Do You Know Your SWOT?

Opportunities

"In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."  ~ Albert Einstein

Don’t get too discouraged now that you’ve unearthed all the not-so-good things you do. Weaknesses are often what give opportunities the reason to come knock on your door in the first place. One definition of opportunity is “a good position, chance, or prospect, as for advancement or success.” No matter who you are or what you do, there are always opportunities for you to succeed—the trick is to find and take advantage of them.

Key “Opportunity” Questions

• Is there a particular demographic or market that would like my product that I’m not reaching?
• What direction are consumer trends moving, and can I get ahead of the curve?
• Can I capitalize on any of my competitions shortcomings?

Threats

“As a goalkeeper you need to be good at organising the people in front of you and motivating them. You need to see what's going on and react to the threats. Just like a good manager in business.” ~ Peter Shilton

Who would have thought that a World Cup soccer goalie from England would provide such sound advise for CEO’s? Like a penalty kick from Leo Messi, he couldn’t be more dead on. There is another acronym you should remember which will help you to asses your greatest threats and make sure you have the means to thwart them off—RPI:

1. Recognize the threat

2. Plan a course of action

3. Implement your plan

Seems like common sense but you’d be amazed at how many businesses cease to exist because they failed to take the necessary time to follow these steps.

Key “Threat” Questions

• What “shelf life” do I have for my product to be relevant?
• What are the main factors causing my cart abandonement(or churn rate, or negative feedback)?
• Is there another company with a similar product that could potentially draw customers away from me?

Now that you have tools to abstract the information, the next step is to hunker down and get it. There’s no right or wrong way to compile the data, but the most simple and effective way is with a SWOT 2x2 Matrix:

There are alternative ways to label your boxes, however I would advise against the common practice of substituting “Now” with “Internal” and “Later” with “External”, as those variables do not allow you to seek out opportunities (i.e. team building) and threats(i.e. high employee turnover) within your own company. You can also find a wealth of best practices and templates online—here is one from businessballs.com that I find particularly beneficial.

Of course once you’ve got your SWOT all figured out, the next step is to take action upon your findings to ensure you continue to stay afloat. Although there may be some choppy waters ahead, you’d be amazed at how much easier that task will be once you’ve got your course mapped out. And if you don’t believe me, just ask the Father of Modern Science:

"All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them." ~Galileo

Please feel free to share some of your own findings and questions that have come from implementing a SWOT analysis with your business or personal life.