Many business plan writers and entrepreneurs have engaged in heated debates as to whether a business plan should include both a SWOT and risk analysis. The SWOT tool assesses the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your new or existing businesses, whereas the risk analysis looks at the risks faced by your venture and how you intend to overcome those obstacles. When looking at the entire business plan, the competitive overview, competitive advantages (of your business), risk analysis, and SWOT analysis seem too much of the same thing. This begs the question, how redundant should business plans be?

As a business plan writer and editor, I argue that is critical to demonstrate your knowledge of competition and what your businesses will or does face in the marketplace with regard to threats and how your advantages will supersede any barriers that may exist. When writing a business plan, I make it a priority to recognize the risks in the marketplace concerning such topics as the political, operational, technical, procedural, and technical areas surrounding your business. A great online tool to guide your risk analysis is Mind Tools.

Considerable time, research, and thought are needed to create the both management tools. SWOT and risk analysis can be thrown in to spruce up the appearance of your plan, but it is pertinent that these are formulated with an ardent knowledge of what your business is truly up against. Whether that means incorporating both management tools in the business plan document, they should only be implemented and put in the plan if redundancy is not a factor. Let’s face it: no one wants to read pages and pages of the same thing.

Every business plan should entail a comprehensive overview of your business’ marketplace competition. Any business that provides a similar service or product in the same region may be viewed as a primary or secondary competitor. Identified competitors underscore the impetus of expanding your company’s product or service into the selected market. As such, your business needs to highlight and build upon the weaknesses of its competitors to increase its profitability and market share. The following provides a step-by-step process in creating your competitive analysis.

Identifying competitors: To locate competitors, simply use a Google or Yahoo! map. Enter in your business’ proposed or existing address and search nearby businesses of a similar category. For example, if you’re opening a pizzeria, you can search “pizza shops” or “pizzerias” in the same zip code or city. Through this easy task, you’ve identified potential competitors. If your business operates in a niche industry, the best way to identify competitors is to leverage established contacts and web research.

Understanding your competition: Now that you have identified your top competitors (aim to analyze two to three direct competitors), it is necessary to learn everything about these companies. What do I mean? Visit their website; call the business directly to learn more about the way they operate or what they sell; physically go to the competitor’s place of business; and research customer reviews. The latter step can be implemented by simply typing in “customer reviews of XXX” in your online search bar. Also, these reviews usually are posted on websites such as Yelp.com and CitySearch.com.

Pointing out their weaknesses and strengths (eloquently): Lesson to be learned – no bashing on competitors; it is unprofessional and makes your business look worse. When I say bashing, I mean using expressions such as “they are bad” or “they have no customer assistance.” Every company has some element of customer service, so a statement like that is literally untrue. Now, the competitor may lack quality customer service, and such an observation would be a much more acceptable approach in pointing out a weakness in a business. When I am writing a competitive analysis, I always include one to two strengths and two to three weaknesses of each competitor.

Your competitive advantages: Ah, finally, we’ve reached the point of emphasizing your strengths. Truly use this section to emphasize why you’re a better business in a bulleted format (preferred) and include a few statements in a paragraph form on how you intend to supersede your competition. Examples include greater industry knowledge, lower prices, friendlier and attentive staff, larger inventory of products, and so forth. Your best bet is to underscore your own unique competitive edge that cannot be argued with, and voila, you’ve completed your competitive analysis.