The "W" in S.W.O.T.

If you've read a business book or two, especially one about writing a business plan, then hopefully you've come across the concept of "S.W.O.T." analysis. S.W.O.T stands for "Strengths" "Weaknesses" "Opportunities" and "Threats". This is something not only to include in your business plan, but an exercise you should do periodically for yourself.

Today we're going to talk about "Weaknesses."

There's two questions to answer here: 1) What are your Weaknesses? and 2) What are your business's Weaknesses?

The second one is probably easier - you're not talking about yourself and being honest about someone else or some other entity is always easier. Examples of Weaknesses in your business could be: poor location; unable to keep employees long term; under-capitalized, etc.

Now let's look at that first question: What are your Weaknesses? You've probably been asked this in an interview once or twice, and you've probably given some answer like: "Well, I'm a perfectionist!" Ugh. That's not a good answer in an interview, and certainly not an honest one here. (Unless your real answer is more like: "I'm unable to complete a project because I focus on too many of the minute details. This prevents me from finishing what I started and moving on to new projects." This is a real Weakness, and something that you really need to work on!)

Once you've identified your Weaknesses, you need to come up with a plan to work on them. In the case of the business, can you relocate? Can you identify why employees don't stick around and make some changes? Are you in a position to seek more capital?

Your own Weaknesses deserve the same attention. In the example above, maybe you need to try setting a deadline for yourself and tell yourself that whatever state of affairs a project is in, it's done and your moving on. Practice this on smaller projects first to build up your comfort level.

Stay tuned... in the next post I'll tell you about one of my own Weaknesses that recently bit me in the tush and how I'm trying to work on it!