SWOT Analysis – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats – Free SWOT Templates: To run a successful business, you should regularly analyze your processes to ensure that you are working as efficiently as possible. While there are many ways to assess your company, one of the most effective ways is to do a SWOT analysis.
A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) Analysis is a planning process that helps your company overcome challenges and determine what is new to pursue.
The primary objective of SWOT analysis is to help organizations develop complete knowledge about all the factors involved in business decision making. The method was coined by Albert Humphrey of the Stanford Research Institute in 1960, during a study to find out why corporate planning consistently failed. Since its creation, SWOT has become one of the most useful tools for business owners to start and grow their companies.
CCS Innovation’s chief marketing strategist, Bonnie Taylor, told Business Daily, “It is impossible to accurately assess the future of a small business without evaluating it from all angles, including a complete perspective on all internal and external resources and threats is.” “A swot accomplishes this in four straight steps that even the owners of a fraudulent business can understand and embrace.”
- SWOT stands for “Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat”.
- The goal of a SWOT analysis is to evaluate your company’s or personal career goals, past, present, and future.
- You can start with the recommended questions below, then focus on establishing an action plan.
When should you do a swot analysis?
You can employ a SWOT analysis before taking any type of company action, whether you are exploring new plans, improving internal policies, changes in the middle of a plan or changes through its execution Are considering opportunities for Sometimes it is wise to do a general SWOT analysis to check in on the current scenario of your business so that you can improve business operations as needed. The analysis can show you the key areas where your organization is performing better, as well as which tasks need to be adjusted.
Do not make the mistake of thinking informally about the operation of your business, in the hope that they will all come together. By taking the time to put together a formal swot analysis, you can see a complete picture of your business. From there, you can find ways to improve or eliminate your company’s weaknesses and capitalize on its strengths.
While the business owner should definitely be involved in creating a swot analysis, it is often helpful to involve other members of the team in the process. Ask for input from a wide variety of team members and discuss any contribution openly. The team’s collective knowledge will allow you to adequately analyze your business from all sides.
Characteristics of a swot analysis
A SWOT analysis focuses on the four elements of familiarization, allowing companies to identify forces influencing a strategy, action, or initiative. Knowing these positive and negative elements can help companies communicate more effectively what parts of a plan need to be identified.
When a SWOT analysis is drafted, individuals typically create a table divided into four columns to list each affected element for comparison. Strengths and weaknesses usually do not match the opportunities and threats listed, although they must be correlated, as they are ultimately tied together.
Royce Leather managing director Billy Bauer said the pairing of external threats with internal weaknesses can highlight the most serious issues that a company faces.
“Once you identify your risks, you can decide whether to reduce the external threat by specifying the company’s resources to fix problems, or by leaving the business’s area of risk internal. It is best to eliminate strength or complete it after you become strong. Your business, ”said Bauer.
Internal factors swot analysis
These are some of the most commonly considered internal factors:
- Financial resources (funds, sources of income and investment opportunities)
- Physical Resources (Location, Facilities and Equipment)
- Human resources (employees, volunteers and target audience)
- Access to natural resources, trademarks, patents and copyrights
- Current Process (Employee Program, Department Hierarchy and Software Systems)
External factors swot analysis
External forces influence and influence every company, organization and individual. Whether these factors are directly or indirectly associated with an opportunity (O) or threat (T), it is important to note and document each one.
- Market trends (new products, technology advances and changes in audience needs)
- Economic Trends (Local, National and International Financial Trends)
- Grants (donations, legislature and other sources)
- Demography
- Relationships with suppliers and partners
- Political, environmental and economic regulations
SWOT analysis example
Brian Weaver, partner at Scholefield Construction Law was heavily involved in creating a SWOT analysis for his firm. He provided Business News Daily with a sample SWOT analysis template and example that was used in the firm’s decision to expand its practice to include dispute arbitration services. His SWOT matrix included the following:
The strength : Construction law firms with staff members who are trained in both law and professional engineering / general contracting. Their experience gives a unique advantage.
Small (three employees) – can change and customize quickly.
