SWOT Analysis Step 1:

How to Identify Your Strengths

by: Lisa Furgison

PLANNING

A SWOT analysis is a great tool that makes it easier to think through every aspect of your business’s
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The point isn’t just to make a list—it’s to use that
list to help you start thinking through what you can do to amplify your strengths and opportunities,
and mitigate the risks associated with your weaknesses and threats to your business.

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We recommend that you invite others into your SWOT process—your business mentor, partner, and
your team. As a founder or owner, you probably know more about your business than anyone else.
But the deeper you get, the more likely it is that you have a few blind spots. Bringing others to share
their point of view is a good way to make sure you’re not missing anything important so you can put
together a strategic plan that really works.

Here are a few tips to make the process simple and productive.

1. Use the SWOT matrix framework

A SWOT analysis is usually completed using a four-square template—a matrix. There’s one box for
each of the four elements: strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats.

In this first step, identifying your strengths, you’re only working in the strengths square of the matrix.
We offer a free, downloadable SWOT analysis template to make it easy to get started, and here’s a
quick example of what a completed SWOT matrix looks like:

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SWOT analysis example

2. Review a few SWOT examples

Before you get started on your own strengths analysis, it’s a good idea to review a few SWOT
analysis examples from other businesses, just to get oriented to the kinds of things you might include
or questions you might ask yourself.

3. Meet with stakeholders, mentors, and your team

To conduct a thorough analysis, ask other people for their perspective.

People do SWOT analyses for a number of different reasons. Maybe you’re putting together a plan
for strategic growth, or to scale your company quickly. Maybe you’d like to include a SWOT in a
business plan you’re putting together to seek funding. Or maybe you’ve encountered one too many
surprises lately and you need to help your company refocus on your mission. Whatever your
reasons, don’t just do a SWOT once.

Think about revisiting your SWOT with your business mentor or strategic advisor a few times a year
at least. One approach is doing your whole SWOT analysis in a week, doing one step each day.
You can do the whole thing in an hour or two, but you’ll probably learn more from the exercise if you
give yourselves some time to really think deeply about each aspect.

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4. Write down bullet points

During your brainstorming session, you’ll ask each person to supply one bullet point for the category
they are working on. For today, each person will share their perspective on of your company’s
strengths.

Be sure to write them down, or use Post-It notes and collect them all at the end. Don’t go overboard.
Keep each bullet point to a single sentence, and if people have trouble distilling their ideas down to
a single statement, take some time to work through that.

If you find weaknesses, opportunities, or threats emerging too, write them down if you must—but
wait to discuss them separately. For now, just focus on your strengths.

5. Think about different types of strengths

Before you start listing your business’s strengths, let’s define the parameters a bit. Strengths are
positive, internal (meaning within your business) factors that are within your control.

Think of the experience and resources that are available to your business. We’ll cover the external
factors in the step on opportunity.

Here are a few strengths categories to think about:

 Financial resources like revenue streams, investments, diversified income, and grants.
 Physical assets like buildings and equipment.
 Intellectual property including patents, copyrights, and trademarks.
 Human resources such as employees, volunteers, mentors, and so on.
 Key players, or the most vital members of your team.
 Employee programs that help your employees excel.
 Company workflow, or the work practices and processes and how things get done.
 Company culture, or the values and environment that your company has created.
 Company reputation, which might include reviews, repeat business, or churn rate.
 Competitive position—where your business is poised in the marketplace.

6. Ask strengths questions to keep ideas flowing

To help you lock in on your company’s strengths, we’ve created a list of questions to help. The
questions are broken up by the categories that we just went over. Keep in mind, some of these
questions may not apply to your business. If so, skip it and move on, or modify it so it does apply.

Remember, you’re only looking for strengths here, so if you end up with a negative response, hang
on to it until you’re looking at your company’s weaknesses or threats. Also keep in mind that your
strengths include the things you have already set in place. In this step in your SWOT analysis, try
to avoid leaning over into the opportunity section—or talking about the external things that might be
of benefit to your business, like an emerging trend in an area that makes your product or service
more relevant.
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Starter questions:
 What does your business do well?
 What do you do that your competition can’t?
 Why do customers come to you or stay with you?

Financial:
 What kind of financial resources do you have?
 Is your revenue diversified?
 What kind of investments do you have for the future?
 How’s your cash flow?
 Are you meeting your sales forecasts?

