How to Use a SWOT Analysis
How it started:
Danielle came to us several years into business and needing help in understanding "what came next" for her business. To that point, things were going pretty well. She had a steady stream of clients, a passive income offer, and she had thoughts of what she wanted next. Yet, she had no idea where to begin and no clue what she needed to do to start working towards her vision. She resigned to the fact that she had done as much as she could on her own. She knew it would require external support to realize the next steps.
The Concept:
Danielle was overwhelmed by all of the moving parts inside her business. She was bogged down with all that had to be done. Though she was making enough money to survive, she had no idea where it was coming from or where it was going to, competition was starting to pop up around her, and she was quickly getting to a place where she needed to start hiring employees.
With this in mind, we knew that she would need to construct a cohesive plan and develop a prioritized raodmap. The tool that we'd require to help her do that was a SWOT Analysis.
The Blueprint:
We planned to do an analysis on our own, followed by another jointly, to come up with the solution for Danielle's business. Prior to the first meeting, Danielle would conduct a business brain dump (follwing prompts from our worksheet). Then, we would go over everything she had in our initial meeting. Afteward, we would conduct our own independent analysis with the information she providd. From there, we would develop a SWOT for her business and include a prioritized roadmap of steps to take. This was to be delivered via a Loom video, with the option of a follow up call to answer any outstanding questions and concerns.
The Objective:
The primary objective was to get Danielle to a place of clarity when it came to what needed to happen within her business. This would arm her with the knowledge of how to proceed when addressing any threats and optimize the opportunities availabe to her. Each step of the plan that she'd execute, would bring the vision of her business closer to reality. When conducting a SWOT, we want to leave no stone unturned, so being thorough is a requirement.
How It's Going:
In our first meeting together, Danielle detailed every aspect of her business onto us. We talked about the things that were going well: She is strongly established, she'd recently oriented herself with a bookkeeper, and had several interns applying to work with her. We also discussed her struggles: Not having any semblance of budget in place, a lack of automated processes internally and externally, and a few competitors encroaching on her business opportunities. Lastly, we listened and took notes of her desires: hiring an employee, developing procedures for all aspects of her business, doubling her client load, and building her dream facility.
We then took all that information and built out her SWOT. Strengths included her well respected reputation, strong referral network, and niche knowledge that will be crucial in the scaling of the business. Identified weaknesses were a lack of overall structure, insufficient contractual language, and no formal process for her passive income stream. Opportunities included streamlining her client experience, maximizing the utilization of interns, and developing a proper service suite to upsell/downsell clients with. Finally, the threats we saw were the direct competitors in the immediate area, the lack of a budget and overall awareness of the flow of money, and the general sense of "not having a plan".
Relying upon that SWOT, we then developed a prioritized roadmap of steps to take in her business. We broke it down into Top Priorities, which included her business financials and standardizes procedures; What to Look Forward to, which included further development of her networking and marketing strategy for business growth; and Long Term Vision, which included how we see her eventually removing herself from day to day operations.
This was all delivered back to Danielle via a loom video that broke down each strategy. We concluded our work with a follow up call to further discuss each of the options in detail.
The Takeaways:
The SWOT Analysis is a foundational tool that is very much misunderstood and, therefore, often overlooked. It is one of the most thorough tools we can use to examine all aspects of any business, so we rely upon it to help us "get a grip" on what's happening. We immediately recognize a SWOT is needed, when a business owner communicates that they are bouncing between the different aspects of their business and some things are going really well, while others are seriosuly struggling.
We take a structured approach in our utilization of the SWOT. An approach we have crafted over many years and has proven itself to be the best way to extract valuable information from our clients business to craft it into a plan that actually works. After working with us, Danielle was able clearly identify which next steps needed to be taken, how to prioritize those tasks in a way that moves the needle, and how to start working towards the grand vision she sees for her business.
If you’ve got a vision for your businesses future, but are unsure about how to go about working towards that future, let’s talk to see if we are a good fit for you. Apply now!
