SWOT which is short for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats is an effective way of identifying your business's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Conducting a SWOT analysis is common in business; even individuals who want to evaluate where they are in their careers often conduct a SWOT analysis. Businesses often use the SWOT analysis to help map out their business plan or marketing plan.

Get others involved

You may want to involve others, including your employees, in the SWOT analysis. If you opt to have others involved, request that they take the time to consider the business's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats before the designated meeting time for the group SWOT analysis.

Identify your strengths

Your first step, whether you are working alone or as a group, is to identify your business strengths: Your particular business strengths might include the quality of your customer service, the competitive pricing your business offers, the location of your business, or your position in the marketplace.

Identify your weaknesses

Just as it is essential to know your business's strengths, you must also identify your business's weaknesses. When you identify your business's weaknesses, you are going to be able to move forward by turning those weaknesses into strengths.

In fact, keep your SWOT analysis and review it in a year. You'll likely notice that the majority of the weaknesses you have listed are no longer a problem in your business.

Your business weaknesses may include such things as employees who are chronically late or who chronically call off work, a problem with a particular product or service, or a failure to introduce new products to the market.

Identify your opportunities

Once you've created a list of your business's strengths and weaknesses, you're ready to consider the opportunities your business has. If you're working in a group situation, be aware that while you may consider one factor an opportunity, someone else may see it as a threat. The opportunities and threats section of your SWOT analysis can be subjective.

Opportunities your business may have include the implementation of new technology, offering better training for your employees, or a marketplace that has become more diverse.

Identify your threats

Identify your threats while keeping in mind that opportunities and threats can be subjective. Threats to your business might include such factors as an increasing unemployment rate in the country, new legislation that directly affects your business, or interest rates that are rising.

Determine your priorities

Identify the top five strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to your business from the lists you've already created.

Ask questions

Using your top five lists, answer the following questions:

How will the business strengths allow us to take advantage of our opportunities?
How can the strengths be used to deal with the threats to the business?
How can the business turn weaknesses into strengths which, in turn, will allow the business to take advantage of the listed opportunities?

Work toward your goals

After you've answer the questions, start working toward the goals you've identified.