An Simple, Powerful Way to Analyze Your Business

There are a lot of ways to analyze your business.  Some are very complex and require a lot resources.  Others are pieces of software you can input data into and get results.  You can also hire firms to go in-depth to analyze every aspect of your business.

But, there is one older, tried and true, method you can use that will make a big difference every time.  

That method is the SWOT analysis.  SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.  The threats are probably the easier part of the analysis to identify and the opportunities are the fun part where you get to brainstorm and think about about the future.  Understanding the strengths and weaknesses are probably the most important part - and strengths can lead to opportunities and weaknesses can lead to threats.

Over the years, I have used SWOT to analyze every business I have been involved in and used the results to help plan and reach my success.  During that time, I've developed a little spin on how to get the best strengths and weaknesses as I feel they are the most important part of the analysis.

You've probably heard me talk on the Misfit Entrepreneur about the DCP Formula which stands for Discipline, Consistency, and Persistence.  Now, I think everyone would agree you need those to succeed.  But, what do they really mean?  Discipline is doing the things you know you need to do, even when you don't want to do them.  Consistency is being disciplined each and every day.  But, even if you are disciplined and consistent, you will still hit walls or major roadblocks.  And if you are not willing to be persistent in overcoming them, then that is where you stay or plateau.

So, how does this translate to SWOT.  Well to figure out your strengths and weaknesses, you use DCP across every area of the business.  For example, look at operations and ask these questions.  What does discipline for this area look like?  One you have it defined, ask, are we disciplined?  If you are disciplined, they you can more to consistency and ask are we consistent in this area?  Based on your answers to those questions, you will know if that area needs more work or not and could be a strength or a weakness.  But, what if you find your are disciplined and consistent in an area, but it doesn't seem to be performing as well as it should?  That is where persistence comes in.  Is there a major roadblock or wall that is in the way preventing this area from being better?  If so, what is it?  An opportunity may be to persistent through and finally do what is necessary to overcome it and level up.

You can look at every area of a business with DCP and use to help in the SWOT analysis.  Using these two philosophies together creates a very powerful and easy way to analyze a business.  Try it out on your business today!