Your business will face obstacles to success in addition to those posed by the competition. Half of the battle of overcoming these external obstacles is understanding them. And half of the key to benefiting from lucky breaks is being on top of developments and events that can be used to your advantage.
External Threats and Opportunities
Identify, and rank by order of importance, any threats or opportunities
your business may face from outside influences. Threats and
opportunities come from a variety of sources including:
- The economic outlook of your market's economy -- Are you starting your business in a healthy economy? If not, can your product still thrive?
- Product innovations -- How will changes made to the products of your competitors affect you? What's happening with products that are complementary to yours?
- Technological advancements -- What changes in technology will impact you?
- Environmental issues -- Is your product earth-friendly?
- Government regulations -- What impact does complying with government regulations have on your business? Is there any pending legislation that may impact you?
- Barriers to market entry -- Are there high or low barriers to market entry in your field? What would it take for a competitor to start a business in your field? Could a competitor start up overnight or does you business require special knowledge, or expensive machinery?
Internal Strengths and Weaknesses
Identify internal strengths and weaknesses of your company.
For example, your education, experience and reputation in your area
of expertise is most likely a strength. A weakness might be a lack of technological
knowledge that needs to be met by outsourcing or hiring that experience.
Preparing the Issues Statement
Determine which issues are most significant and integrate
them into an Issues Statement. Use your carefully researched Issues
Statement as you set your marketing objectives and strategy.
Here's an example of an issues statement:
There are few barriers to entry to offer web design services. The CEO's 30 years of computer experience is its competitive advantage. No other web design firm in the area Talanitr serves offers a comparable depth of experience.
A professional hardware expert is being recruited to compensate for the CEO's lack of experience in setting up hardware solutions for websites. This person should be in place by November.
