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Research-Methodology

SWOT Analysis

All business students are assigned to conduct SWOT analysis, usually at the earlier stages of their studies. This page focuses on the application of SWOT analysis in a business context as a part of academic assignments . This is a comprehensive SWOT resource and it contains an explanation of SWOT theory, an illustration of how to do a SWOT analysis and links to examples of SWOT analysis of major multinational brands. Moreover, SWOT analysis template further below can be used to generate SWOT tables of top multinational companies along a range of industries.

SWOT Analysis: Theory

SWOT is a strategic analytical tool for assessing strengths and weaknesses of a business, analyzing opportunities available to the business, as well as, threats faced by the business. SWOT analysis can be used at organizational and personal levels.

SWOT-Analysis

As it is illustrated below, strengths and weaknesses are internal, i.e. businesses are able to influence and to manipulate with their strengths and weaknesses. Opportunities and threats, on the other hand, are external. It means businesses can only react to opportunities and threats and they do not have any means to influence opportunities and threats.

SWOT analysis has important practical implications. Specifically, with findings of SWOT analysis in their hands, the senior level management identify and built upon their strengths, discover new opportunities and work upon eliminating or minimising threats to the business. Accordingly, SWOT can be a powerful aid for senior level management to develop appropriate strategy for the business.

As a strategic analytical tool, SWOT analysis has some weaknesses as well. Specifically, the application of this tool may encourage users to focus on quantity of factors, instead of focusing on a few, but the most powerful factors having the biggest impact on the business. In other words, SWOT analysis lacks guidance and provision in terms of differences in importance between factors. As a result weak strengths may appear to balance strong weaknesses.

How to do SWOT analysis

The majority of sources explaining SWOT analysis assume that their audience is businesses aiming to improve their operational efficiency. This SWOT analysis resource is different. It explains SWOT analysis assuming that you a business student and you have been assigned to conduct SWOT analysis as a part of your assignment.

How to do SWOT Analysis

You can conduct a SWOT analysis with the following four steps:

Step 1: Selecting a company

If your assignment requires conducting a SWOT analysis, you are either given a case study company by your educational institution or you are free to analyze a company of your own choice. In the first scenario, you have no option but to conduct a SWOT analysis of the company named in your assignment instructions. However, the majority of educational institutions provide students the flexibility to conduct SWOT analysis of a company of their own choice.

Students are often tempted to conduct SWOT analysis of their employer. Choosing your employer as a case study can be a good strategy if you have an access to detailed relevant information. Please note that only descriptive information would not suffice and you will have to justify your arguments by referring to relevant quantitative data. Therefore, if you are not able to find relevant quantitative data about your employer, your best choice could be to conduct SWOT analysis of a multinational enterprise. This is due to the availability of data about the majority multinational enterprises. This portal offers up-to-date sample SWOT analyses of the most famous multinational enterprises as part of company reports .

Step 2: Finding information

If you are conducting a SWOT analysis of a small or medium sized organization such as your employer, family business or a company you are related to in some ways, approaching the company directly may prove to be an efficient strategy to obtain required information. You may try to secure a meeting with a senior level manager and explain practical implications of your SWOT analysis for the business. In other words, you may be able to convince a senior manager that results of your SWOT analysis may provide an important insight into the business and managers can act upon this knowledge to increase the efficiency of the business at various fronts.

Alternatively, if you are conducting SWOT analysis of a multinational enterprise, company annual report is usually the most comprehensive source of the relevant information. Note that annual reports highlight information about strengths of the business within the first few pages and you cannot find information about weaknesses of a company in its annual report for obvious reasons.

Information about Strengths in SWOT Analysis

Information about strengths of the company is easiest to find in your SWOT analysis. Strengths are competitive advantages of the business that made it successful in the first place. In case of small or medium sized organizations, the manager you are interviewing will be happy to discuss the strengths of the business.

In case of multinational companies, on the other hand, the first few pages of annual reports boast about competitive advantages of the business by referring to specific figures and charts. Using some of these charts in your assignment and properly referencing the source is going to increase the quality of your work.

