SWOT analysis: Importance and Example

For businesses to craft an effective and efficient business strategy, one of the most essential and useful tool is SWOT analysis.

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of the organization.

What is SWOT

Strengths and Weakness are internal to the business organization; while Opportunities and Threats are external to the business.

Strengths are the positive characteristics or advantages of the business while weaknesses is the opposite. Opportunities are the positive factors and advantages in the market while Threats are the external factors that can negatively affect the business.

Moreover, according to an article written by Ryan Goodrich, “Strengths and Weaknesses refer to internal factors, which means the resources and experience readily available to you; Opportunities and threats are external factors referring to things you or your company don’t have control of.

Internal factors include:
• Financial resources
• Physical resources
• Human resources
• Current processes

Source: Ryan Goodrich, SWOT Analysis: Examples, Templates & Definition (January 1, 2015). Retrieved from: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4245-swot-analysis.html

External factors include:
• Market trends
• Economic trends
• Political, environmental and economic regulations

Source: Ryan Goodrich, SWOT Analysis: Examples, Templates & Definition (January 1, 2015). Retrieved from: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4245-swot-analysis.html

To give you a better understanding of SWOT, below is an example to help you picture out how to apply SWOT to your business.

Example of SWOT analysis

Just for example, let’s analyze a small downtown coffeeshop. Its products are a wide array of coffee concoctions made from brewed arabica coffee beans. To buddy up with coffee, it also offers different sweet foods such as delicious cakes and pastries.The coffee shop has just opened its first branch in a large mall chain. Below is the SWOT analysis for a coffee shop:

Having analyzed its Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, we can infer that the coffeeshop needs to implement effective marketing strategies to capture the niche of coffee-drinkers. It needs to develop and implement a marketing plan that will draw customers in and make them try out the new coffee craze in town.

As a startup, the coffee shop needs to look for more funding in order to continue business operations. Aside from that, the new coffeeshop needs to be unique and competitive compared to well- known coffee shops. It has to differentiate itself and be a cut above the rest among coffee shops in that area.

Make your own SWOT

Remember that, SWOT is unique to each and every business. As your business changes and grows, you must be able to revise, update and improve your SWOT.

Furthermore, there are useful applications on the Internet that offers free SWOT templates you could work on such as Creately software. So, there’s no reason for you not to explore the tools and make SWOT analysis for your business. Now, it’s time for you to make your own SWOT!