SWOT Analysis Breakdown and How to Get Started - Complete Guide

What is a SWOT Analysis?

A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool that helps you determine your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in order to help you make better decisions for your business.

It’s a very simple process that can be used by anyone from an entrepreneur to a Fortune 500 company.

You can use it for any aspect of your business including marketing, sales, operations and even customer service. It’s also very easy to do and doesn’t take much time at all to complete one. The only thing you need is some paper and a pen or pencil (or computer if you prefer).

Strengths & Weaknesses:

What are they?

Why are they important?

How do I identify them?

Strengths and weaknesses are the two most important factors to consider when doing a SWOT analysis.

They are the most important because they will help you determine what you need to do to improve your business.

Strengths - An internal factor: what is good about the company or product

Strengths are the things that you do well and that make your business a success. For example, if you have a great product or service, this is a strength. If you have a great marketing plan, this is also a strength. If you have an excellent customer service team, this is another strength. You can also consider strengths as opportunities that can be used to help your business grow and succeed.

Weaknesses - An internal factor: what is bad about the company or product

‍Weaknesses are the things that you don’t do well or that cause problems for your business. For example, if you don’t have a good product or service, this is a weakness. If you don’t have an effective marketing plan, this is another weakness. If your customer service team isn’t very good at what they do, this is also considered a weakness. You can also consider weaknesses as threats that could be used against your business in order to hurt it or even destroy it completely (if they aren’t dealt with).

Opportunities - An external factor: what is good about the market

Opportunities are things that could be used to help your business grow and succeed. For example, if there is an opportunity for new markets in which your company could expand into, this would be considered an opportunity. If there were new products or services available for sale in which your company could offer to customers, these would be opportunities as well (if they fit with what your company does). You can also consider opportunities as strengths because they can be used to help improve what you already do well in order to make it even better!

Threats - An external factor: what is good about the market

Threats are things that could potentially hurt or destroy your business if they aren’t dealt with properly (or at all). For example, if there were new competitors entering into the market where your company operates in order to compete against it directly with similar products and services offered for sale at lower prices than yours (or free), these would be threats (if they weren’t dealt with properly). You can also consider threats as weaknesses because they could potentially cause problems for what you already do well and make it worse!How do I identify my strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?The best way to identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats is to ask yourself the following questions:

• What do I do well?
• What do I not do well?
• What opportunities are there for me to take advantage of?
• What threats could hurt my business if they aren’t dealt with properly?

Once you have answered these questions and have identified all of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats it’s time to look at them more closely in order to determine what they mean for your business.

This is where the SWOT analysis comes into play. It will help you determine what each strength and weakness means for your business as well as what each opportunity and threat means for it as well. You can then use this information in order to make better decisions about how to improve your business in the future. It will also help you determine what areas need more attention than others so that you can focus on improving those areas first.

The SWOT analysis is also great for helping you determine how much time and effort should be spent on each area of your business. For example, if there are a lot of threats that could potentially hurt or destroy your business if they aren’t dealt with properly then it would be wise to spend more time focusing on those areas than other areas that don’t have any threats associated with them at all. The same thing goes for opportunities as well. If there are a lot of opportunities available for growth and expansion that could potentially help improve what you already do well then it would be wise to spend more time focusing on those areas than other areas that don’t have any opportunities available for growth. This is why understanding the differences between strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats is so important! It will help guide you towards making better decisions about where to focus most of your attention when trying to improve certain aspects of your business!