What Is a SWOT Analysis, and Why Should You Do It?
“If you don’t have your destination in mind, how will you know when you’ve arrived?” Imagine telling your clients who want to go to Europe that they should just go to the airport and “wing it.” As a qualified travel professional, you understand the need for good advance planning to set expectations for your clients and to make sure they achieve the goals they have for their trip.
You plan for clients all the time, but how good are you at planning for yourself? If you are running a business without a plan, you may never know if you are succeeding. One tool that can help you prepare an “itinerary” for your business is the SWOT matrix. It can help you analyze where you are currently, set goals for the business’s future, develop plans to achieve those goals, and give your business an annual checkup to review its success and make adjustments as needed.
SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Its purpose is to help you improve your operations and identify factors — inside and outside your organization — that affect performance.
Here’s what you need to ask yourself about your company:
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Strengths: What does my business have that other agencies don’t? Why is it special or unique? Why do my current customers come to me?
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Weaknesses: What characteristics of the company place me at a disadvantage compared to my competitors? What resources do I need to be more competitive? Why have I lost sales in the past?
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Opportunities: What trends, products, demographics, etc. in the travel industry can open new avenues for me? What have I not explored that can benefit my business?
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Threats: What factors — economic, political, environmental, and so on — can affect my business negatively? Who are my strongest direct and indirect competitors? What hurdles have I encountered before?
Thoughtful responses to these questions enable you to take a good look at your company to help you appreciate and use its strengths to your best advantage and minimize or eliminate obstacles.
This article is taken from The Business Planning Course from The Travel Institute