Note: Running Fridays in FromGregsHead.com, is a continuing series of tips brought to you by Greg Price. These run Saturday mornings during the BusinessMaker’s Radio Show on KPRC 950AM. Audio files can be found on the Entrepreneur’s Playbook™ page of the PKF Texas website.
There are many tools you can use to aid in the strategy development for your company. One of the most effective is to evaluate your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats referred to as a SWOT analysis.
You can use SWOT to analyze your company, a business opportunity or even as competitive intelligence.
Take the time to write out your Strengths – What’s great, or what you do well?; Weaknesses – What you do badly, or are lacking?; Opportunities – Where, and what are they?; and Threats – What are your hurdles?
The value of SWOT is dependent on the quality of what you list. It must reflect the competitive strengths and weaknesses and be based on a real understanding of market opportunities and threats. Try to work it out from all viewpoints.
New opportunities may be uncovered, problems put into perspective, nasty threats revealed, real strengths you can cash in on, and weaknesses you can address.