A SWOT analysis is the most popular and influential method for analysing plans today. You tend to notice once you know SWOT what people who service your business the way they think. No surprise, as this is the way they are trained.
SWOT will help in the decision-making process and test the feasibility of a business, marketing, product etc.
It is simple, and it will take you about 7 minutes to learn here.
Now you know how to do it, here is my advice.
Grab a big sheet of paper. Experts often use a large A2 sheet. Clearly they think people have a lot to say.
On the top, write your project aim. I find keeping it simple best, e.g. do not say "Increase turnover by 10% "but say "Increase sales of XYZ product". Then when you get more experienced, you can move into more general cases.
Now draw a big cross in the middle of the page, so you have four quadrants. Look at the above example.
Come up with ideas. Brainstorm with others in your team is a great idea. Running computer reports can stimulate ideas as can internet searches on your ideas.
Now you have the idea, it is easy to determine where it goes on the chart.
1) Is it good for the business on the right side (Helpful) if it is bad on the left (Harmful) ?
2) Is it something to business has control of then on the top (Internal), else on the bottom (External)?
Now write down your points in the relevant quadrants.
Now highlight items that people think are significant.
In the end, you will have a visual image of where you are. I promise you that you will find it helpful to examine. You will find that doing a SWOT analysis will help you better understand and how others in the business see your business.
Let me know how it goes.