You can determine strengths of businesses in answers to the following questions:

The following table illustrates the major strengths possessed by businesses and tips about how to discuss these strengths in your swot analysis:

Information about Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis

It may not be easy to find information about weaknesses of small and medium sized businesses. The manager you are interviewing may not want to discuss weaknesses of their business either intentionally, or they may not be aware of weaknesses. It is important for you to motivate your interviewee to discuss weaknesses of their company by asking relevant questions in a polite way.

It is easier with multinational organizations. An extensive online research can reveal relevant information about weaknesses associated with the company you are analyzing.The majority of big corporations have been involved in some kind of scandals during the past two years and you can discuss the damage of these scandals to the brand image as noteworthy weakness of the company.

For example, suppose you have chosen Coca Cola Company for your SWOT analysis assignment. If you google the term ‘Coca Cola scandal’, search results on the top relate to a scandal where the company funded obesity research that downplayed the negative health implications of Coca Cola products. Negative implications of this incident on Coca Cola brand image is brand’s weakness you can discuss in you SWOT analysis.

All arguments and numbers need to be referenced using referencing style required by your educational institution in an appropriate manner. Preference has to be given to online journals and magazines over online discussion forums and personal blogs.

Answers to the following questions can help to identify weaknesses of your case study company:

Major weaknesses of businesses and brief tips about discussing them in your assignment are illustrated in the following table:

Information about Opportunities in SWOT Analysis

Information about opportunities available to the business can be derived from its weaknesses in a way that businesses often have an opportunity to turn their weaknesses into strengths. At the same time, it is important that your SWOT analysis also identifies a set of opportunities that are not related to weaknesses. If you can’t think of any company-specific opportunities, you can discuss business opportunities that can be explored by any business in general, such as new product development, international market expansion and increasing the level of effectiveness of social media marketing. Interesting trends in the industry can also be opportunities for the business.

Opportunities can be identified through answering the following questions:

The following table illustrates the major opportunities available for businesses and tips about how to discuss these opportunities in your SWOT analysis:

Information about Threats in SWOT Analysis

Threats faced by the business can be classified into two categories. Firstly, there are company-specific threats that stem from company-specific factors such as the threat of losing market share due to ineffective cost structure or the threat of negative media coverage and damage to the brand image due to neglecting the importance of corporate social responsibility. Secondly, there are threats to the industry or to the economy on the whole, such as a threat of introducing tariffs to a certain range of products or the threat of a global economic and financial crisis. You will need to find information about threats belonging to both categories with more emphasis on the threats from the first category, i.e. company-specific threats.

You can identify the main threats to the business through answering the following questions:

Main threat facing the majority of businesses and brief tips about discussing them in your SWOT analysis are illustrated in the following table:

Step 3: Writing

You can structure your writing of SWOT analysis in the following way:

Firstly, you will need to discuss the company profile, its strategy and the most recent changes that have taken place in the company prior to presenting your SWOT analysis. The length of such a discussion depends on your assignment instructions and the total word count for your assignment.

Secondly, develop a SWOT Analysis Matrix for your chosen company. You can develop a table containing four sections headed strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Major strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of your chosen company can be presented in bullet points under respective boxes. These should be precise and verifiable statements.

Using steps 1 and 2 above, you should have long list of factors related to strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for the business. Now it is time to prioritize factors to be included in your SWOT analysis by focusing on the most significant factors. The numbers of factors that should be discussed under each category depends on the total word-count for your assignment.

Thirdly, you have to discuss bullet points in your SWOT table. Your analysis needs to contain statistical data and ideally graphs and tables as well. Do not forget to reference sources, using referencing system  required by your university. Moreover, you can discuss how to address weaknesses and threats identified as a result of your SWOT analysis and get additional marks for your work.

