If you are starting a business or have been in business for 100′s of years one of the keys to your success will be to perform a regular SWOT analysis on your business.

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

To get started take out a clean sheet of paper and divide it into 4 boxes using a pen or pencil. Right in each box one of the above titles into it. Now focus on each box and determine the individual Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats to your business. If you have a large group of employees then pull out a whiteboard instead and get them all involved. The more input and honest you are with yourself the better.

Just to be clear what the various SWOT topics mean. Strengths are what make your company stronger then your competitors. Weaknesses are things that you could improve on in  your business. Opportunities is where you can make changes in your company to become stronger. Threats are what can possible hurt your business.

Now that you have taken a bit of time to think about your SWOT flip the page over and determine what needs to be done to fix your weaknesses, eliminate your threats and grow your opportunities. Assign a date even if it is far off in the future and who is responsible for doing it.

Doing a SWOT Analysis once every quarter, half year or year will help your business tremendously. If your not doing it already then I suggest you do it today.