Physical:
 What kind of assets do you have?
 What are the benefits of your company’s space and building?
 What kind of equipment do you own?
 Intellectual:
 What kind of intellectual property do you have in your business? List trademarks, patents,
and so on.

Human resources:
 Who are the key players on your team?
 What do you have in place to attract and retain top talent?
 How’s your staffing turnover?
 What kind of professional development opportunities do you offer?

Company workflow:
 What kind of processes do you have in place that makes your company efficient?
 Have you been able to save time or resources with a new tool or approach?
 How good is your team at delegation?

Company culture:
 What kind of working culture has your company created?
 How are your company values visible to customers and your team?
 Company reputation:
 How does your clientele or community view your company?
 How did you achieve your reputation?
 How are your churn rates, or what is the average lifetime value of your customers?

Competitive position:
 Does your company have an edge in the marketplace that your competitor doesn’t?
 What plans do you have in place to improve your market position?
 Growth potential:
 What plans do you have for growth?
 Do you have the potential to grow in certain sectors where your competitors don’t?
 What’s the main reason you’re able to grow?

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7. Keep your SWOT team on track

Before you sit down with your team or stakeholders, set some ground rules for yourself, as the
moderator of the discussion, and for your team, as active, constructive participants.

1. Be truthful. It probably goes without saying, but if you’re not truthful during this process, the
entire analysis won’t be effective.

2. Allow for feedback. As you’re brainstorming strengths, make sure your employees are
comfortable offering their feedback. You may not agree on some strengths, but it’s best to
talk them through.

3. Stay focused. You want to hear many viewpoints, but when you get several people in a
room, time can get away from you. Keep the group on task.

4. Keep your list of strengths handy as you work through the rest of the steps in your
analysis. You probably already identified some weaknesses as you thought through the
question list. Keep that list close by—especially if the answers to some of them didn’t fall into
the strengths category. The next step in your SWOT analysis is to identify your weaknesses.

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SWOT Analysis Challenge Day 2:
How to Identify Weaknesses
by: Lisa Furgison
.
The purpose of a SWOT

Today you’re diving into the weaknesses of your business. Since listing the weaknesses within your
business can be tough, we thought it was a good idea to recap why this analysis is important.

For existing businesses, a SWOT report will:

 Give you a new perspective about your business

 Provide valuable information that can be used to make strategic decisions
 Allow you to access the health of your business in real time
 Identify areas for improvement
 Give employees a chance to weigh in on the overall wellness of the business
 Guide future plans

For new businesses, a SWOT report will:

 Highlight the benefits of your proposed business

 Identify potential problems
 Encourage you to think critically about starting a business
 Provide valuable information that you’ll need to consider now and in the future

How to define your company’s weaknesses

Every owner wants to believe his or her business is running smoothly, so this piece of the report
might not be your favorite. However, it’s vital information. You need to truthfully access the
weaknesses within your business for this analysis to be effective.

Within a SWOT analysis, weaknesses are internal factors that take away from your business or
leave you at a disadvantage. The same categories that applied to your strengths column from
yesterday can be reapplied here.

So, in your brainstorming session, which should include a variety of employees, you’re going to think
of weaknesses that fit within the categories below. You’ll put this information on your four-box SWOT
template. You can download the template here, if you haven’t done so already.

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The categories where you might find weaknesses include:

 Financial resources. This includes revenue streams, investments, diversified income, and
grants.
 Physical items. Consider buildings and equipment that you rent or own.
 Intellectual property. Patents, copyrights, and trademarks fall into this area.
 Human resources. Think of your employees, volunteers, and mentors.
 Key players. Think of vital personnel to your business.
 Employee programs. Think of any programs that help your employees excel.
 Company workflow. This includes best work practices.
 Company culture. This is the environment that your employees work in.
 Company reputation. Think of how your business has grown its reputation.
 Market position. You’ll consider how your business fits in the overall market.
 Growth potential. Think of how your business is positioned for future growth.

Questions to ask to find your company’s weaknesses

We’ve gone over a few categories, but to further assist you, we compiled a list of questions that
should help you identify weaknesses. These questions follow the categories that we just went
through. Some questions might not elicit a negative response. If that’s the case, just move on to the
next question.

Starter questions:
 In what areas does your company struggle?
 Are there reasons that customers select competitors over you?
 Does something specific stop you from performing at your best?

Financial:
 Are financial resources holding you back? If so, how?
 Does your business get its revenue from one main stream? If so, is diversification a concern?
 Are you preparing for your financial future?