SWOT Analysis Example

This portal contains example SWOT analysis of the following companies:

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SWOT is an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats related to organizations. The following table illustrates SWOT analysis:

SWOT Analysis Template

Please choose an industry and a company below to generate a SWOT table containing bullet points of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of your chosen company. In order to complete the SWOT analysis you will need to expand the bullet points into a couple of paragraphs with discussions and references from reliable sources to support your arguments.

PESTLE Analysis

SWOT and Business Analysis Tools

How to Write A SWOT Analysis: 5+ Top Research Sources

Sep 21, 2020 by Kiesha Frue

If you’re looking to find out how to write a SWOT analysis, there are a few key things that you want to keep in mind. A SWOT analysis is a way to look at another company and this could be a competitor or someone who you want to do business with. What you want to do is use a SWOT analysis method that breaks down all the details on the company.

A SWOT analysis is a type of study . It focuses on four main components of a topic: strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Most SWOT analyses are written about companies, products, and industries (your topic). People use it to identify the benefits and disadvantages of their topic. And once the analysis is complete, they can immediately use their findings. I’ve written countless SWOT analyses from scratch. And in this article, I’ll explain my thought process while writing each one.

If you are going to write a SWOT analysis, there are a few key things that you have to focus on. For starters, you want to write out a detailed description of the company that you’re going to be:

Find research online for your SWOT analysis

What that means is you want to get all the details you can on the company. You may want to start online and go to their website. When you go to the website try to get as much information you can about them and if you can’t find it there, you can go to sites like Wikipedia .

This can give you information on the company and it might let you know how they started. It will give you background information like the number of employees, their services, and focus. You may not always find this on their website, so researching online is a great way to get more details.

Start building your SWOT analysis

Your next step will be to start your actual SWOT analysis on your paper. You are going to put down a box with four equal boxes inside. In the first one, you can write ‘strengths’, next to that, ‘weaknesses’. Write ‘opportunities’ below the strengths and next to that write ‘threats’. That’s how to write a SWOT analysis in the beginning.

How to Write A SWOT Analysis: Strengths

As you do the research of a company, you want to look at areas where you know they’re strong. Maybe they were in the news recently because they made a lot of money or they bought another company. That’s big news that you want to list. They may have even started working on a really big deal.

For example, if you were looking at Facebook , you might say: “Wow, the Facebook stock has gone up a lot and they’ve been in the news a lot lately”. That’s a strength. It’ll be the first thing to write in your SWOT analysis.

What is a strength for your topic?

If you’re not sure what a strength means for your topic, it’ll be difficult to find them during your research phase.

It’s simple: a strength is a benefit (or advantage) for your topic. A strength may benefit the bottom line. It may increase brand recognition . It may be why customers are obsessed with your topic. Or it may be how the topic stands out above the sea of everyday products.

Examples of strengths

One of Netflix’s strengths is the ad-free content they offer customers. As a customer, you can stream Netflix’s catalog without seeing a single ad. This is also possible when using Hulu, a competitive streaming service but only if you pay a higher monthly fee. Compared to other streaming services, like TLC Go which forces you to watch upwards of 50 ads for a 40-minute television show, Netflix customers have it made.

BMW’s major strength is a luxurious brand image . People buy a BMW because it’s luxurious. Expensive. If you have one, it means you’re above the average person. You’re wealthy, desirable. Maybe even ambitious. You don’t feel the same way in a Toyota as you do in a BMW . And that’s because they have created this luxury feeling for their brand.

It may be best to think about strengths abstractly. Think about how the strength is beneficial for your topic.

Finding strengths online

To find new or relevant information, search the topic + press release.

See if your topic has created new products, mergers, or received awards. Search news sites for the topic and see what reporters are saying about it. Hopefully, it’s all good news, which you can use for this section of the SWOT analysis.

If it’s bad… well, we’ll save that for the “weaknesses” section.

Where to search online:

You can even search “strengths + your topic” and see what comes up. Be sure to read through and check for accuracy if it’s not from a reliable source (like say, the DailyMail).

Searching for strengths for a product

If you’re doing a SWOT analysis for a product , search for its reviews. You’ll likely find a few highly rated and lowly rated reviews.

