SWOT ANALYSIS: ANALYZING YOUR BUSINESS – July 2019 ASE Newsletter
What is a SWOT Analysis?
SWOT is a simple strategic planning technique that can help you identify what your business is doing well, what it needs to improve upon, where it needs to grow, and what could be its undoing.
SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Taking a deep look into your business by examining these four elements will provide you with an overview of the health of your company. Your strengths and opportunities offer avenues for your company to flourish, while your weaknesses and threats can inspire improvement and help you recognize emerging competition.
It is likely that you completed a SWOT analysis in the beginning stages of your business plan to help determine where you stood in the market and identify target customers. Now that your business is established, it’s imperative to conduct regular SWOT analyses to help improve your operations and systems and stave off problems.
How to Get Started with a SWOT Analysis
The most vital step in conducting your analysis is determining what your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are, but sometimes they can be hard to narrow down.
Here are some examples to help you get started:
Strengths
- Superior customer service
- Excellent communication to clients
- Highly educated team
Weaknesses
- Employees lack necessary skills
- Limited staff resources
- Unfriendly employees
Opportunities
- Start a new product line
- Develop a team atmosphere
- Target a new demographic
Threats
- Employee push back on new policies
- New competitors with lower prices
- Expenses from transitioning to a new location: is it the right location
Narrowing in on what your company truly succeeds in and needs to improve upon will help it flourish if you work towards the goals you set after the analysis.
How a SWOT Analysis Can Help Your Business Grow
Here are some questions you can ask yourself during your SWOT analysis:
- ‘Do I have a well-known brand?’
- ‘What complaints do I often hear from customers?’
- ‘What are other local or worldwide competitors doing?’
These are some questions you may not have asked when conducting your initial standard SWOT analysis, but they are beneficial to help you look deeper into how your company can grow and improve.
Look at internal factors, such as work environment, your workforce, relationship to your customer base.
Look at external factors, such as the lending environment, the housing market or inflation. Taking these factors into consideration will help you conduct a thorough SWOT analysis.
Growth opportunities may not always be obvious. Sometimes the answer isn’t to expand locations or launch a new product. Sometimes, growth comes from expanding on smaller initiatives like hiring an assistant or investing in tools or subscriptions to help your team’s productivity. Focusing on SWOT areas will allow you to get to the bottom of trouble spots and give your business the best opportunity for growth.
Don’t think of your SWOT analysis like a re-brand or a remodel for your business. Think of it as checking the route on a map. Conduct a SWOT analysis once every six months to determine whether to correct or stay the course. The answers may cause you to want to implement a growth plan immediately, but in some cases waiting a few months or years can offer greater stability.
You may want guidance on the approach to your business analysis. You may not see the issues clearly on your own. Please be aware that this is an example where a good sounding board such as us, Associated Senior Executives, can help you identify your unique issues, focus on those issues and deal with them effectively.
Bridget Weston Pollack, SCORE and Doreen Levitz, ASE