"Only thing we have to fear is fear itself," said Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) is a tool that consultants employ to identify the respective categories of a business or business owner. The process can be applied to an organization or an individual. The process in and of itself is not groundbreaking in that it is merely a tool to stimulate thought processes – either individually or organizationally.
The thought processes can be stimulated by other means as well, a business plan for example. However, by whatever means, the important thing is to identify, quantify and then rank the items of consideration to assist in laying out a plan or direction for future activities.
In dealing with people, we all tend to look outward from ourselves; it is natural. Thus, the initial list of strengths and weaknesses tends to focus on an assessment of us personally, which is a good place to start. And, similarly, opportunities and threats tend to be those that we perceive of ourselves, also a good place to start. If the analysis is of an individual, then with this information a critique can be done to arrive at the desired outcome.
However, with the analysis of a business, further digging must be done – even if this is an analysis of a single-person business. The perspective no longer is of the individual but, rather, the business. An example should serve the purpose of distinction.
I have been a technology consultant for 10 years having been continually engaged based on past assignments and my resume. Now, I want to turn this into a multi-person business. The SWOT I did on me is the same for the business. Right? Wrong!
Why? It’s still me. True BUT the business has no past clients, services, references, or reputation. So, the business essentially has to start from the bottom and work its way up. Its strengths are NOT my strengths, its weaknesses are NOT my weaknesses, its opportunities are NOT my opportunities and its threats are NOT my threats. The competitors YOU face are totally different from the competitors the business will face as an example.
If you don’t see the difference, reread the paragraph above until you can separate the business from you. Until you can, you are parading as a business thinking and acting as an individual. If you are just looking to continue as a single individual then this doesn’t apply to you – you aren’t a business because you have an EIN, you are a business when there is more than you in it!
So, IF you are truly looking to grow a business, then you need to be focused on expansion by, first and foremost, replacing yourself as the key service delivery agent of your business. Focus is different in the short term. You WILL be the sole delivery agent until you get a 2nd member of the team and if that isn’t a priority in the first 12 months, then don’t masquerade as a business until it IS a priority to be realized in the next 12 months.
All individuals illustrate time and time again that adding a 2nd member and transforming from an individual to a team is the most difficult step to be taken in building a business. I don’t have the work, I don’t have the funds, I can’t absorb the expense of employees, etc. are the things that are repeated constantly as the weakness or threat (you pick). At the same time, however, they all say the opportunities are huge and identifiable.
The lesson here is that growing a business is a real risk and we all will exhibit fear about taking that step. However, as the countless number of entrepreneurs and leaders that have gone before us illustrate, the risk and fear can be managed to enable success. The quantification of the risks with options and mechanisms to reduce the risks should ameliorate the fear; this is thought work, discipline, and objectivity. NO business experiences fear, only people experience fear. So, if you cannot manage your fear then you shouldn’t be thinking of building or attempting to build a business.
Jimmy Dugan, played by Tom Hanks, in the film A League of Their Own said, "There's no crying in baseball." I think it is safe to say, in the same tonality as Jimmy, "There's no fear in business, only in people."