It's Time to Call Out the SWOT Team!

(Step 2 in a 12 part series on how to transition to being a WAHM)
By Kathy Kine Danner © 2007
S W O T actually stands for Strenghs, Weaknesses, Oportunities and Threats. It is a business analysis tool and an essential part of a business plan.
Once you have had a chance to D R E A M (from step one) and think about what kind of WAHM you want to be, you might want to use this SWOT tool. Analyzing your strengths and weaknesses can be very useful whether you are planning on taking your current full time career work home, planning to invest in a home party business, or going to start your own business. It is also a key component in writing a formal business plan.
How to use a SWOT.
1. Internal Analysis: Examine your home business idea with regards to it’s strengths and weaknesses. This would be the “internal” part of the analysis. Then do the external analysis: Look at the business environmental for this idea and identify those points that pose opportunities for your organization, and those that pose threats or obstacles to performance.

2. Enter the information you have collected in steps one and two into a table as illustrated below:
POSITIVE NEGATIVE
INTERNAL Strengths Weaknesses
EXTERNAL Opportunities Threats

3. You can use this information to help you develop a strategy that uses the strengths and opportunities to reduce the weaknesses and threats, and to achieve the objectives of your home business.

For example: Your WAHM business idea is to sell art lessons out of your home.
Strengths: You have the credentials and talent to teach these lessons. You also have some friend’s children that are interested in this service.
Weaknesses: You have never tried this before and are not sure how to set up your business.
Opportunities: The local school has some children that are interested in extra curricular art training.
Threats: There is a watercolor artist in the area who also offers children’s art lessons .
Identifying these SWOT areas will help you in defining your business objective and your marketing action plan.
You might want to address the weaknesses by streamlining your services to an area with less competition. Maybe offer drawing classes and solicit the local school art teachers for a list of potential students who might be seeking additional lessons. This way you do not compete with the threat (the local water color artist) and you increase your opportunities (your potential client list).
I hope this has helped you fight off the joy thief of fear when it comes to following your dreams of becoming a WAHM. Next month will be the ABC’s of goal setting for moms.

Become a Joy @ Home MOM and re-claim the joy of motherhood www.PBandJAHM.com Simple, Fun, Frugal, and Wholesome....just like a PB and J.

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com