Bizstartup.ie - Start Up Kit

Ask yourself this simple question:  What stands in my way of achieving the goals I set for my business?

The best entrepreneurs set big, audacious goals and they steer their business towards those goals, closing any gaps that hinder their progress as they go.    My advice is to use an ‘Action SWOT’ to reach your goals. 

Some people use the SWOT analysis to help identify gaps and opportunities for their business.  SWOT stands for ‘Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats’.  The SWOT analysis provides a status update on a business, a snapshot.  In the current market environment, action is as important as analysis.

Altering your mindset from the basic SWOT

The Action SWOT alters your mindset from the basic approach of identifying strengths and weaknesses, and external threats and opportunities, to a much more developed thought process. 

It requires you to question how you can use strengths, defeat weaknesses, harness opportunities and how you can plan for and mitigate the potential risks in the market.  This is not a statement of SWOT or a static picture of your business – instead it is a plan to improve your bottom line and win in the marketplace.

Action SWOT helps you to examine your business to discover:  how you can be radically different and better than your competitors; how you can use the market to drive your business and how you will overcome gaps to become a better and stronger enterprise. 

It is a plan that helps you to achieve your goals.  The actions that you come up with should provide the answers to these four questions:

• How do we use our strengths?
• How do we overcome weaknesses?
• How do we harness opportunities?
• How do we mitigate potential threats?

Look at your business and ask:  what makes you stand out as different from those who compete with you for business?  What specialist skills do you provide that no one else does?  What do you offer your customers that they particularly approve of, comment on, or mention to others?  

Conversely, are there areas that need significant improvement in order for you to compete successfully in the current market?  Are there potential market movements that could alter the landscape for your business?

This is your opportunity to define the reality of what you offer to your customers!

Rachel Killeen is author of 'Client Science: The Five Cs Marketing Plan for Professionals' – a book that helps entrepreneurs to grow their business.  The book is available from www.charteredaccountants.ie