How to do a SWOT analysis (part 1)
SWOT analysis is a very important tool for opening, planning and running a business, respectively, and the question “how to do SWOT analysis” is of particular importance in the life of an entrepreneur. We’ll talk about how to do SWOT analysis today. Rather, we will develop such a step-by-step instruction – a questionnaire, after which the very question (how to do SWOT analysis?) Will be completely closed for you.
First, let’s look at what a SWOT analysis is (I apologize in advance to those for whom this is unnecessary). SWOT analysis – a tool for planning and conducting business based on the analysis of four comparative business elements. These elements are: Strengths (strengths), Weaknesses (weaknesses), Opportunities (opportunities) and Threats (threats). Correctly done SWOT analysis gives the entrepreneur a huge amount of useful information necessary for making the right business decisions. SWOT analysis – 4 step instruction
For greater clarity, we will divide the SWOT analysis process into steps, each of which is represented by several questions. The answers to these questions are, in fact, the process of conducting a SWOT analysis. So.
Step 1 – Scan Business Environment
In this step, examining our business environment, we must identify the factors that affect or may affect our business. All factors can be divided into internal and external. In order to identify these factors, answer the following questions:
1. What legal factors (laws and other regulations) affect (or may affect) my business?
2. What environmental factors affect (or may affect) my business?
3. What political factors influence (or may influence) my business?
4. What economic factors affect (or may affect) my business?
5. What geographical factors influence (or may influence) my business?
6. What social factors influence (or may influence) my business?
7. What technological factors influence (or may influence) my business?
8. What cultural factors influence (or may influence) my business?
9. What market factors influence (or may influence) my business?
Answers to the first 9 questions give you information about external factors, that is, about the impacts on your business that are in your environment, regardless of the existence of your business. One way or another, you should ask yourself all these questions in order to fully understand what may have any impact on your business. Of course, different factors will have different effects in different business areas, but this is what you will understand by answering these questions.
10. Does the competition factor affect (or can it affect) my business?
11. Does the factor of management and business management influence (or can it affect) my business?
12. Does (or can it) affect my business factor of the chosen business strategy?
13. Does the business structure factor affect (or can it affect) my business?
14. Does the employee factor affect (or can affect) my business?
15. Does (or can it affect) the factor of my business goals in my business?
16. Does the leadership factor affect (or can affect) my business?
17. Does the factor of operational management influence (or can affect) my business?
18. Does technology factor in business affect (or can it affect) my business?
Answers to questions 10 through 18 will give you information on what factors related to the appearance of your business on the market will affect the development of the business as a whole. The list may not be exhaustive, much depends on the field of activity, but these are the main points.
And so, answering the above questions, you will have an almost complete set of factors on which your business depends to one degree or another. Then it is necessary to analyze them and make the conclusions that are right for themselves. In this regard, we move on to the next step of our instruction on how to do a SWOT analysis.
