For many of us who write business plans and marketing plans, the place we start is with a SWOT analysis. For those of you not familiar with this term it is simply a process where you look at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for an organisation and use this information to work out a plan to go forward.
SWOT reviews are a great way to get an overview of a business and what areas need attention as well as the capabilities of the business and by association, the best ways to grow the business.
Having done many of these over the years I recently decided to do a SWOT analysis on myself – and it was very interesting. I figured that if it works so well for business planning why won’t it work for personal planning and it does.
My SWOT was a way of developing my own personal plan for my future and it incorporated all aspects of my life including my business, my relationships, my health and well being, my finances etc. In this instance I am the organisation.
So my SWOT analysis looked at the following –
My Strengths
What is it that I am really good at and even more importantly what do I enjoy doing? What have I achieved in the past that adds to my credibility? What makes me unique as an individual?
My Weaknesses
Yes I know it is hard to believe that any of us have weaknesses but one of the best ways to grow is to admit your weaknesses so that you can do something about them. Sometimes when we define our weaknesses they don’t seem quite so powerful. Here I listed the issues that I felt stopped me from getting things done, achieving certain goals that have alluded me, outside influences that have held me back and even items that I have simply lacked clarity or been indecisive about.
My Opportunities
Listing the opportunities ahead is a very positive exercise. This covers a lot and ideally your list will have plenty of opportunities across all facets of your life. It is always good for the soul to be able to look at a list of opportunities just for you, that with some effort, could be achieved.
My Threats
These are the things that may prevent could me from doing the things I want to or achieving the things I want to achieve. For me overcommitting my time and specifically overcommitting my time to the wrong things was a big threat, which I have known for some time, but putting it in writing makes it more real.
The end result is that you get a fantastic overview of YOU INC. It provides a great summary of what you should be proud of, areas of your life that need some work, a number of clear goals to achieve and awareness about the threats that might prevent you from achieving your goals and dreams.
I highly recommend that you take a few minutes and do your own SWOT.
So how does this help you from a business point of view? The days of separating our business life from our “other” life have come to an end. They are totally interdependent and dramatically impact each other. If you are not clear and focused on where you are going personally there is no way you can grow your business.
From my experience those people who are really clear about their own SWOT’s – that is their own strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities, will always achieve more and have a greater sense of purpose in all that they do. So go for it.
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