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planning the future
Where do you see yourself in five years? And your career? Your business?
These questions keep a surprising number of people up at night. The future can often seem like a dark, ominous cloud hovering just out of sight. As the old proverb goes, we fear the unknown, and there can be little more unknowable than the future.
While there is no crystal ball that can accurately predict future market trends or the steps you should take to optimize your productivity and improve your competitive advantage, we can offer some advice: Rephrase the question. Instead of trying to pinpoint where you think you could be in five years, think about whereI want to beat this moment. Once you have a destination in mind, you can start planning a route to get there. After all, maps are great tools, but they can't help you if you don't know where you're going.
So what is the metaphorical map in this scenario? We present the SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats).
How to write a SWOT analysis
SWOT analyzes are excellent strategic tools useful in project planning,Business development, financial strategy andpersonal progress🇧🇷 Simple, honest and direct, they facilitate a deep understanding of your current situation or your company. Essentially, a SWOT analysis is a comparative list of all your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
There is more power in this process than you think. You may only be vaguely aware of your own strengths and weaknesses. However, carefully recording and reflecting on them creates a thorough and conscious familiarity with both the resources available and the obstacles that stand in your way. This awareness allows you to chart a path to your goals with great precision and purpose. Writing a SWOT analysis will help you clearly assess whether your goals are achievable given your resources and needs.
In this guide, we'll break down exactly how to write a SWOT analysis and provide some examples along the way. Feel free to use our SWOT analysis template, provided below, to write your own!
Our SWOT Analysis Template
Forces
Your strengths list should focus on your current resources and skills. It should relate to the things you do or your company does well. These could be your or your company's achievements, big and small, and the assets that you or your company own. Your strengths give you your greatest advantage; they are the features that propel you forward and that you can continue to develop as you go.
When you do your first SWOT analysis, you might feel lost. Don't worry, it's difficult for most people to create an objective list of strengths and weaknesses on the spot. For your convenience, we've included a list of questions you can ask yourself to get started.
These questions should help you identify some of your strengths. Remember, while our sample questions relate primarily to business strengths, they can also be applied to personal strengths. Go ahead, brag as much as you can.
- What sets your company apart from others?
- What do you have that other companies don't?
- What are you most proud of in your company?
- What makes customers come back to you?
- What does your company do well?
- What assets do you have access to?
- What qualities does your company have that other companies try to emulate?
- What has always been easy for your company?
weaknesses
Listing your weaknesses can be a little more complicated than detailing your strengths, but trust me, it will help you in the long run. Understanding the obstacles in your path and the elements of your business or skills you may need to improve is just as important as appreciating your strengths. Once you know your weaknesses, you can start working on them and build your next steps around them.
Your weaknesses list should refer to any current issues and challenges. Please see the list of questions below; should give you an idea of where to start. Again, if you prefer to focus on your personal or professional growth, feel free to modify these questions to suit your needs.
- What makes your company stand out from the competition?
- What do other companies have that you don't?
- What are the most common criticisms you receive from customers?
- Why do some customers not come back to you?
- What does your company need to improve?
- What kind of feedback do you get from your employees?
- What might your competition consider a weakness?
- What has always been difficult for your company?
- What are you not willing to do or change?
Opportunities
Think of the opportunities available to you as potential future strengths. Your opportunities are the assets, resources, and events that can benefit you in some way in the future. You may need to change some of your current approaches or adapt in other ways to capitalize on these opportunities, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Here are some questions you can ask yourself to identify your potential opportunities:
- What's happening in the current market that you could capitalize on?
- What changes have you made that have produced positive results?
- What's working for other companies?
- How could you introduce new technology to make your processes more efficient?
- What costs can you reduce?
- Could you explore new industries or demographics?
- How can you improve or modernize your marketing techniques?
- How can existing obstacles be removed?
threats
Just as your opportunities are based on potential, so are your threats; these are the possible obstacles or problems that have not yet been directly affecting your progress. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't start thinking about them! Being aware of the challenges you may encounter will help you plan for them or address them with solutions. Try to think of several future events that could realistically undermine the momentum you build by committing to your strengths and opportunities.
To get started, take a look at our list of questions:
- What obstacles could your weaknesses create?
