Threats: Obstacles That Can Trip Up Your Business (2024)

A threat to your business is typically external. Threats are one of four parts to a SWOT analysis; the others are strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. What are your threats? They might include your peer companies’ relative strength, an industry-wide shortage of materials needed to make your products or a sluggish economy.

Unlike identifying weaknesses, which are hard to self-identify objectively, you only need to look around your world and communicate with peers and customers to recognize your threats.

They can include:

  • Weather.These affect seasonal businesses that depend on good conditions.
  • The economy.If you sell something consumers need in any economy, you will fare better than others.
  • Material shortage.Tensions in an oil-producing country result in big price hikes, raising production costs for plastics manufacturers, trucking firms and others.
  • Your computer system is hacked.This can knock your website out for days during a crucial selling period.
  • Employment in your industry is strong.This can make it hard to find skilled workers.
  • Market demand dries up.Think Blockbuster falling behind Netflix because of its late start streaming content.

Your company should address threats to create opportunities, while they will have to work around other events they cannot change.

Threats: Obstacles That Can Trip Up Your Business (1)

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Threats: Obstacles That Can Trip Up Your Business (2024)

FAQs

Threats: Obstacles That Can Trip Up Your Business? ›

Threats include anything that can negatively affect your business from the outside, such as supply-chain problems, shifts in market requirements, or a shortage of recruits. It's vital to anticipate threats and to take action against them before you become a victim of them and your growth stalls.

What are the threats to a business? ›

Threats include anything that can negatively affect your business from the outside, such as supply-chain problems, shifts in market requirements, or a shortage of recruits. It's vital to anticipate threats and to take action against them before you become a victim of them and your growth stalls.

What are some examples of threats? ›

Threats
  • Rising material costs.
  • Increasing competition.
  • Tight labor supply.
  • Failure to get approvals.
  • Legal/regulatory issues.
  • Supply chain breakdowns.
  • Weather/natural disasters.
Sep 22, 2022

What is an example of a threat in a SWOT analysis for a business? ›

Threats refer to factors that have the potential to harm an organization. For example, a drought is a threat to a wheat-producing company, as it may destroy or reduce the crop yield. Other common threats include things like rising costs for materials, increasing competition, tight labor supply. and so on.

What is an external threat to a business? ›

Examples of external threats include new and existing regulations, new and existing competitors, new technologies that may make your products or services obsolete, unstable political and legal systems in foreign markets, and economic downturns.

What are the 4 types of threats? ›

The FBI divides threats into four types: direct, indirect, veiled, and conditional.

What is the greatest threat to a company? ›

Data breaches are every organization's worst nightmare—they stop operations, negatively affect customer perception, cost significant amounts of money, and can even put a company out of business.

What are the three main types of threats? ›

Threats can be classified into three primary categories: natural, technological, and human-made.

What is the biggest threats? ›

War and conflict, polarized politics, a continuing cost-of-living crisis and the ever-increasing impacts of a changing climate are destabilizing the global order. The key findings of the World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report 2024 reflect these most pressing challenges faced by people in every region of the world.

What are examples of threats in the workplace? ›

Discrimination/harassment. Verbal outburst, profanity. Name-calling, verbal attack. Indirect verbal threat.

What are threats and opportunities in business? ›

Threats are the total opposite of opportunities. These are factors based on your company's external environment that could negatively impact your business. While opportunities could allow a company to thrive, threats could stunt your company's growth and generally jeopardize your company's success.

What to put in threats in SWOT analysis? ›

Threats. Threats in SWOT are areas with the potential to cause problems. Different from weaknesses, threats are external and ‌out of your control. This can include anything from a global pandemic to a change in the competitive landscape.

How do you identify threats and opportunities in business? ›

A PESTLE analysis is a framework that helps you scan the macro-environmental factors that can affect your business. You can use a PESTLE analysis to assess the impact of these factors on your industry, market, and customers, and to identify potential opportunities and threats that may arise from them.

What is internal threat in business? ›

Internal security threats and risks for businesses

Internal security threats represent various risks that originate from within an organization itself. These dangers manifest when individuals with authorized access to sensitive data or systems misuse their privileges, either deliberately or unintentionally.

What are 5 examples of weaknesses in SWOT analysis? ›

They are areas where the business needs to improve to remain competitive, for example:
  • Weak brand(s)
  • Higher-than-average turnover.
  • High levels of debt.
  • Inadequate supply chain.
  • Lack of capital.
  • Inefficient systems, tools, processes.
  • Poor customer experience, service, reviews.
Sep 22, 2022

What is the most overlooked category in the SWOT analysis? ›

Perhaps the most important but oft overlooked section of this analysis is the threat assessment. This is an invaluable part of the SWOT analysis but it does not get the coverage that it deserves.

What are threats in a SWOT analysis? ›

Threats. Threats in SWOT are areas with the potential to cause problems. Different from weaknesses, threats are external and ‌out of your control. This can include anything from a global pandemic to a change in the competitive landscape.

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