How to perform a SWOT analysis

Are you creative looking to turn your skills or ideas into a business?

There are creative workshops for individuals that can help turn your business idea into a reality by helping you hone your creative skills and concepts. Before venturing out to start your business, it is best practice to perform a SWOT analysis to give you a better insight into the industry you are looking to get into.

What is a SWOT Analysis?

A SWOT analysis is a planning method that aims to discover a company’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It’s a framework for aligning an organisation’s goals, programmes, and capabilities with its operating environment.

Strengths: Describe what an organisation excels at and what separates it from the competition: a strong brand, loyal customer base, a strong balance sheet, unique technology, and so on.

Weaknesses: Prevent an organisation from performing at its best. They are areas that the company must improve in order to stay competitive.

Opportunities: Elements in a company’s external environment that enable it to develop and implement strategies to increase profitability.

Threats: Elements in the external environment that could endanger the business’s integrity and profitability

Performing a SWOT analysis is a great tool that can help you analyse what your company is currently doing well and plan a successful strategy for the future. A SWOT analysis can also uncover business areas that are holding you back.

HOW TO PERFORM A SWOT ANALYSIS

A SWOT analysis is typically conducted using a four-square SWOT analysis template, Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunity and Threats. This method makes it most manageable for you to organise and understand the results.

Performing a SWOT analysis with a group of people with different perspectives and stakes in your company. Completing the SWOT analysis process is also a great opportunity to bring your team together and encourage their participation in and adherence to your company’s strategy. If you are performing a SWOT analysis for your company, it is best to find a quiet space and, most importantly, take your time.

Whilst performing the SWOT analysis, it is best to start a brainstorming session to identify the factors in each of the four categories.

Improving Your SWOT Analysis

Once you have identified your SWOT results, you can use them to develop short-term and long-term strategies for your business or work on your personal development. The results you have can help you gather and identify aspects of yourself that you didn’t know about – these could be unknown strengths or opportunities. This information will help you move forward.

For example, look at the strengths you identified and then develop ways to use those strengths to maximise the opportunities.

The greatest way to maintain track of growth, strengths, and weaknesses is to do regular business analysis and strategic planning. Performing a SWOT analysis on a regular basis can help you in your decision-making process to examine and execute strategies in a more balanced, in-depth way.