How to Run a SWOT Analysis for Your Business
Any business needs strategic planning. It is necessary to take time to analyze your business at its core to find a suitable strategy that helps you achieve your business goals. A SWOT analysis is a great business planning tool that may help your small business.
What is SWOT Analysis?
A SWOT analysis serves as a way for business owners to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of their business, to uncover the reality of their operation and discover valuable information that helps them come up with improvement and growth strategies.
Asking the Right Questions
So, how do you get this done? That's the first question we have to answer. A SWOT analysis sounds like a complicated thing, but it doesn't have to be. It is usually explained graphically with a square divided into four quadrants. Each section is for one of the four elements of this analysis: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
The process of getting this done is full of questions, but it's all about asking the right ones. The questions will have to be based on your current situation and what is relevant to your business. Here are some examples:
Strengths
Think of the attributes your business possesses to help you achieve your goal.
- What are you good at?
- What sets you apart from the competition?
- What do you do that adds value to your clients?
Weaknesses
To find your weak spots, you must be prepared to be honest with yourself. Consider all those attributes of your businesses that could harm your ability to reach your objective.
- Which areas need improvement?
- What things cost you time and money but render no effective results?
- What are the least profitable parts of your business?
- What do you lack in comparison with your competitors?
Opportunities
Opportunities have to do with external factors that may facilitate you achieving your goal.
- Are there any products or services your target audience is needing from a business like yours?
- Is there a market segment you are not targeting yet but could?
- In which areas of your business could you use the help of technology to achieve better results?
Threats
Threats are also related to external conditions. Think of all the external factors that could potentially hurt your performance and keep you from meeting your objective.
- What are the biggest strengths of your competition?
- Is there something happening in your industry or in the economy that could hurt you?
- What are your major obstacles right now?
Asking yourself these questions will leave you with a lot of beneficial information, but it will only be of value if you use it. Now that you understand your strengths put together a plan to build them up even more. Define ways to tackle your weaknesses and minimize them, or even better, turn them into strengths. Analyze your opportunities along with your weaknesses to find improvement areas and see if any of your strengths can cancel out some of your threats. Combining the quadrants can give you a lot of essential details.
When you choose to become an independent insurance agency owner, there is more to it than just a job title. It means you have the power to lead your business in the direction you want it to go. All you need is the right attitude, the right team, and the right tools to help you achieve your goals.