Weaknesses : No one has previously been through or mediated through any formal mediation training programs.
A staff member has been a part of the mediation, but not as a neutral party.
Occasions : Most commercial construction contracts require arbitration. Despite hundreds of intermediaries in the market, few have actual manufacturing experience.
For small disputes, arbitrators do not work as teams, only as individuals; Scholefield employees can give the benefit of a group of neutrals to anyone to evaluate a dispute
Threat : Anyone can become an arbitrator, so other construction law firms can also open their own arbitration service.
Most potential clients have a negative perception of mediation, as they feel that the mediator does not understand the problem or care to care for it, and rush to solve it.
The resulting strategy: Take an arbitration course to eliminate weaknesses and launch Scholefield Mediation using name recognition with a law firm, and highlight how the firm’s experience of building and building law makes it different.
“Our swot analysis forced us to systematically and objectively look at what we had to work on and what the market was offering,” Weaver said. “We designed our business plan to emphasize the benefits of our strongest features, exploiting opportunities based on market weaknesses.”
8 SWOT Analysis Tools for Small Businesses
The following tools feature templates, starter questions, and overall guidelines for performing a SWOT analysis.
1. SmartSheet
SmartSheet provides a free SWOT analysis template so that you have an outline to begin analyzing your career or business. It provides Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint and Word templates, and SmartSheet-specific templates.
Some templates are equipped with additional segments that focus on competitors or combine categories to create a space for identifying strategies. Also, there are more creative templates for presentations, such as puzzles, diamonds and leaf templates.
cost free
2. MindTools
MindTool provides free worksheets to begin your SWOT analysis. It provides other resources for performing a good SWOT analysis, such as a lecturer video, an infographic, a list of starter questions, and information on strategies. There are some good SWOT tips as well as an example of a complete SWOT analysis. MindTool provides comprehensive resources on what swot analysis is and how to best accomplish it for your business.
cost free
3. Creately
This tool allows business owners to create swot diagrams and map key strategies generated by the exercise. Creately Great for small business owners who draft impressive diagrams for presentations or company handouts. You can create and download five public images for free. Otherwise, you will have to pay monthly subscription costs based on your business needs and users. The program is also integrated with Google Images and can support collaboration from team members.
If this is your first SWOT analysis, Creativity provides some examples from other companies so that you can understand what kind of strategies your SWOT analysis will reveal after completing the exercise.
Cost: Free or $ 5 per user per month
4. Canva
Canva provides a host of online, business-relevant templates to work with when creating SWOT analysis. While this tool may not be ideal for completing your SWOT analysis, it is a good way to convert it into a format presentable to a professional, colleagues or other businesses.
You can either upload your own photos or choose from over one million stock images. You can also add filters, crop and edit images directly to Canva. You can share your SWOT analysis with colleagues for feedback and collaboration by sending a link or clicking the share button in the top right corner of the page. Canva works online and with iPhone and iPad devices, allowing you to view or edit analytics from anywhere.
cost free
5. Graphite
This tool is ideal for SWOT analysis diagrams that need to be built on Android or Windows 10 devices. The grapholite is, at its core, a flow-charting tool. But it has all the features and tools to make a SWOT analysis diagram. The tool is also flexible and allows you to create swot diagrams that differ from traditional constructions, such as Venn diagrams. Graphite has drawing tools, drag-and-drop capabilities, online and offline modes, and export options. It is available for iOS users in the App Store for free.
Cost: $ 39.99 from the Windows Store and $ 9.49 from Google Play. An online and desktop version is available for $ 99.99. Note that the Windows Store app is included in a team or business license.
6. Wikiwealth Swot Analysis Generator
WikiWealth’s free SWOT analysis generator provides a prefabricated SWOT section to help you get started with your analysis. Once you have listed, you can choose the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, or threats that are already there or you can add your own company-specific ideas.
