If you own a business, it is vital that you know where your strengths and weaknesses lie, on top of this, you also need to ensure you spot potential new opportunities and look out for dangers that could harm your business.

There is a simple process called a ‘SWOT Analysis’ that business owners should follow, by doing this on a regular basis (we recommend every 3-6 months) it will ensure you stay on top of your game, protect yourself against threats and take advantage of opportunities.

The process is pretty simple, take some time to sit down and write a list with the following headings, then list out everything you can think of that is relevant to your business under each subject heading.

Strengths – What are your business strengths? Where do you have a commercial advantage or USP, how can you maximise your strong areas?

Weaknesses – Where can you improve? What could you do better? Consider everything that will make your business stronger.

Opportunities – Are there new markets to attack? Areas of marketing you have yet to explore? Look for any areas that you could take advantage of?

Threats – Have new competitors emerged? Is your pricing no longer competitive? Is your service or product out of date? Look for anything that could harm your business.

If you carry out this process on a regular basis, you will be focused on what you need to achieve and you will improve and grow.

The SWOT Analysis applies to both offline and online businesses, at Total SEO we regularly speak to business owners who find their big weakness is not showing in Google searches and not driving enough traffic to their website.