Physical:
 Are any of your physical assets creating a problem?
 What condition is your office in?
 What condition is your equipment in?

Intellectual property:
 Are any of your patents, trademarks, or copyrights in jeopardy?
 Is there any government red tape that’s keeping a patent from moving forward?
 Does your company take too long to file for patents, etc.?

Human resources:
 What kind of human resources do you have?
 Are there any departments that are lacking or inefficient?
 Are employee programs in place to improve your business? If so, are they working?

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Company workflow:
 What areas could be improved upon when it comes to workflow?

Company culture:
 Are you happy with the company culture that you’ve created? If not, why?

Company reputation:
 How does the public see your company? Are you happy with that image?

Market position:
 What kind of position does your business hold in the marketplace?

Growth potential:
 What plans do you have for growth?
 Are your competitors growing in ways that you can’t?
 What keeps your business from growing?

Tips to list your company’s weaknesses

1. Be open-minded. As your employees suggest weaknesses, remain open-minded. It’s likely

that an employee will bring up a weakness that you hadn’t thought of, or disagree with. When
it happens, don’t be judgmental.

2. Be critical of your business. Now isn’t the time for rose-colored glasses, now is the time
for pure honesty. Be prepared to look at your business inside and out critically.

3. Remember, every business has weaknesses. When you’re finished talking about the
negative aspects of your business, you might feel a bit deflated. Remember, every business
has weaknesses. Today is just part of a larger process that will help you better access your
business.

4. Keep your list of weaknesses handy. Keep your list in an accessible spot. You’ll analyze
all of the data that you collect over the next few days at the end of the week.

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SWOT Analysis Challenge Day 3:
How to Identify Opportunities
by: Lisa Furgison

The best time to conduct a SWOT analysis

Before we walk through today’s SWOT brainstorming exercise, we thought we’d take a second and
talk about when an analysis like this should be done.

A SWOT analysis is meant to arm you with valuable information about your company. This
information gives you a comprehensive view of your company as a whole, which will guide you in
your decision-making process.

A business professor will tell you it’s always a good time to conduct a SWOT analysis. Any time you
can take to critically look at your business and see how it’s performing is a good thing. However,
there are strategic times when a SWOT analysis is most beneficial.

Ideal times to conduct a SWOT analysis:

 At the beginning of the year. It’s no coincidence that we’re running the SWOT Challenge
at the beginning of the year. As a new year begins, it’s a natural time to review the past year
and look ahead. By conducting an analysis at the beginning of a new year, you’ll be ready to
make decisions in the coming months.

 Do an annual check up. Just like you should visit the doctor annually, your SWOT analysis
should get a check up at least once a year too. You’ll be amazed how much can change
within a year. You might not need to conduct the analysis from top to bottom again, but you
should at least set aside a day to review it and make updates.

 Do a SWOT analysis when a shift occurs. If something big is changing in your business,
it’s time to do a new SWOT report. Maybe you just took on a big client and plan to increase
your revenue, or maybe the political support that you once had is shifting. When a noticeable
change like this happens, it’s always a good idea to re-evaluate where your business stands.

 A SWOT analysis is vital for potential businesses. If you’re planning a business,

conducting a SWOT report is a great way to check the viability of your idea.

How to define your company’s opportunities

Ok, it’s time to pull out your SWOT template. Let’s talk opportunities. Opportunities, as you might
guess, are factors that can contribute to your growing success. These factors are typically outside
of your control, which is why they are consider external factors.

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Here are a few categories to consider when looking for business opportunities:

 Economic trends. Look at the economy in your area.

 Market trends. Your target market could be driving new trends that could open doors for
your business.

 Funding changes. Think of donations, grants, or other sifting revenue streams that aren’t
within your control.

 Political support. Consider changes in political ties.

 Government regulations. Think of regulations that are changing that might afford you new
opportunities.

 Changing relationships. Consider shifting relationships with vendors, partners, or suppliers.

 Target audience shift. Your target market might be expanding, aging, or shifting.

Questions to ask to find opportunities

To help you brainstorm possibly opportunities, we’ve created a list of questions to help. The
questions are broken up by the categories that we just went over. If a question doesn’t apply to your
business, simply move on to the next.

Economic trends:
 Is the economy in your area looking up?
 Will the economy enable your audience to make more purchases?
 Are economic shifts happening that impact your target audience?

Market trends:
 How is your market changing?
 What new trends could your company take advantage of?
 What kind of timeframe surrounds these new trends? Could it be a long-term opportunity?