Don’t blindly believe all the high or low reviews. In many cases, companies buy 5-star reviews. And the competition may pay someone to give poor reviews. Instead, see if you can spot a pattern among the reviews. Maybe a few people are boasting about a new feature for the product. Maybe they love how it feels.

Have you used the product?

If you have, you’ll likely have a few insights about it yourself. You’ll have looked at discussions about the product before buying it. And after using it, you’ll have some good things to say about it. Otherwise, check forums like Reddit. It’s typically real people openly discussing a product — the good, the bad, and the “meh”.

How to Write A SWOT Analysis: Weaknesses

In the next block of how to write a SWOT analysis, begin writing down the company’s weaknesses. Start looking up the weaknesses the company might have. When you look at weaknesses, you want to look at all the problems that the company has had in the news. A great example would be Walmart which has been in the news a lot because of labor issues. They’ve had problems with:

These are all weaknesses. You also want to make sure that you look at things like their stock and whether or not you are reading articles that say they’re doing well or if they’re doing poorly.

What is a weakness for your topic?

Again, as we did for strengths, realize what a weakness could be for the topic , as well as consumers (if applicable). That’s how to write a SWOT analysis correctly.

For instance, weaknesses for companies include:

As for products, it may include:

Examples of weaknesses

PepsiCo offers only a few healthy food and beverage options . With the health-conscious crowd rising up, PepsiCo should be developing more low-calorie, nutritional options for them. And yet… they’re not. This means, despite PepsiCo’s huge presence in the food and beverage industry, they’re neglecting a substantial market.

Bitcoin’s worth is declining . It’s actually at its lowest valuation in more than a year. That’s just how it works though; it’s unpredictable, like stocks.

Finding weaknesses online

If your topic is a product and you’ve used it before, you already know about issues first-hand. You’ve likely read reviews before buying or trying the product and have seen common complaints.

You can use forums to see if these complaints are still relevant. If they are, it can be included in the SWOT analysis you are writing. People are more honest about the things they don’t like about a product, so this is definitely when searching for reviews is a fantastic option for gathering info.

You can also see which publications have discussed your topic lately. Even if the topic is only briefly mentioned, consider adding it to the weakness section (when applicable).

Where to search for weaknesses

You can create a quick list of the faults of the topic. They might not all make it into the final draft of the analysis. But it’s good to have a list, particularly of the leading issues or complaints against your topic. Because this section can be highly informative for SWOT analysis’ next section called opportunities.

How to Write A SWOT Analysis: Opportunities

Your next step of how to write a SWOT analysis is going to be about the opportunities. What you want to do ideally is to look at what the company mentions in its latest press release. A press release can tell you basically a little bit of information about a company and what they’re getting ready to do next. You can also look at an annual report or an earnings report.

You don’t want to read the full report because that might take days to get through! A lot of the information in there is really a bunch of numbers, so you want to go to the summary of the report.

The easiest way to do this is to just do a search for that particular company and search for the summary in their annual report.

So if it was Facebook that you were looking up, you can go under Facebook and then type in ‘annual report summary’. This is a recap so you will find all the information there. Alternatively, you could just type in their annual report and then Facebook and look for the first few articles that come up from different companies or firms who are writing articles about them.

You may also find that there are finance companies who write about them and give articles with details on their weakness and opportunities. What they are giving you is a SWOT analysis in a different version . They’re going to give you a smaller detailed version of what you need to know. What you’re going to look for is an opportunity that they may be working on in the future.

For example, if you were doing opportunities for Netflix, you might see something like them mentioning that they now have a new season of Game of Thrones or the new season of their show Orange Is the New Black . That’s because they actually mention things they’re working on in their particular business because they do streaming videos. They are going to mention them, but they won’t tell you who is in which episode!

While these might be popular videos, they are also considered opportunities because these are areas where they are expanding. Keep in mind this is not always the case. A few years ago Netflix lost a big deal with the video channel Starz where they pulled their movies from the Netflix line-up because Starz and Netflix were fighting over money. Some news will be good and some news will be bad.

