How can a SWOT analysis help your network marketing or MLM business?
A SWOT analysis is a common strategic practice in the business world that analyzes the yesstrengths, Wweaknesses, EITHERopportunities, and TThreats that a company faces or could face.
It can be an extremely useful tool in assessing the status quo and future direction of your MLM or network marketing business. And, if you’re experiencing information overload and don’t know what to do next, it can help you focus on building your business.
For our purposes here, the SWOT Analysis is not intended to be a “Grand Project”. Just take 15-20 minutes to write down the following information about your MLM or network marketing business.
Doing a SWOT Analysis
1. Define your MLM mission statement and goals
Before you begin to do the SWOT, it is essential that you know what your business objectives are. And what is your mission statement.
Tip for defining your mission statement: Be inspiring: Don’t make your “Mission Statement” something rude like “The mission of my business is to make money.” Make your mission statement inspiring, a call to action, something like “My MLM’s mission is to contribute to the well-being of humanity (by offering products that promote health and wellness).” This is your chance to be inspired by your business, by yourself. Get it?
2. List the strengths of your MLM
What qualities or attributes does your business have that will help you achieve your goals? What is your added value? What are you good at?
3. List the weaknesses of your MLM
What’s stopping you? What don’t you have enough of? What is “broken” that needs fixing? What keeps you from moving forward?
4. List your MLM opportunities
What external things are contributing to the success of your business? What social movements or trends is your business tapping into? What tools and technologies can you incorporate to improve your business?
5. List the threats to your MLM
What external things stand in the way of your company achieving its goals? Who are your competitors? What are your competitors doing or not doing that are preventing your business from growing?
Suggestion for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats:
Focus on your business. When I say “Your MLM”, I don’t mean “Your company”, I mean you Y your organization. You are not necessarily in a position to impact Your Business Opportunities or Threats, so focusing on your business will allow you to take the appropriate actions.
6. Analyze and Generate Strategies
Think about what you can do with what you have written. How can you turn “Strengths” into “Dominance”? How can you turn weaknesses into strengths? How can you maximize your Opportunities? How can you minimize your threats?
7. Create a plan
Translate your findings into a strategic action plan. Then implement it.
Tips for strategizing and creating a plan:
has. Be honest: This is really a tip for the whole process. Be brutally honest with yourself about the state of your business. You are not trying to impress anyone. In fact, no one else needs to see your SWOT analysis. You are simply trying to relate deeply to what is really going on in your business so that you can do something about it.
b. Be specific: When creating an action plan, be as specific as possible. “I need to improve my duplication results” is not as powerful (or doable) as “Next month, I intend to help x members of my downline team increase their number of people sponsored by amount.”
By doing a SWOT analysis periodically, you will be able to continually re-evaluate your progress and re-evaluate the changing landscape of your market. It will help you overcome information overload so you always have a clear path forward and define next steps, while keeping your eyes on the prize.