hello my name is Tim Walterbach with IBBTalks we’re continuing in our series of the SWOT analysis strengths weaknesses opportunities and threats strengths that we we’ve covered things that your company does well qualities that separate you internal resources tangible assets weaknesses you know the areas that we lack in the competitors are doing a better job limited resources just unclear Direction opportunities offered underserved markets that that we provide an opportunity for us where there’s fewer competitors or an emerging need we discussed a few examples there but the finish this series out we’re going to be talking about threats to your business things that changing that are changing in the marketplace new technologies publicity regulations new regulations things that can make your business obsolete overnight or over a longer period of time you know I’m I think about what used to be the world’s largest retailer Sears Sears brand America is well known as as any other brand dating back clear into the 1800s they were when I was growing up they were the dominant force and the retail marketplace you bought tools you bought them from Sears if you bought appliances you bought them from Sears they were just superior the quality was superior you could find every you needed under one roof from mowers tools to clothes washing machines you know that they were it and before that they had to they were cutting edge and they had a catalog a big thick catalog that went out to everybody but they didn’t understand the threats that they came they were not nimble enough to make changes to a changing marketplace people begin to specialize in in these areas tools for example or electronics you have stores completely dedicated to those things now that maybe weren’t back then they let their stores get old well if their systems get old and weren’t flexible enough did not do enough SWOT analysis apparently that they could identify the threats that were causing them to slowly decrease their market share over many years and now they’re either bankrupt or soon to be bankrupt that most of the Sears stores have been closed out so what are the things that will threaten our business emerging competitors if if you’re making a good profit on something that that will not reside in a vacuum that’s gonna get filled up very quickly word gets out that you’re you’re selling they see the trucks coming in and the product flying off the shelf it won’t take long for somebody to say here’s an opportunity and come in and and take your place so the threat needs to be analyzed to minimize the threat you know how we’re going to handle our customers cutting into our market share well we might have more resources more buying power so we can keep our product low and it makes it hard for the new guy to get in because he can’t buy at the level that we’re buying in you know just by example other ways that you might take care minimize competitors is the quality that you provide the service that you provide but that has always got to be analyzed moment by moment and a true entrepreneurs it’s gonna have a sixth sense about that they’re always gonna be looking around at what the competitor is doing and what the threat is there’s an interesting story about Sam Walton you know and it’s Walmart that pretty much puts Sears out of business and they’re they had a parade for him and in the parade they’d always have the same float it’s got a his car or truck that was wrecked because he was looking into the parking lot counting cars not paying attention to the guy who stopped in front of Moe front of him in wrecked but they kept that truck because just to remind them of this principle he got to understand your threat even if it cost you something you got a somebody that’s in business has to be aggressive enough to know they’re somebody’s what was out there ready to take your place in the marketplace and then there’s you know there’s other Dane’s little outside of your control that you need to need to be aware of is like changing regulations we were in this mentioned this earlier we were in this oil products manufacturer and you know they had to keep up with all the EPA regulations if they weren’t careful they could make some mistakes it would end up costing a lot of money they had a threat that could only be resolved by stricter controls and superior employee training they gave one example of somebody not following protocol and they mix two truckloads of chemicals together that weren’t supposed to mix together and the whole batch two hundred thousand dollars worth was ruined and you know they didn’t blame the employee as much as we need stricter controls we need to control provide better training and that was a hard lesson that many of us couldn’t afford to handle so we have got to be on the lookout for mistakes that can be made that we can handle through a better training of our employees and maybe it means paying a little bit extra for an attorney or some other professional they can keep you up with all the changing regulations if that’s you know that’s your industry that’s not true for most of us on a the levels that that were working on but they certainly can you know and then there’s other things outside of our control you can get some bad publicity either media coverage or just word Street we you know it just takes one unhappy customer for you to lose a dozen customers potential customers because you know you know how it goes that people are happy they might tell tell somebody if it’s convenient but if they’re unhappy they will tell everybody about their bad experience and with your product or service and that’s why customer surveys are so important asking people how they felt about your service you know the Internet has opened up Yelp and all these other ways to rate services whether hotels or restaurants or different services and it’s a new day in customer service and and if if that is not prevalent where you’re from you know yet the emphasis is on the word yet because it’s it’s coming and we have to be more attuned to the threat of dissatisfied customers then we probably have ever have in the history of of doing business ok hope this has been profitable to you I enjoyed my time with you and thank you for joining me