Tips for Starting a Fashion Business with a SWOT Analysis Method

Starting a business according to their passion and abilities is everyone's dream. However, even though having your own business seems easy, in fact opening your own business is not as easy as turning your hand.

In opening a business, including fashion, requires a lot of capital, in addition to hard work that drains time and thought for the success of the business that is being started. It is not uncommon for this persistence to lead to failure. One method for analyzing your fashion business skills is to use a SWOT analysis.

SWOT analysis is actually used in many ways, not just on a business scale. For example, for sports teams, certain projects, and also human resources. So how to use a SWOT analysis in the fashion business?

SWOT analysis

SWOT analysis is an acronym for strength, weakness, opportunity and threat. SWOT analysis is used to determine how strong your product can be realized and sold to the market. The product capability is seen from four variables: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

1. Strength

Strength is a condition of strength contained in an existing business concept or field. Strength analysis includes analysis of products, resources, and benefits that can be provided to consumers,

• Product. How strong your product can withstand market competition. You can analyze the marketability of the product, the benefits provided through the product, and also how the product can develop.
• Resource. You must know the resources that can support the product. For example, human resources, shops and supporting tools such as employee management software or financial managers.
• Advantage. Whether your product can provide benefits for your business, or in fact, your product will only harm your business.

These three factors, if applied in the fashion business, are the usefulness and aesthetic value that can be provided to consumers. You also have to pay attention to trends so that your fashion products can survive the competitive fashion product market.

2. Weakness

Weakness is a condition of weakness that exists in an organization, company or existing business concept. The weaknesses analyzed are limitations on your business. Starting from the losses, durability, and also the limits of your business.

• Insufficient capital to complete the collection of clothes that you sell, incomplete facilities. Such as fitting rooms, model sculptures, and so on. Is a weakness that you must pay attention to.
• Manual bookkeeping and not using online applications is also a weakness of your fashion business.
• The existence of several competitors that have already been established is also a weakness of the fashion business. You are required to be more innovative and creative to start the same business.

3. Opportunity

Opportunity is a condition of opportunity that develops in the future which is likely to occur. Conditions that occur are opportunities from outside the organization, company or business itself. For example competitors, government policies, environmental conditions. Examples of clothing store business opportunities are:

• Litlle competition. With a small number of competitors, the business you are about to start has a great opportunity to dominate the market.
• With your creativity and innovation, this clothing business can be a success.
• There is a tradition of Eid, where many people buy clothes during Eid can also be your opportunity to get multiple benefits.

4. Threats

Threats are threatening conditions both from outside and from within your business. Threats can be challenges, outside effects, and also risks. One of the analyses you can do is;

• Threats of crime, riots and other threats coming from outside that can disrupt your business.
• risks in managing your business finances, manual financial processes in business development can be a threat due to risks such as miscalculation, estimation, and also loss.
• The threat of competition. This threat is in the form of, competitor products that provide more benefits or even conduct unhealthy campaigns in competition.

Generally, in the fashion business the threat that may occur is the risk of inventory of goods. You need to prepare a strategic system in building communication and controlling the purchasing process to vendors or maintenance of inventory support tools and also production.

Troubleshooting Tips with SWOT Method?

After you evaluate the next step is troubleshooting. You have to answer all the problems that you are or may be facing. Try starting by answering some of the questions below.

1. How do you reduce or even eliminate anything that is debilitating in your business?
2. How do you reduce what is a threat to the business you are about to run?
3. How do you increase something that is the strength of your business?
4. How do you increase the opportunities in the business you are going to run?

You can then determine if the business you're going to start is worth it if you run it. If the strengths and opportunities outn out of weaknesses and threats then the business you will start is worth running.

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