And how to use it to help you
This concept comes from a recent podcast I was listening to. I forget who said it but if I remember I’ll come back and give them credit.
It’s pretty simple to understand. It is a business principle designed to help you realize where you need to focus. SWOT is an acronym. Here are the meanings of the letters.
“S” stands for strengths. It is a reminder to know what you are good at in your business or life and keep doing those things. Realize where you have a natural gift or natural aptitude for, and focus on getting better at that.
This usually isn’t the part that people have issues with. People are usually aware of their strengths and know what is working for them on a regular basis.
Chances are, if I asked you right now what you bring to the table, you could list two or three different things that you can do to make a positive impact. Otherwise, you most likely don’t have a business.
“W” stands for weaknesses. This is harder to realize than strengths. This requires you to be real with yourself and ask yourself good questions.
Some questions you should be asking yourself are: What are the gaps in my business? What am I doing that I shouldn’t be doing? Where do I need to spend more or less time?
Weaknesses do not necessarily mean everything you are bad at. If you are a writer, your ability to code on a computer does not matter. Coding may be a weakness for you, but it may not be relevant to your business or what you do.
You need to realize what your weaknesses are relevant to what you do.
The questions above can help you realize your business flaws and help you amend them. Another good way to do this is to ask someone who will tell you what you need to hear and what you can improve on.
This person needs to not care about your feelings or ruining the friendship they have with you. They need to tell you exactly what your problem is without holding back.
Ideally, a mentor or coach would be a perfect example of this.
“O” stands for opportunities. You need to realize opportunities in your field that you may not have seen before.
For example, you may feel like you are overcharging for your service when you are really not charging enough. Another opportunity could be to expand your business into an area that you hadn’t thought of before.
Be open to new ideas and try different things. There may be opportunities in places that you didn't even know existed before.
“T” stands for threat. Ask yourself if you were a competitor, where would you attack your business? What are your rivals doing to ensure they beat you? If x happens, are you prepared for the aftermath?
A good example of this was covid 19 and the long-lasting effects it had. While pandemics may be impossible to plan for, there are threats that could have been mitigated.
Some companies were unable to continue with people working from home. The entire business model relied on people showing up to the office and doing the work.
In 2022, companies should be able to have their employees work from home if necessary.
Be vigilant in what can take your business down.
Another threat would be having only one income source. If your business only does one thing, what would happen if you couldn’t perform the one thing? Your whole business would collapse.
Another good example of this is companies that really on a Facebook group as a platform for their own business. What if Facebook decides to delete your group. How will you adapt and communicate with your people?
The SWOT analysis relies heavily on asking yourself the right questions. It also relies heavily on self-awareness and having the ability to answer questions honestly.
Be honest with yourself in all the steps above. Lying about your weaknesses or believing your competition isn’t good enough will eventually lead to your own destruction.
Ask yourself the right questions and have a plan in place to adapt to any situation.
It’s something that will take practice and will require constant reevaluation.
Still, it’s something that needs to be done.
