The Benefits of Conducting a SWOT Analysis for Your Business
Taking the time to analyze, experiment, and draw diagrams to dissect your business, strategies, and predictions can seem complicated and time-consuming. That’s why the best thing you can do is conduct a SWOT analysis. A SWOT analysis is simple enough to conduct in a decent amount of time without a deep understanding of strategy or analytics. It covers the basics of a business, including strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, both internal and external factors. Here is how each aspect of a SWOT analysis can improve your business.
1. S is for Strengths
The Strengths of a company seem like obvious stats, but in a SWOT analysis the idea is to dive deep and find just what makes a company tick. This provides a solid foundation of what is working best so that a company can be sure to keep the strong foundation when constructing new strategies to fix weakness or plan future endeavors. Sharing the strengths of the company can also encourage employees and bring confidence to the workplace.
2. W is for Weaknesses
Every company (even industry leaders) has weaknesses – and they’re just as important to understand as strengths. Identifying weaknesses is a crucial step in solving larger, fundamental issues. Once a weakness has been identified, it comes down to salvaging the data and deciding what’s important, what it affects, what can fix it, and if the cost to fix it is worth the reward. Being able to locate and correct a business’s weaknesses will only help to strengthen and solidify your company.
3. O is for Opportunities
Growth in a company requires constantly seeking new ventures. This includes watching the current market for emerging technology and processes that could improve profitability and efficiency. This also involves scouting for new and upcoming potential markets that could be rewarding. On top of this, a company should always be hunting new clients entering the current or future markets. This is an ongoing process that can be kept up with by conducting a regular SWOT analysis.
4. T is for Threats
The threats in a SWOT analysis are anything that could be a risk to a company or threaten the profitability or market share of a company. These are only external factors, anything that is out of the company’s control that still affects the company. These could be anything from a new product from a competitor and market changes to natural disasters and seasonal fluctuations. It is important to analyze past experiences of threats as well and use the information to prepare for oncoming threats.
If conducted at least once a year, a SWOT analysis can be invaluable to a company. The answers found in a SWOT analysis can show the deepest details of the ins and outs of a company and can be used to perfect and polish strategy without expensive, confusing processes and data. No matter the size or status of the company, a SWOT can always be beneficial.