Your business’s weaknesses, or internal risks, can make it more difficult for you to achieve your goals.

By focusing on your weaknesses (internal risks) and threats (external risks), you can evaluate those that are most likely to affect your business. To identify the various risks that may be associated with your business, you can conduct a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis. Having a risk management plan in place improves your chances of success and reduces the possibility of mistakes and failure. When you are prepared to identify potential risks, you can deal with them in the most time- and cost-effective way possible. There may be risks that are difficult to predict, such as natural disasters or pandemics and their effects on small businesses, but there are steps you can take to increase your business’ chance of survival. Your ultimate goal as a business owner is to reduce potential risks by knowing those most likely to happen and planning ahead to prevent or prepare for them.

Risk management is evaluating what could go wrong with different parts of your business and implementing plans to lessen the possibility of a negative outcome. Natural disasters or pandemics, such as the coronavirus (COVID-19), can significantly increase the level of risk you may face. In terms of the success of your business, risk means the probability of something negative happening and the consequences that would result. Some level of risk is a natural part of running a company and can apply to many aspects of your business.

Risk with new products for business