Every Coach Should Use This Easy Tool to Boost Their Business: SWOT Analysis - International Coaching Federation
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Every Coach Should Use This Easy Tool to Boost Their Business: SWOT Analysis

Posted by Emma-Louise Elsey (Canada) | March 2, 2015 | Comments (4)

We all want to succeed and do well. This SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) exercise helps you boost your business by capitalizing on your unique strengths, identifying weaknesses, spotting potential opportunities and avoiding threats. It’s an easy and straightforward tool to use, and we’ve included some great questions to help you get the best results from this exercise below.

INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. Think about the direction you would like your business to head in.
  2. Fill out the SWOT Analysis Grid one section at a time using the questions outlined below. Write as many answers as you can think of remembering that the more honest and open you are, the more helpful this will be.
  3. Finally complete the wrap-up questions.

swot analysis

Internal – Strengths and Weaknesses:

NOTE: Answer these questions with whatever pops into your head. To go deeper consider your i) brand/how you’re perceived, ii) products/services, iii) customer base, iv) habits, processes and systems and v) employees.

Strengths

  1. What do you do well? What do you better than others?
  2. What parts of your business are excellent?
  3. What unique strengths and talents do you have?
  4. What are you proud of or really like about your business?
  5. What parts of your business give you the most income? The most profit?
  6. What unique or expert specialized knowledge or experience do you have?
  7. Where are you better than your competitors?

Point to ponder:  How can you make your STRENGTHS even stronger? You may also like our Boost Strengths Tool.

Weaknesses

  1. What could you do better? What do you avoid?
  2. Where are others doing better than you?
  3. What are you embarrassed about or wish was different?
  4. What parts of your business are the least profitable?
  5. What is taking up valuable time? What is costing you money?
  6. What processes are missing? Where do you need to automate or delegate an area of difficulty?
  7. What resources do you lack? Where do need to grow your experience, knowledge or expertise?

Point to ponder: What action you will take to mitigate or eliminate your WEAKNESSES? How could you use your STRENGTHS to help with this? You may also like our Weakness Zapper Tool.

External – Opportunities and Threats:

NOTE: Answer these questions with whatever pops into your head. To go deeper consider i) changing technology, ii) government regulations eg. economic, environmental or security policies, iii) the economic environment, iv) social, lifestyle or demographic trends, v) seasonality, geography and weather and vi) what’s happening in the specific market you operate in.

Opportunities

  1. Which strengths could you turn into opportunities?
  2. What weaknesses, if turned around could present an opportunity to your business?
  3. What’s going on locally that you could capitalize on?
  4. What else could you do for your customers?
  5. What joint venture or related products and services you could look into?
  6. What new target markets/customer bases could you target?
  7. How can you use technology to enhance your business?

Point to ponder: What new and profitable OPPORTUNITIES could be created from your STRENGTHS or from your WEAKNESSES and THREATS?

Threats

  1. Where do you need to catch up with your competitors?
  2. What threats do your weaknesses expose you to?
  3. What obstacles do you have coming up?
    1. How is the economy – for you and your customers?
    2. Where are you most vulnerable as a business? Eg. Where do you have “all your eggs in one basket”?
    3. What trends, changes and threats are happening in your industry?
    4. How prepared are you for technological failures (eg. website hacking, computer failure)?

Point to ponder: What should you avoid at all costs? What will you do about each threat – ignore, mitigate or eliminate it?

Wrap-up Questions:

Now using your own Business SWOT analysis data, you should have a really clear idea of what’s going well, what’s not going so well, what to worry about and what to build on. Finish this exercise by answering:

  1. What MOST surprised you from doing this exercise? ___________
  2. What NEW goals and actions do you want to set for your business? ___________
  3. What 3 ACTIONS will you take in the next week? 1. ___________  2. ___________  3. ___________
  1. What is the BEST idea you have had for your business from doing this exercise? ____________
  2. What is the BIGGEST threat to your business? ____________
  3. What is the BIGGEST thing overall you learned from doing this exercise? ____________

We’d love you to comment below and share what you learned about your business from doing this exercise!

Emma Louise Elsey

Emma-Louise Elsey (Canada)

Emma-Louise Elsey has been coaching for more than 10 years and is founder of The Coaching Tools Company and Life Coach on the Go. Originally a project and relationship manager for Fortune 500 companies, she discovered coaching in 2003 and hasn't looked back.

The views and opinions expressed in guest posts featured on this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of the International Coach Federation (ICF). The publication of a guest post on the ICF Blog does not equate to an ICF endorsement or guarantee of the products or services provided by the author.

Additionally, for the purpose of full disclosure and as a disclaimer of liability, this content was possibly generated using the assistance of an AI program. Its contents, either in whole or in part, have been reviewed and revised by a human. Nevertheless, the reader/user is responsible for verifying the information presented and should not rely upon this article or post as providing any specific professional advice or counsel. Its contents are provided “as is,” and ICF makes no representations or warranties as to its accuracy or completeness and to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law specifically disclaims any and all liability for any damages or injuries resulting from use of or reliance thereupon.

Comments (4)

  1. Liane Lanzoni says:

    Great article! I’ve been using this tool since I started my Coaching practice because it was very popular and effective in the corporate environment from where I came. It helps the Coachee to understand the whole picture. Results are really positive and objective action plans are geerated out of this analysis.

    • Thanks so much for your comments Liane! I also used this tool in the corporate environment. It’s great to hear you liked the article. And very encouraging that you’ve found the SWOT Analysis helpful in your coaching practice with both positive results and objective (and by this I guess you mean practical/realistic?) action plans. I bet your practice is thriving! Warmly, Emma-Louise

  2. Deni Carruth says:

    This is great! The way you’ve laid out the process with questions….very helpful. And I love the suggestions, and especially the tie-ins with other tools.

    I’m working with a small biz owner now. We did a one-month trial. If we continue, this is what I’m going to use right away.

    Thanks!

    • Dear Deni,

      I am SO glad you like it and found it helpful. I can guarantee if you use this process with your small biz owner they will find it super-helpful and it will drive out some really great biz-boosting actions!

      Really great to hear from you!

      Warmly, Emma-Louise!

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