In my last blog post\u00a0I talked about doing a SWOT analysis of your business \u2013 identifying your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. The new year is always a good time to take a look at your business and plan for the future. But, really, any time is a good time.<\/p>\n
Once you\u2019ve gone through a SWOT within your company, you might consider offering this service to your clients. After all, as the outsourced CIO, it\u2019s your job to focus on the business as well as the technology.<\/p>\n
I have long advocated doing \u201cClient Roadmap\u201d meetings with clients. In fact, I just signed a new client who used to be my client before I sold my last MSP business. Now she\u2019s a new client in my new MSP business. One of the first things she said to me is that they haven\u2019t had a Roadmap meeting in years. She then proceeded to tell me how much she appreciates working on the business strategy without feeling like it\u2019s a sales meeting.<\/p>\n
We then proceeded to outline a schedule for replacing seven desktop computers over the next three months and developing an employee onboarding process for their company as they prepare to do some hiring in the Spring.<\/p>\n
Clearly, we are not seen as the computer guys. We are the outsourced Chief Information Officer and an important part of their team. Consulting doesn\u2019t have to be 100% technical.<\/p>\n
The Roadmap starts with questions that define the client\u2019s company (years in business, annual sales, services and products sold, description of the clients, etc.). Then we ask about mission, vision, and goals. For example:<\/p>\n
We ask similar questions about their employees. How many are there? Will this grow or shrink in the year ahead? Do they have the right mix of employees and talent needed to achieve the goals outlined above?<\/p>\n
After that, we dig into the actual SWOT questions. Here are some examples.<\/p>\n
1. What advantages does your business have compared to competitors?<\/p>\n
2. What does your business do well?\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 3. Why do customers choose your business over others?\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 1. What disadvantages does your business have compared to competitors?\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 2. In what areas can your business improve?\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 3. Could any of your weaknesses seriously threaten your business?\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 1. How do you find or identify business opportunities?\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 2. What are the positive opportunities facing your business?\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 3. What are the dominant trends in your industry?\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 1. What obstacles does your business face?\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 2. What does your strongest competitor do differently than your current business model?<\/p>\n 3. Are there new industry trends or changes coming for your business, products or services?<\/p>\n Next, you should talk to the key staff members. You might create a questionnaire for them to fill out, or dedicate some time to do a quick interview with each. Some starter questions might include:<\/p>\n Then add some questions that dig into the employee\u2019s actual job satisfaction, such as:<\/p>\n Next, ask about company-related topics:<\/p>\n What you\u2019ll get from all this is a lot of information about how people feel about their jobs and the company. You\u2019ll also find out who the best clients are, who the worst clients are, and the biggest pain points within the company.<\/p>\n In very small businesses, you\u2019ll find that the owner and managers tend to have a very good sense of their strengths, opportunities, and threats. But very often their assessment of their weaknesses is not as good. They are focused on the planning side and looking ahead. As a result, they often down-play the day-to-day activities that need more of their attention.<\/p>\n Employees tend to over-analyze the weaknesses, over-state the strengths, and have only a vague understanding of the opportunities and threats. After all, it\u2019s not their job to be strategic.<\/p>\n Simon Sinek has a great book called\u00a0Start with Why<\/i>. It addresses the topic of motivations at work. Owners tend to be very motivated, particularly since they are the ones with money on the line. But, more importantly, owners have a very clear sense about their mission and why their business exists. Employees very often do not share that vision \u2013 or even know what it is.<\/p>\n One thing that emerges from a good SWOT analysis is whether the employees know\u00a0why<\/i>\u00a0their job exists,\u00a0why<\/i>\u00a0certain procedures exist, and\u00a0why<\/i>\u00a0the company exists. Because everyone (owners, managers, and employees) is working hard every day, they don\u2019t normally stop to look at questions like this. A good SWOT analysis will show them that they have this divergence of viewpoints about where the company is headed and why certain positions exist.<\/p>\n I know this looks like a lot of work. But it\u2019s really not. You need to come up with some good questionnaires. There are lots of books and websites to help you. But once you gather the information, the organization and reporting of the results is not too difficult.<\/p>\n What you\u2019ll see is that there are some common problems that some people see more clearly than others. There are also some strengths that some see more clearly than others.<\/p>\n For the most part, bosses and owners who agree to engage in a SWOT analysis are very willing to receive an honest report about their business. The funny thing is, the people who engage in a SWOT analysis are also the people who are already pretty well tuned into their business, so they don\u2019t have a lot of surprises. So that makes your job pretty easy.<\/p>\n Your SWOT report to the client should start by re-phrasing the descriptive information as if creating a profile of the company. State their mission and vision, who the officers are, etc. Then dive into a description of their strengths, weaknesses, etc. Include a few quotes from the employee interviews, such as, \u201cABC Company is a great client and we need more of them. They love us and are fully aware that no one comes close to us for services.\u201d Also, be sure to finish your report on a positive note.<\/p>\n Having said that, don\u2019t shy away from an honest assessment of weaknesses and threats. After all, you client is paying you to help them with their business. You need to hold up the mirror and let them see everything from an honest outsider\u2019s position.<\/p>\n As you can imagine, it will take 5-10 hours of labor to provide a good SWOT analysis. So, as you can imagine, it can be a very profitable adventure. And when you\u2019re done, the client will be better off. With luck, you\u2019ll have a better client relationship, you\u2019ll have solidified your position as a member of their team, and you\u2019ll have some additional influence on how they make decisions for the next year.<\/p>\n You could do a SWOT analysis that\u2019s very technology-focused, but I encourage you to get involved as much as you feel comfortable with on the business side. If nothing else, you should be on the \u201cinside\u201d of helping your client develop their technology strategy and budget for the year ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Once you\u2019ve gone through a SWOT within your company, consider offering this service to your clients. After all, it\u2019s your job to focus on the business as well as the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","topic-msp-business"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWeaknesses:<\/h3>\n
Opportunities:<\/h3>\n
Threats:<\/h3>\n
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Not As Difficult As It Looks<\/h2>\n