What does an opportunity mean for your topic?

An opportunity is the chance to achieve something for your topic. It should be positive. Such as a new merger or expanding a business into a new region.

It’s much easier to find opportunities after finishing the “weaknesses” section of the analysis. Opportunities are born from weaknesses . It allows a weakness to become a strength. Look again at the above example of PepsiCo’s weakness. It’s not as prevalent in the healthy eating niche as it should be. But if it were, that would change the weakness into a strength.

Examples of opportunities

Smart light bulbs. They allow you to control your lights with an app on your phone. Most companies sell these bulbs for home use . But they can also be used in organizations, businesses, and schools. The bulbs last longer than regular bulbs, making it a smart choice for establishments.

Airbnb can easily move into the travel industry . After selecting a room in the city you’re visiting, Airbnb can hook you up with a tour guide. An expert who will show you parts of the city you never knew existed. In some locations, Airbnb is already doing this. But not everywhere.

Finding opportunities online

First, examine your list of weaknesses. Which ones can be “fixed” and transformed into opportunities for your topic? If any on the list can’t ever be “fixed”, then don’t bother including them here. Because opportunities need to be possible . And not in a “million years later” kind of way. As in, possible to achieve in a few months or years.

Additionally, take a look at news and press release websites. Search your topic there. See if there have been any new achievements, such as new product developments, mergers, a change in business models… whatever catches your eye. If there are changes happening, it could mean opportunities are on the horizon.

Specifically, search:

You may only find a few opportunities . That’s OK. It’s best to highlight the most beneficial changes your topic can make. And really focus on what this opportunity means for the future of your topic. Will it bring more customers? Help with future expansions? Make their competition shake in fear?

Focus on what the end result will be. Then include it in your SWOT analysis.

How to Write A SWOT Analysis: Threats

As it relates to threats, that’s going to be the next line that you typing as you learn how to write a SWOT analysis. You’re going to write what the competition is for this particular company you’re looking at.

Netflix threats could be Blockbuster which is going through bankrupt filings. You could say Roku is another threat. You could mention other companies like Play On, Sling and these are all different streaming content sites. You can also mention Amazon Prime.

What is or could be threatening your topic?

Or rather, let’s start with: what’s the difference between a weakness and a threat?

A weakness is a problem. It can be small or large. It can last for a while or disappear quietly.

A threat is likely to cause damage. It can develop from a weakness that was left too long without a solution. It undermines the success of your topic. It’s not just a problem; it’s destruction.

Telling the difference between weaknesses and threats will make you write a SWOT analysis properly.

Examples of threats

E-cigs are popular because they’re healthier than smoking regular cigarettes. But are they? Not enough reports from reputable health studies prove this claim. People fear the health risks associated with using E-cigs for a long duration. Hysteria can easily kill this product if not taken care of swiftly.

Energy drinks lead to death . That is, people have drunk several cans in a row and suffered cardiac arrest. Women who are pregnant may harm their child by drinking a can of Red Bull or a Monster. Nothing can tank a reputation harder than reported deaths.

Finding threats online

As mentioned above, a weakness can be a threat. For instance, if a company ignores a large segment of their customers for too long, that’s a weakness. But what if someone else gives those customers what they’ve been craving?

The new guy steals those customers away. Then the original company loses profits. And maybe, a year from now, the company goes under because they refused to acknowledge their customers’ needs.

That is a weakness that turned into a catastrophic threat.

Threats are often:

Again, like with opportunities, you can use the weakness section of your SWOT analysis to brainstorm a few areas of concern (or threats). Then you may want to confirm these threats by searching online.

Take a look at the competitors of your topic. Ask yourself what they’re doing differently, but most importantly why are they?

Why have they chosen to market a certain way? Or offer a specific shipping method? Or to have their website written the way it is? The reason why may be a threat to your topic.

