Be Your Own SWOT Team
by Larry Slusser on December 4th, 2007
In American Law Enforcement the SWAT Team is known to be the elite unit, the best of the best for tactical operations for the most critical and stressful situations imaginable. In business, although the initials are different, SWOT has the same meaning, although in many cases you and your team are the ones that make up your elite unit.
SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. You can perform a SWOT analysis on almost any aspect of your business or anything for that matter. Businesses, sports teams, and individuals who perform at a high level conduct them regularly.
Strength and Weaknesses are exactly as they sound. Write down the strengths of the subject you are SWOTTING. Be sure to list them all and be realistic – something may be a strength, but it could also be a weakness. If this is the case then put it on both the strength and weakness list. Be brutally honest in your assessment – this isn’t the time for tiptoeing, you need to evaluate what’s happening.
Opportunities and Threats primarily analyzes the external factors and deals with things like the available market share, or a new product or offering that would increase your market share. Threats can include factors such as your competitors, interest rates, the economy, etc. Being brutally honest is again the critical factor and make sure you write down everything you can think of.
After brainstorming through your SWOT list of factors, go through it and prioritize your top 3 factors in each category. Then you can begin to develop a plan of action around your biggest areas of opportunity to take advantage of your strengths and opportunities available, minimize your weaknesses, and keep an eye on threats.
You’re starting a business and decide that a SWOT is a good idea. What do you do now?
The initial SWOT could be focused on any number of things as there are many choices. It can be a little difficult to narrow down at first but the three most important areas to concentrate on for your business startup are:
* Your Concept – what is the business you are entering into?
* Your Finance Plan – From start up costs to initial cash flow and operating costs.
* Vision, Mission, and Strategies to move you along as a new business – do you have them?
The SWOT for the business concept is pretty straight forward and is a great place to start. Again be brutally honest – it is better to find out if a concept is valid ahead of time through honesty then to find out after investing money and time. If you have a wise friend or two you trust, take them out for a coffee and talk through your idea with them and seek their input on your concept SWOT.
Finance is the key to any business. Do you have the money to get your product or service to market and to keep it there until someone buys it? Whether in retail or real estate, businesses must have a financial plan. Where will you get your money? How will you collect the revenue (sales) and what will it look like as it moves through your company? How much profit are you going to make (estimate if you have to)? How long until you make a profit? You can work all of these details out in your SWOT or at least as many as you can.
Last but not least, it is important to have a vision for your business. What are you trying to do? Out of that broad statement, create a “Mission Statement” for your business – what do you want to achieve? Let your customers, partners and others see and understand what your business is all about.
Goals or a personal list of goals may be something you keep to yourself and this could include why you want to be in business, why you are starting this venture, your personal financial goals, etc.
A SWOT analysis on your business or concept is a critical component to help you set yourself up for success. Those who fail to plan are planning to fail, so get out a pen, some paper, and your key advisors, and start putting together the actionable data that will form the plan for your business success.