I first heard of SWOT analysis at a chamber planning session pre-COVID. It was an awesome process. But, as with a lot of other things, COVID eclipsed everything and refocused our attention. Now, as we settle into our new normal, I’m pulling out the SWOT analysis, dusting it off and getting back to better business.
For those of you not familiar with the term, SWOT is an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The analysis helps you focus on your strengths, identify your weaknesses, minimize any threats and take the best possible advantage of available opportunities. In a business context, it helps you find your niche in the marketplace. Used in a personal context, it assists you in the development of your career in a way that takes advantage of your abilities, talents and opportunities.
Created in the 1960’s, SWOT analysis is as useful now as it was then. Strengths and weaknesses are usually internal to your organization. Opportunities and threats generally relate to external factors. When using SWOT analysis, you’re forced to look inside your organization as well as at outside factors to determine your best path forward. To get started, just take a piece of paper and divide it into the four SWOT components. Strengths should include advantages your business has and what you do better than any else. This is the section of the planning process that should include what is unique about you and your products or services. When looking at your strengths, you must also think about them in relation to your competition. If all your competitors consider low pricing a strength, then your low price point is not a strength. Then there are your weaknesses. I know. Painful but necessary. You need to include what you could improve and the practices you should avoid. As painful as enumerating your weaknesses can be, it’s better to be realistic now than face any unpleasant truths unexpectedly in the future.
Opportunities are the brainstorming component of this procedure. This section includes future opportunities or trends you can spot. Take new developments in technology or government policy related to your field into account. For organizations like the chamber, changes in social patterns, population fluctuations and lifestyle changes are important here, as well. Often when looking at opportunities, you should look back at your strengths and ask whether they open any opportunities.
Threats include what obstacles you face and what your competition is doing. Most importantly, this is your chance to determine if any of your weaknesses seriously threaten your business model. Reviewing our SWOT analysis helped the chamber plot our strategies for this year. Just one problem I encountered. Spell check kept turning SWOT into SWAT. So, I kept waiting for the guys in black to show up at our meeting, guns blazing to find out what we were up to. If they had shown up, they would have uncovered the poorly kept secret that our Fall Trade show is coming up on Thursday, October 6th, from 9 a.m. to noon at the Sun City Center Community Hall. We’ll see you then….hopefully without any interference from SWAT.
Lynne Conlan is executive director of the South Hillsborough Chamber of Commerce. Call her at 813-634-5111, or email lynne@southhillschamber.com
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