- Are changing market trends negatively affecting your competitive advantage?
- What might get in the way of changes you make to match your strengths and opportunities?
- Do you have a lot of debts?
- Could your competition exploit your weaknesses?
How did you do it? Do you feel like you've listed everything? Or do you think something is missing? Below, we've outlined a sample personal and business SWOT analysis to give you an idea of what a complete analysis would look like.
An example of a personal SWOT analysis
An example of a business SWOT analysis
Last words
The humble but effective SWOT analysis will produce a detailed map of your current environment, its hills and valleys. Knowing how to write a SWOT analysis will give you the perspective you need to choose a direction and lead the way towards your goals. SWOT analyzes may not be crystal balls, but they are like compasses. Use them wisely and you will never get lost.
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FAQs
How do you write a SWOT analysis example? ›
- Decide on the objective of your SWOT analysis. ...
- Research your business, industry and market. ...
- List your business's strengths. ...
- List your business's weaknesses. ...
- List potential opportunities for your business. ...
- List potential threats to your business.
Examples include competitors, prices of raw materials, and customer shopping trends. A SWOT analysis organizes your top strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats into an organized list and is usually presented in a simple two-by-two grid.
How do I create a SWOT analysis template in Word? ›- Open Word and create a new document. Open the Microsoft Word application on your computer. ...
- Insert a table. ...
- Design your chart. ...
- Label your quadrants with headings. ...
- Enter your SWOT text. ...
- Save your SWOT chart. ...
- Share your SWOT chart.
A SWOT analysis evaluates the internal strengths and weaknesses, and the external opportunities and threats in an organization's environment.
Does Word have a SWOT analysis template? ›You can now print or share your SWOT analysis template in Word! Diagramming is quick and easy with Lucidchart. Start a free trial today to start creating and collaborating.
How do you write a SWOT paragraph? ›...
Strengths
- What does the business do best?
- What do people like about it?
- What draws people to the business?
- What does the business offer that competitors can't or don't offer?
- List your relevant strengths. You may start by assessing what internal factors benefit you in the context of your situation. ...
- Review your weaknesses. While listing weaknesses, be honest and objective. ...
- Define your opportunities. ...
- Understand any potential threats. ...
- Make an informed decision.
- Ensure your SWOT is complete. ...
- Make connections between each of the four sections. ...
- Create a list of tactics related to each of those four connections. ...
- Identify and address anything unknown that appeared during the planning process. ...
- A process that lets you take action.
A template is a document type that creates a copy of itself when you open it. For example, a business plan is a common document that is written in Word. Instead of creating the structure of the business plan from scratch, you can use a template with predefined page layout, fonts, margins, and styles.
How do I create a simple template in Word? ›Open the Word document that you want to save as a template. On the File menu, click Save as Template. In the Save As box, type the name that you want to use for the new template. (Optional) In the Where box, choose a location where the template will be saved.
Where do I find sample templates in Word? ›
In Word 2010, 2013, or 2016, select File > Options > Add-Ins. , and then select Word Options > Add-ins. In the Manage list, select Word Add-ins, and then click Go. Click the Templates tab.
What are 4 examples of opportunities? ›- Get help on projects.
- Propose working groups.
- Get testers for new ideas or products.
- Create a team to work on an idea you have.
- Share your expertise or best practices in a particular field.
- Social perception. With the rise of social media, consumers are increasingly aware of the business practices of the companies they support. ...
- Natural disasters. ...
- Technological changes. ...
- Legislation. ...
- Competition. ...
- Globalization. ...
- Data security. ...
- Rising costs.
Threats are one of four parts to a SWOT analysis; the others are strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. What are your threats? They might include your peer companies' relative strength, an industry-wide shortage of materials needed to make your products or a sluggish economy.
How do you write a SWOT analysis for a student? ›- Identify Goals.
- Identify Strengths and Weaknesses.
- Identify Opportunities.
- Identify Threats.
- Prioritize.
SWOT Analysis Worksheet. Page 1. A SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis could help you identify different strategies to implement to improve your business.
What is a SWOT analysis worksheet? ›Download this worksheet to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for your business. This information can help you outline goals and strategies for your business and marketing efforts.