Funding changes:
 Do you expect an increase in grant funding or donations this year?
 How will funding changes help your business?

Political support:
 Do you anticipate a shift in political support this year?
 What opportunities could be created with new political partnerships?

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Government regulations
 Are any regulations shifting that could lead to a positive change?

Changing relationships:
 Are there positive changes happening within any of your outside business relationships?
 Are vendors changing or expanding?
 Has your partner decided to move on, creating an opportunity to work with someone new?

Target audience shift:

 How is your demographic shifting?
 What opportunities can you think of that can move with these changing demographics?
 Is your audience expanding? If so, how can you capitalize on this increase?

Tips to list your opportunities

 Do your research. Finding answers to some of these questions might require some digging.
Don’t be afraid to make some calls, set up meetings, and do some market research to gauge
upcoming changes.

 Be creative. To find an opportunity where your competitors cannot will take skill and
creativity. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box when you’re listing possible opportunities.

 Keep your list of opportunities handy. We’ll add to your SWOT analysis tomorrow, so keep
your list of opportunities in a safe spot.

 Stay tuned for tomorrow’s SWOT analysis task: listing your threats. We’ll have a similar
guide ready to go to walk you through the process.

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SWOT Analysis Challenge Day 4:
How to Identify Threats
by: Lisa Furgison

Who came up with a SWOT analysis?

While there is some debate over who came up with the SWOT analysis, most research suggests
that Stanford professor Albert Humphrey was the father of this process.

How did the strategy come about?

Humphrey led a research project at Stanford University in the 1960s and 1970s that tried to figure
out why corporate planning failed within several big companies. The team started breaking the data
into categories like opportunities and threats.

Eventually, other strategists tweaked Humphrey’s categories into the SWOT formula that we know
today.

Ok, history class is over. Time to pull out your SWOT templates and start thinking through the threats
that face your business.

How to define your company’s threats

A threat to your company is an external factor, something that you can’t control, that could negatively
impact your business.

You may be thinking, if threats are outside of my control, why should I spend time identifying them?
By knowing your threats, you might be able to find a strategy to minimize them, or at least, come up
with a plan to handle them in a way that won’t shut down your business. Identifying threats is all
about being prepared and taking proactive steps to minimize the hurt.

Coming up with a list of threats can be difficult. These issues don’t spring to mind as easily as your
strengths, but there are certain categories that most external threats fall into.

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You can use these categories to brainstorm possible threats to your business:

 Economic trends. Examine the economic conditions that impact your business.
 Market trends. Think about changing or shrinking market trends.
 Funding changes. Think of donations, grants, or other shifting revenue streams that aren’t
within your control.
 Political support. If political support is shifting, you’ll want to analyze its impact.
 Government regulations. Think of regulations that are changing that might hurt your
business.
 Changing relationships. Consider shifting relationships with vendors, partners, or suppliers.
 Target audience shift. Your target market might be shrinking, aging, or shifting.

Questions to ask to find threats

These categories should get your wheels turning. By thinking through each category, outside threats
should come to mind.

We’ve also created a list of questions that coincide with the categories above to help you
think critically about the threats that could be out there.

Economic trends
 Is the economy in your area in a recession?
 Will the economy negatively impact your customers’ ability to make purchases?
 Are economic shifts happening that impact your target audience?

Market trends
 How is your market changing?
 What new trends could hurt your company?
 Is there more competition in your market that’s pushing you out?

Funding changes
 Do you expect a decrease in grant funding or donations this year?
 Will funding changes hurt your business? If so, how?

Political support
 Do you anticipate a shift in political support this year?
 Is there reason to be concerned over political shifts?
 What does your business stand to lose because of political changes?

Government regulations
 Are any regulations shifting that could cost more money or hurt production?
 What kind of damage could new regulations have?

Changing relationships
 Are any outside business relationships changing?
 Is there any turmoil with partners or vendors?

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Target audience shift
 How is your demographic shifting?
 What threats accompany these changing demographics?
 Is your audience changing in a way that you can’t accommodate?

Tips to find threats

 Do market research. As you’re looking into possible threats, you’ll want to conduct market
research to see how your target audience is shifting.
 List every threat you can think of. If you think of a threat, list it. Even if that threat has
consequences that won’t be felt immediately, it’s still better to have it on your radar.
 Threats exists, don’t panic. Listing threats may cause some anxiety, but remember
that all businesses have threats. It’s better to know about threats than it is to turn a blind
eye to them. Plus, we’ll give you some strategies tomorrow to help you minimize these
threats.

