It’s worth talking about SWOT analyses. They’re so underrated but so valuable to have. Doing a SWOT analysis is one of the fundamental activities that needs done before you start your business.
An Analysis
A SWOT analysis will help you determine where to best allocate things like funds, time and labor. It also helps you determine what your next big steps should be. Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors. They’re based solely on you and your brand, or business. Opportunities and threats, on the other hand, are external. These are things that you have no control over whatsoever. This is important to note because threats and weaknesses often get confused with each other, as do strengths and opportunities.
Strengths in your analysis
Your strengths are things that your organization does exceptionally well, things that separate you from your competitors. So analyze what it is that you do best and take advantage of it every opportunity you get.
Weaknesses
When you’re going through your list of weaknesses it’s important to be honest with yourself. A SWOT analysis is only useful if it’s accurate. Think about things you can improve on in your business. For things you just cannot do, set aside time later to see how you can outsource or delegate those things. Or even if it’s worth investing in learning to do yourself.
Opportunities
Opportunities are openings or chances for something good to happen within your business. For example, during COVID a lot of entrepreneurs are switching to virtual versions of operations. If you’re an IT tech there’s an opportunity for you to increase business because more people now will need tech support. Remember that opportunities are external factors. Often times things that you’d find in the news.
Threats
Threats are anything happening in your society or community that could negatively affect your business. To use our COVID example again, if your supply chain has links in multiple different companies then the interruption of shipping items would be a threat for you.
In addition to your SWOT, you’ll also want to assess and analyze who your competitors are exactly. It’ll help you in knowing how exactly you’re different so you can figure out how to use the information you find doing your SWOT to create a competitive edge.
We’ll talk about these more in depth in the coming weeks; sign up so that you get the articles fresh off the Press !