Does Excel have SWOT templates? ›SWOT Analysis Template grid format in Excel
This is an Excel template for creating a SWOT Analysis. The headings are laid out in a grid or quadrant with Strengths and Weaknesses on the top line and Opportunities and Threats below.
Open your PowerPoint presentation, go to your Add-Ins and select Lucidchart within the Insert tab. Select your SWOT analysis diagram from your documents to insert into PowerPoint. Open this SWOT analysis chart template in Lucidchart or open up a blank document.
How do you write a SWOT conclusion? ›...
CONCLUSION of SWOT ANALYSIS
- build on your strengths.
- minimize your weaknesses.
- seize opportunities.
- counteract threats.
How do you answer a SWOT question? ›
- . ...
- . ...
- . ...
- . ...
- Strengths: Positives you can capitalise on, these should be your 'key selling points. ...
- Weaknesses: Negative areas you need to improve on.
- Opportunities: Positive external conditions you can take advantage of.
- Threats: Negative external conditions you can't control but can minimize.
When answering, mention what your top strengths are, provide examples on how you've used them in the past, and finally, describe the results you've gotten. Be super specific with your answers. Don't just say “I'm good at X” - really dive deep and give the interviewer a comprehensive answer.
What is your strength and weakness best answer? ›I am very honest. When I feel that my workload is too large to accept another task, or if I don't understand something, I always let my supervisor know. My people skills are my greatest strength. I find it easy to connect with almost anyone, and I often know how to empathize with others in an appropriate way.
What is SWOT analysis and how it helps in planning with examples? ›A SWOT analysis will position you to seize opportunities and prepare effective strategies. Getting a clear and realistic view of your internal environment will help you identify ways to better satisfy clients, achieve your objectives and strengthen weaker areas that have an impact on your performance.
What is an example of a template? ›Here are some examples of templates: Website design. Creating a document. Knitting a sweater.
What are the steps of template? ›- Step 1: Open the Word document.
- Step 2: Go to the File tab on the Ribbon and click on the New option.
- Step 3: Click on the Blank document.
- Step 4: Add the desirable content that you use further as a template.
- Browse the location where you want to save a file.
To begin, click the Template Editor button in the Tools ribbon tab. This displays the “Edit report template” window. Click the downward arrow to select the template that you'd like to copy. Then, click the duplicate template button to duplicate that template.
How do I create a template in Excel? ›Click File, and then click Save As. In the File name box, type the name that you want to use for the template. In the Save as type box, click Excel Template, or click Excel Macro-Enabled Template if the workbook contains macros that you want to make available in the template. Click Save.
Can you download templates for Word? ›You can download free, pre-built document templates with useful and creative themes from Office when you click File > New in your Office app. Templates can include calendars, business cards, letters, cards, brochures, newsletters, resumes, and much more.
How do I find my normal template? ›Go to C:\Users\user name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates. Open the Normal template (Normal. dotm).
What is a template in writing? ›
A writing template is a guide that a writer follows while writing an article, a book, a letter, essay etc. A template aims to help the writer follow a specific structure and write faster. Writing templates are important because they can save you lots of time if you're a beginner.
What is a simple SWOT analysis? ›SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, and so a SWOT analysis is a technique for assessing these four aspects of your business. SWOT Analysis is a tool that can help you to analyze what your company does best now, and to devise a successful strategy for the future.
What are your threats examples answers? ›...
It should also highlight your strengths.
- Strengths: Positives you can capitalise on, these should be your 'key selling points. ...
- Weaknesses: Negative areas you need to improve on. ...
- Opportunities: Positive external conditions you can take advantage of.
- Self-criticism.
- Shyness.
- Lack of knowledge of particular software.
- Public speaking.
- Taking criticism.
- Lack of experience.
- Inability to delegate.
- Lack of confidence.
- Enthusiasm.
- Trustworthiness.
- Creativity.
- Discipline.
- Patience.
- Respectfulness.
- Determination.
- Dedication.
Examples of threats for a personal SWOT analysis might include increased competition, lack of support, or language barriers. Threat examples for businesses could include economic downturns, increased taxes, or losing key staff.
How do you end a SWOT analysis? ›...
CONCLUSION of SWOT ANALYSIS
- build on your strengths.
- minimize your weaknesses.
- seize opportunities.
- counteract threats.