This is a great tool for business owners who are not sure where to begin their SWOT analysis. You can see the explanation of each SWOT statement and add comments to each section. Business owners and their teams can prioritize individual items by voting or downvoting them. If your business still needs more resources, there are over 4,000 SWOT reports from other companies that you can view or even work on as examples.
cost free
7. IvoryResearch Swot Analysis Generator
IvoryResearch provides a SWOT analysis generator that can walk you through the steps of creating your report. Similar to Wikiwealth’s version, Ivory provides users with the ability to select strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats from a selection list. Ideally, these items will help you brainstorm other ideas specific to your business.
Once you fill all four categories, Ivory offers one of its authors the option to draft a SWOT analysis specific to your business. While the generator is free, it is not a service. Ivory is not leading to service design, but it can be a good starting point for your SWOT analysis.
cost free
8. Microsoft Office or G Suite
Sometimes the best tools are the simplest. For brainstorming strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, Microsoft Office or G Suite programs provide the necessary tools to create a SWOT analysis. After all, most of the time working on a SWOT analysis should be spent brainstorming and thinking about your business. You can use Google Sheet or Excel to create a quick list and then work with another program to design a diagram for a handout or a presentation.
If you want to design your SWOT analysis using these programs, Microsoft PowerPoint provides some templates to create charts or Venn diagrams directly in PowerPoint. Google also provides the ability to create charts in Google Docs that can be imported into Google Slides.
Cost: Packages vary depending on your business membership.
Free SWOT Templates for Small Businesses More.
Most SWOT analyzes are broken into two-by-two matrices, each containing a box for four components. If you’re not sure where to begin your analysis, here are six free, downloadable SWOT templates that can guide you.
1. Bplans
Bplans offer their SWOT analysis template as a downloadable PDF file. From this resource page, you can find instructions for filling out a SWOT analysis, what to use for it, and sample SWOT analysis for a wide variety of companies and industries. These include food establishments, as well as online stores, such as an Etsy shop, to give you an idea of what a business-specific SWOT analysis should look like.
2. Business balls
On BusinessBalls, you will find many different downloadable SWOT tools in Word and PDF format. This article includes a detailed explanation of each SWOT component, as well as a sample full of many types of potential strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats your business can have.
3. Creatilty
If you’ve ever wondered what a SWOT analysis would look like for some of the world’s largest and most well-known corporations, Google has designed samples for companies such as Google, Amazon and Nike on its SWOT analysis template page. You can also create and edit a blank template using Creately’s web-based SWOT software.
4. MindTools
MindTool provides a SWOT worksheet that guides you through the process of filling out your analysis. This article lists a series of questions that you can answer for each component to help you find out what each box holds. For example, for Strengths, you are asked to list what benefits your organization has over others and what is your unique selling proposition (USP); For weaknesses, you are asked what factors are causing your business to lose sales. This in-depth, introspective look at your company can help you uncover things you didn’t think of.
5. Priority Matrix
Priority Matrix, an app by Appfluence, provides a seven-step process that guides you toward filling out your SWOT analysis. First of all, it instructs you to choose your purpose and decide which area of your business you want to focus on. Then, you need to choose your “SWOT team”, the key members of the team who will be involved in making any decisions that occur after the analysis. After listing the items for each SWOT component (next four steps), your last step is to prioritize the results and find out your next action. You can also download the Priority Matrix app to help build your analysis.
6. Slidemodel
SlideModel’s collection of free PowerPoint SWOT analysis templates can help you get your message in an eye-catching and engaging way that can help convince your audience. The first is a basic, one-page template that lists the items under each SWOT section. There are also two table-based templates – one template is very simple and flat, while the other uses sleek graphics and a clean layout – both use a master SWOT analysis as a cover or intro slide, and then Let’s break each one up. See the section in the next slides. Additionally, the concept-based SWOT analysis template uses images and colors to clearly represent ideas. Uses, while the creative template allows the use of images, diagrams, and other objects.
Additional business analysis strategies
SWOT analysis is not only a simple, but comprehensive strategy to identify the weaknesses and threats of an action plan, but it also makes possible strengths and opportunities possible. However, a SWOT analysis is just one tool in your business strategy. Additional analytical tools to consider (political, economic, social and technical), MOST analysis (mission, objective, strategy and strategy) and SCRS analysis (strategy, current status, requirements and solutions) are included.