or cannot find goods in the warehouse
7. Broken packaging
8. obsolete stock piled up
9. customer complaints
10. overdue collection
11. cannot fulfill customer order lead time
12. Poor performance of distributors
13. Management Styles

How to find SWOT Weaknesses?

Normally, you involve other department staffs to brainstorm ideas of SWOT Weaknesses. And by looking at the list of weaknesses above, it is not difficult to guess which department raised the weaknesses. Then you ended up a long list of weaknesses by which you are not able to deal with them effectively.

Keep in mind that in SWOT Analysis Template, it is used to help you to identify those important and urgent list of SWOT weaknesses such that you handle them soon enough to make your business or operation more effectively. With this in mind, the template provided should be well understood by all those involved in the brainstorming.

You may have notice that the list are those obvious SWOT weaknesses. How about those non obvious types? How are you to identify them? to do that, you need someone who are not directly involved in the operation to help you to trigger your thoughts. This person should be knowledge int he SWOT Analysis Template and good in facilitating brainstorming in a Strategic Planning session.

Example of SWOT Weaknesses:-

1) Next working day delivery of goods is identified as a strength

Indeed it is a strength, however, if you develop interrelationship with other factors, you should be able to draw out the reason for able to deliver the goods next working day. Assuming is done with the help of inventory in the warehouse, then you should ask why there is inventory waiting for delivery?  What happen when there is no order from the customer? Then the inventory will sit there and cost higher in stock holding.

Keeping full inventory is one good marketing strategy to shorten the delivery lead time. Therefore, it is always taken as a strength. However, if you competitor is able to do the same delivery but without inventory, then this item become a Weaknesses in SWOT. Because, the rule is to compare your capability with your competitor.

So, beware that a Strength internally, may be a SWOT Weaknesses when made comparison with competitor.

My name is Dr. Frederick -PhD.

SWOTAnalysisTemplate.org is a site that provide useful information and video about Application of Strategic Management Concepts and their respective application case studies and use of SWOT Analysis Templates.

This site is maintained by me and I am a independent management consultant specialized in Total Quality Management and its application in Strategic Planning toward Continuous Improvement Initiatives for Cost management and Profitability improvement.

While the content of this site focus on different aspect of SWOT Analysis, the application of SWOT Templates, key concepts of SWOT Analysis and other related analytical tools such as Pest Analysis are covered to enhance better understanding and the use of the templates.

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