Consider the future

In this section, you want to think about what the future will be for your topic because of certain threats. Look into stocks. Search your topic online and find any articles you can from the last six months. Maybe you can pinpoint when the threats were first introduced (reported on) and how it affects the company today.

This section is trickier than the others. It’ll require more digging. Perhaps even do a competitor analysis if you’ve got the time. But the reason it’s more difficult is because it’s about the future of the topic. Will your topic even have a future if these threats persist? That’s what you need to find out.

These steps show how to write SWOT analysis properly. Make sure that it is detailed and well-rounded. You are also going to update this information within another year or so if you’re looking at this company again because you need fresh details and a fresh report.

Images: marekuliasz/ Shutterstock.com and Green Chameleon  on  Unsplash

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SWOT Analysis (short for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) is a business strategy tool to assess how an organization compares to its competition. The strategy is historically credited to Albert Humphrey in the 1960s, but this attribution remains debatable.  There is no universally-accepted creator. Also known as the SWOT Matrix, it has achieved recognition as useful in differentiating and establishing a niche within the broader market. Beyond the business world, SWOT Analysis can also be applied to the individual-level to assess a person's situation versus their competition further. There are both internal and external considerations build into the tool. "Strengths" and "weaknesses" are internally-related. The former representing a facet of an organization/entity which lends it an advantage over the competition. The latter being characteristic of that same entity, which leads to a relative disadvantage against the competition. Regarding externally-related, "opportunities" are realities in the greater environment that can be exploited to benefit the entity. While on the other hand, "threats" are realities in the greater environment, which might lead to problems for the entity.

The concept of strategic fit, a ubiquitous objective sought by all organizations, can be explained as to how well the internally-related factors fit with the externally-related factors. [1]

While the SWOT analysis is widely known to facilitate the formation of organizational or personal strategy by assessing internal and external elements, it also has its criticisms. Some critics feel that the tool proves to be too superficial and formulaic, consequently hindering performance as outputs might be misunderstood or misused. This latter point is especially pertinent when SWOT analysis is attempted without real critical reflection by a collective group. Having only a few individuals perform the assessment increases the risk of misrepresentation of the SWOT inputs, leading to erroneous outputs. Also, organizations can anchor on one facet of the analysis, losing sight of the other critical elements of the matrix. Lastly, the SWOT captures the internal and external aspects of a single time-point. In reality, the environment is rapidly evolving. [2] [3]

Given that the SWOT Analysis looks at factors both inside and outside an entity, it is also occasionally labeled as an Internal-External Analysis. In consideration of the broad nature of the tool, it has both organizational and individual utility. Although borne out of the business world, it does have clinical applicability such as at the organizational level.

At the level of hospital or clinical offices, implementation of SWOT is achievable by asking questions such as the following:

Weaknesses:

Opportunities:

This book is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ), which permits others to distribute the work, provided that the article is not altered or used commercially. You are not required to obtain permission to distribute this article, provided that you credit the author and journal.

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Marketing Research Guide

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How to Write a SWOT Analysis Paper

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Successful businesses and people have been conducting SWOTs since at least the mid-twentieth century and have refined the process over time. The four categories you will explore in your SWOT analysis paper are Strengths (S), Weaknesses (W), Opportunities (O), and Threats (T). You can use SWOT analysis to help you assess your position in project planning, business development, finance, relationships, or for personal growth. Since SWOT analysis papers are usually assigned in business school or associated with business planning, we will focus on the steps for writing a SWOT analysis paper for business, but keep in mind that the process can be tailored to any situation—professional or personal.

If this process sounds laborious or daunting, do not fret: As with most things, conducting a SWOT analysis will get easier the more you do it, and eventually it might become an essential part of all of your decision-making processes. As you evaluate your business's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, you will gain skills and insights that can help you evaluate yourself, your business, and various decisions you are facing.

Better than a pros and cons list

Perhaps you are thinking, This sounds just like a pros and cons list . A SWOT analysis provides more information than a simple pros and cons list, and it makes it easier to identify potential action items and areas for growth. SWOT analysis considers more than just the pros and cons of a situation: It helps you identify internal and external factors that contribute to or inhibit your success.

