Beginner’s Guide to Conducting SWOT Analysis (With Examples)

How to do a SWOT analysis, step by step

Running a business or overseeing projects frequently requires you to make critical decisions, even when information may be incomplete or unclear. That’s when a SWOT analysis comes in handy. This analytic exercise helps you assess your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to understand your current position and strategically plan your next steps.

I first used SWOT analysis early in my freelancing career. I was balancing clients, rates, and new opportunities, but struggling to prioritize them effectively. By mapping out my strengths and weaknesses alongside external market factors, I was able to identify what I should focus on and which risks I needed to prepare for. That’s the real power of SWOT analysis: It turns brainstorming into a part of your business planning. And I’m going to show you how to conduct a SWOT analysis of your own in a few simple steps.

What is a SWOT analysis?

A SWOT analysis is a planning tool that helps you examine both your internal situation and the external environment. One usually presents the analysis in a SWOT matrix, which is a two-by-two grid divided into four quadrants. SWOT is an acronym that stands for:

• Strengths are internal factors that give you an advantage, such as brand reputation, loyal customers, pricing power, or unique skills.
• Weaknesses are internal challenges that limit growth, such as poor brand recognition, limited staff, supply chain issues, or gaps in expertise.
• Opportunities are external conditions you can benefit from, including new technologies, changing demographics, emerging markets, or shifting customer needs.
• Threats are external risks that may harm your business, such as competitors, economic downturns, new regulations, or disruptive innovations.

By separating internal strengths from external threats, a SWOT analysis helps you see what you can control and what you’ll need to adapt to. It also makes it easier to involve team members and stakeholders, since the matrix is simple to understand at a glance.

Why use SWOT analysis?

SWOT is a powerful tool for small businesses, startups, and freelancers alike. You can use it to test whether a new product is viable, evaluate new markets, or strengthen your existing business strategy. It’s particularly helpful when external threats, such as shifting market trends or potential economic downturns, create uncertainty.

A small retail business might use SWOT to assess pricing and its customer base before expanding, while also reviewing its marketing key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure whether those changes improve results. Similarly, a freelancer could use it to weigh whether to raise rates or diversify services. In each case, SWOT helps transform disconnected observations into an action plan.

SWOT analysis examples

SWOT analysis is often easier to understand when you see how it applies to companies and ventures you already know.

Here are three classic examples of SWOT analysis.

Example 1: Apple

Apple is often cited as a textbook case of using strengths to seize opportunities.

🎯 Apple’s action plan: Apple continues to double down on design and brand recognition, while expanding into services such as Apple Music and iCloud to diversify revenue.

Example 2: Amazon

Amazon’s growth shows how a company can use SWOT to identify both internal and external factors driving expansion.

🎯Amazon’s action plan: Amazon invests in technological advancements like AI-driven logistics and expands AWS, its cloud business, to offset weaknesses in retail margins.

Example 3: Netflix

Netflix demonstrates how one can apply SWOT methodology to companies dealing with constant change.

🎯Netflix’s action plan: Netflix invests in original content and expands internationally while experimenting with new initiatives like ad-supported plans to address weaknesses.

How to conduct a SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis isn’t about filling boxes for the sake of it. Done right, it’s a structured process that involves stepping back, examining your current situation, and setting a course of action.

Step 1: Define your objective

Start with a purpose. Are you looking for a competitive advantage in your niche? Are you reviewing your company’s strengths or exploring a new venture? Many teams also connect their SWOT findings to objectives and key results (OKRs) to link insights directly to measurable outcomes.

Having an objective helps keep your analysis focused and makes sure the results relate to real decisions.

Step 2: Identify your internal strengths

Look inward and ask what gives you an advantage. Strengths could be a strong brand, a loyal customer base, competitive prices, or reliable partnerships. For freelancers, it might be specialized expertise or a reputation for fast delivery. These strengths are the assets you’ll build on in your strategy.

Step 3: Acknowledge your weaknesses

Next, examine where you fall short. Weaknesses may include a limited staff, weak brand recognition, reliance on a few key clients, or operational inefficiencies. By naming them directly, you turn vague frustrations into issues you can actually work on.

Step 4: Look outward for opportunities

Now focus on external opportunities. Potential opportunities often come from market trends, new technologies, or changing demographics. A small business might spot growth potential in online sales, while a freelancer could recognize demand in a related field. These openings highlight where you can direct your energy next.

Step 5: Identify threats

Consider the risks that could stand in your way. Threats may include new competitors, rising costs, supply chain disruptions, or broader challenges such as economic downturns. Sometimes they come from technological advancements that could undercut your product or service. Listing threats helps you prepare instead of being caught off guard.

Step 6: Map everything into a SWOT matrix

With your notes gathered, organize them into a two-by-two grid: strengths and weaknesses on the top row, opportunities and threats on the bottom. The matrix format makes it easier to compare internal and external factors, as well as their interactions. It’s also a simple visual you can share with team members or stakeholders.

You can find SWOT analysis templates online or easily create one in a Google Doc using a two-by-two table.

Step 7: Involve others

You can improve your own SWOT analysis when you bring in different perspectives. Team members, stakeholders, or trusted clients can highlight strengths and risks you might not see. Their input turns the exercise into a shared planning process rather than a solo reflection.

Step 8: Create an action plan

Don’t stop once the quadrants are filled. The real value comes from connecting insights to action. Use strengths to pursue opportunities, reduce weaknesses to defend against threats, and set priorities for initiatives.

For example, if you have a loyal customer base and see an opportunity for a new product line, your plan might be to launch a pilot with those customers first.

I often turn my SWOT into SMART goals, which can help you break those initiatives into specific, measurable steps.

Common SWOT analysis mistakes to avoid

• Treating SWOT as a one-time activity instead of updating it regularly as part of the planning process.
• Focusing only on internal factors while overlooking the external environment.
• Making the analysis too general instead of identifying specific strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
• Ignoring input from team members, stakeholders, or customers who can provide different perspectives.
• Failing to connect the results to concrete initiatives and an action plan.
• Letting the SWOT sit unused instead of applying it to decision-making and business strategy.

Are you ready to put SWOT to work in your business?

A SWOT analysis is more than a worksheet. It’s a way to assess your current situation, uncover new opportunities, and prepare for potential threats. For small businesses, freelancers, and startups, it’s a planning tool that helps turn uncertainty into direction.

If you’d like help running a tailored SWOT session, creating a practical action plan, or aligning insights with your business strategy, I’d love to work with you. As a freelancer who specializes in work management and strategic planning, I bring hands-on experience and an outside perspective to guide your team or project.

Reach out today to schedule a free consultation and estimate.