Often, business owners lack valuable time to step back and review their business. Quieter periods allow for some reflection and a chance to  refresh business practices.

Technology changes on a regular basis, and as a business owner it is important to make sure that you keep abreast of the changes in society and social media.

A SWOT analysis is the perfect way to review your business and look at opportunities to move forward. Templates are available to use, but basically, you will be looking at four elements to your business :

Internal factors : Strengths/Weaknesses

External factors : Opportunities/Threats

These are all quite broad points, so breaking them down, some of the types of things to consider could include :

• Internal strengths

  • Unique Selling Points – are you getting these across on your website and social media?

  • Advantages that you have over competitors

  • Things that your customers need to know about

• Internal weaknesses

  • Improvements needed within the business – research could be required

  • Things you want to avoid (as a business)

  • Causes of lost sales – customer service issues, slow responses to email, inadequate responses on social media

• External Opportunities

  • Trends within your sector – do you need to research?

  • New technology –  using apps, new programmes, writing blogs

  • New markets – do you need to research?

  • Social changes – do you have an online presence? , is your website mobile responsive?

• External threats

  • Competitors – do you need to research what they are doing?

  • Changes in sector standards and technology –  are you getting left behind? , do you need to research?

  • Cash flow

By carrying out an analysis of where you are and where you want to be,as a business owner, you will start to see what changes need to be made to your business and be able to identify tasks that need to be completed in order to facilitate this.

If you have taken the time to look into refreshing your business, let me know how it went.

If you feel that you don’t have the time to carry out these tasks, why not visit my services page which details my skills? As a freelance Virtual Assistant I am sure that I can help support you in taking your business forward. I am experienced in Business Development support as well as general administration and have supported projects for tender bids, service launches and new business strands. You can read a little more about me here.

Contact me here, or connect via Facebook or Twitter.