Strengths and Weaknesses are generally considered internal factors, so they are things that you or your company can control or can work to improve.

Opportunities and Threats are typically external factors that occur outside of your business (i.e., things that you cannot control), but they are things that could significantly affect you or your business.

Identify your objective/goal

To get the most benefit from your SWOT analysis, be as specific as possible with your objective . If you are analyzing a business, consider focusing on one particular aspect of the business.

The best way to formulate your paper is to use a SWOT analysis chart to organize your thoughts before you actually start writing.

SWOT Analysis Chart

Write down the initial strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, or threats that come to mind when you consider the objective. Use bullet points to separate items, be specific, and remember that you do not have to write in complete sentences on this chart. To be sure that you explore all applicable points, consider the following questions:

Be honest as you assess the business's weaknesses. Consider what aspects put your business at a disadvantage or what factors limit your growth potential. If you shy away from identifying weaknesses in this step, your SWOT analysis will not be effective or beneficial. Although it can be painful to identify weaknesses that are currently holding you back from personal or business growth, identifying and exploring these areas will give you the opportunity to improve. If you are uncertain if an item should be classified as a Weakness or a Threat , remember that Weaknesses are internal (things within the business that you can work to change) and Threats are external (things you have little or no control over). Also, accurately identifying weaknesses might help you recognize potential opportunities and/or threats.

Opportunities

In addition to any obvious opportunities, look at the strengths you've listed and see if there are any ways that you can turn strengths into opportunities.

Once you have listed all the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, prioritize the results in each category from most impactful to least. Prioritizing your results in each of the four categories will help you visualize each item's importance so you can see how it relates to the other areas.

Writing the SWOT analysis paper

Now that you have filled out the SWOT chart and prioritized your SWOT results, you have the basic information to begin drafting your SWOT analysis paper. As with any professional paper, start with a strong introduction and state your objection and the focus of your SWOT analysis. In the next four paragraphs, describe the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats that you prioritized on your SWOT analysis chart. If you have more items for each category than can comfortably fit in a paragraph, consider condensing your list. As you review the lists in each category, eliminate redundancies and consolidate similar items. If you still have too many items to fit in one paragraph after condensing, include one to three bullet points per paragraph, and try to keep the paragraphs balanced. For example, if you write three paragraphs for strengths, try to write three paragraphs for the other three categories as well.

Once you have identified and described your SWOTs, you can use your SWOT analysis chart to develop strategies and create a plan to achieve your business goals. The analysis is the most essential part of the SWOT analysis paper, because in this portion you will create action items and develop plans that can lead to future success. Assess each of the four areas (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) and look for commonalities or links between the categories. Some things to consider during this step:

As you find connections between the bullet points in the four quadrants of your chart, start writing to generate ideas that you can turn into action. You can come back to edit these sentences and perfect these ideas later, but go ahead and record the thoughts now so you do not miss any potential connections. As you identify how different bullet points relate to each other, prioritize items that will generate revenue or reduce expenditure. Now, assess the action items that you have identified and put them in the order that makes the most sense to you. You can arrange your action items in the order that you would like to address them, or you can arrange them in the order that would make the most financial impact on the business. Organize the paragraphs in this section of the paper in your preferred order.

Now that you have performed a comprehensive SWOT analysis and identified action items to enhance strengths and reduce weaknesses, write a strong conclusion paragraph summarizing the most important findings. Keep in mind the purpose of your SWOT analysis paper here: If you intend to share this information with potential investors, make sure that you present a clear vision for growth and that you are realistic about how you will address weaknesses and potential threats. The crucial last step for any paper is to proofread, edit, and revise as needed. Now that you have completed your SWOT analysis and identified action plans, consider if applying a SWOT analysis to another aspect of your business or area of your life. Make a note in your calendar and conduct another SWOT analysis on this issue in six to twelve months so you can measure progress towards your goals.

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