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Actually we’re not talking about SWAT, we’re talking about SWOT – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It’s an analysis technique to access how your business is really doing.
“The power of SWOT analysis is the ability to continually and realistically analyze your business environment so that you’re in charge rather than simply having to respond.”

Business Strategy

Business strategy doesn’t have to be intimidating, time consuming, or boring. Like building a solid house, you want a good business plan for your foundation, a good marketing plan for your walls and roof, and a SWOT Analysis to stop leaks and prevent fires.

Business Plans

A business plan allows you to put everything your thinking on paper, edit it, pull it apart, and then pull it back together again as you look for external funding, partners, and customers. Your business plan should reflect how you differentiate yourself from the rest of the market. Business plans have a 1-3 year time line. For mature businesses, possibly as much as a five year time line.

Marketing Plan

A marketing plan pushes you to think about the 4 Ps (Product, Price, Promotion, and Placement) and things like price elasticity, market positioning, and even a cheesy tag line. Marketing plans also have a 1-3 year time line.

SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis (stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) is a tool to use on a quarterly/semi-annual basis to work with your employees and closest partners and determine where your organization really stands.

Components of a SWOT Analysis

• Strengths: These are your internal strengths. What are your advantages? What do you do well? What relevant resources do you have? What do other people see as my strengths? Do not include external factors, these come in your Opportunities section below.
• Weaknesses: Your internal weaknesses. What can you improve about your offerings? What do you do poorly or not at all? What should you avoid? What objections do potential clients frequently raise?
• Opportunities: External opportunities you may be able to exploit. Changes in technology and markets on both a macro and micro scale. Changes in the economy. Changes in social patterns and media. Changes in my local events.
• Threats: External threats you might need to mitigate or make contingency plans for. What obstacles do you face? What is your competition doing? How will changes in your area of expertise affect what you do? Is changing technology threatening your position?

How To Conduct A SWOT

Warning: This is a quick overview of how to conduct a SWOT. To gain the most benefit you should do further reading (below) and/or hire an experienced business consultant to help mediate your SWOT session.

1. Brain storm your Strenghts, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Remember brain storming is an open process, don’t get critical – just write down everything you and your colleagues come up with.
2. Prioritize your lists of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
3. With your top 2 or 3 items in each S,W,O,T list come up with a plan of attack. How are you going to show off your strengths or leverage them? What can you do to turn a weakness into a strength? Seize opportunities and mitigate threats!
4. Return to your old SWOT in 3-6 months and evaluate your progress towards each item.

Further Reading

Books

• Analysis Without Paralysis: 10 Tools to Make Better Strategic Decisions
• Strategic and Competitive Analysis: Methods and Techniques for Analyzing Business Competition
• Early Warning: Using Competitive Intelligence to Anticipate Market Shifts, Control Risk, and Create Powerful Strategies

Websites/Articles

• Noha Gindy (Contributor to this post): OrganiSe It Now: Professional organizers who work with businesses in Thurston County, Washington
• SWOT in Wikipedia
• SWOT Analysis from QuickMBA
• Don’t do SWOT: A Note on Marketing Planning – A case for not doing SWOT (and doing more formal planning in it’s place.)
• SWOT analysis method and examples, with free SWOT template