For anyone unfamiliar with the acronym, SWOT stands for:

• Strengths
• Weaknesses
• Opportunities
• Threats.

It’s one of the most useful things you can do for your business, and without it you’re missing important details that can help shape your plans.

Why You Need a SWOT Analysis

Many owners of SMEs spend so much time working IN the business that they rarely have an opportunity to step back and work ON the business. This is understandable, particularly when customers, employees, suppliers and cashflow all need immediate attention.

Time working on your business is always well spent. If you don’t do this, you risk bouncing from one urgent problem to the next without ever deciding where you actually want your business to go.

This matters even more during periods of relentless change. Since 2020, businesses have dealt with Brexit, Covid, inflation, energy price rises, labour shortages, global instability and digital and AI transformation (here’s an article I wrote about this earlier this year).

And as we’re learning this summer, economic and political turmoil doesn’t stop. We are adjusting to more and more change - whether that’s a new Prime Minister, tax policies or increasing costs.

While things shift around your business, if you understand your market, your competition, your customers and your goals, you’ll be able to make quicker, better decisions when you need to. You can’t do this if you don’t know where you are strong, where you need to improve, what your opportunities are and when you’re at risk. That’s where a SWOT analysis is invaluable.