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SWOT Analysis Challenge Day 5:
Turning Your SWOT Analysis into Actionable Strategies
by: Lisa Furgison

By conducting a SWOT analysis of your business, you’re starting your year off right. Our 5 Day
SWOT challenge was designed to give entrepreneurs a big-picture look at their business.

We’re on the last day of our challenge; at this point you have a list of strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats that face your business. Now that you’ve completed this list, you’re
probably wondering, “Now what?”

Now, the strategic planning starts. You’ll use this list to create strategies to improve your business.
We’ll walk you through how to turn your analysis into actionable strategies today. That’s the last step
in your SWOT journey. When you’re done, you’ll have the information you need to make key
business decisions now and in the future.

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If you just learned about our 5 Day SWOT challenge, check out these four links to bring your
business up to speed.

 SWOT Analysis Challenge Day 1: How to Identify Strengths

 SWOT Analysis Challenge Day 2: How to Identify Weaknesses
 SWOT Analysis Challenge Day 3: How to Identify Opportunities
 SWOT Analysis Challenge Day 4: How to Identify Threats

Before we dive into today’s task, let’s make sure your SWOT analysis is ready to go.

Prioritizing and finalizing your SWOT analysis

 All information should be on your template. At the beginning of the challenge, you
probably downloaded this foursquare template. All of your information should be here. If you
need a template, download it now and transfer your information to it. It’s easier to read and
understand if it’s in this format rather than on separate pieces of paper or computer files.

 Look at other examples. If you haven’t done so already, take a look at a few completed
SWOT reports so you know what yours should look like. Here are a few SWOT examples
you can look at.

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  Use bullet points. Everything listed in your analysis should be in a bulleted format. You don’t
need complete sentences.

 Boil down each point. Each bullet point should be short—a few words will do. If you need
to, simplify your points.

 Refine your information. If you came up with a healthy list for each of your strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, it’s time to refine the information. Check for
redundancies, combine bullets where necessary, and eliminate any information that isn’t vital.

 Prioritize your information. It’s time to go through each section and rank the information.
Put the most important or pressing item on top of each square.

From SWOT analysis to strategies

A list of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats makes for a handy business guide, but
you’ll want to take this exercise one step further to create strategies and plans to improve your
business.

The exercise you’re about to do is called a TOWS analysis. It helps you make connections between
each quadrant of your analysis. You’ll work around the square, combining information from two
quadrants to create actionable strategies. Here’s how:

 Strengths–Opportunities. Use your internal strengths to take advantage of opportunities.

 Strengths-Threats. Use your strengths to minimize threats.

 Weaknesses-Opportunities. Improve weaknesses by taking advantage of opportunities.

 Weaknesses-Threats. Work to eliminate weaknesses to avoid threats.

The chart below is a great visual explanation of this exercise.

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As you answer these questions, you’ll start to create actionable strategies. For example, if one of
your strengths is an experienced grant writer on your team, you should put that person in charge of
taking advantage of new federal grant opportunities that are available this year. That’s a strategy
that you can implement immediately to improve your business.

You can simply add a few blocks to your SWOT analysis to get these strategies down on paper.
Here’s an example of a completed TOWS analysis from the University of San Francisco, which
shows a TOWS analysis for Volkswagen. It shows you what the exercise looks like and gives you
an idea of the strategies that can come from this analysis.

Your finished product

When you’re finished with the SWOT and TOWS analysis, you’ll have an insightful look at your
business that’s accompanied by a list of strategies that you can implement to better your business.

Take this list of strategies and start implementing them. If some strategies are long-term plans, break
them into steps and put each one on your calendar so you can implement the change over time.

Now that you have this business resource, you’ll want to keep it handy. Hang it on your office wall,
or keep it on your desktop so you can reference it throughout the year as you make decisions.

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Your hard work has paid off. Aside from strategic plans, here are additional benefits from your
participation in the SWOT Challenge:

 Improved focus. This analysis should put everyone on the same page. It identifies what you
should be working toward this year.

 Conversation starters. With everyone working on the same goals, managers and
employees can continue to build strategies.

 Identify unknown aspects. You’ll likely discover aspects of your business that you didn’t
know about. From unknown strengths to hidden threats, uncovering this information will help
you move forward.

 Strategies for success. Above all else, you walk away with strategies to help your business.

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