A SWOT analysis provides an organized listing of your business’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Such all-encompassing knowledge can lead to a strong business strategy, in addition to serving well in assessing and adapting to a changing environment, since a business can conduct a SWOT analysis at any time. Many businesses do at least one SWOT analysis each year to stay on top of changes that can alter the focus of their strategy.
Conducting an accurate SWOT analysis relies on taking information and input from all facets of a business, from customer service and sales to upper management and customers. It’s common to use some iteration of a four-square SWOT analysis template, though sometimes this process can be tedious.
Fortunately, there are a variety of SWOT analysis tools that can help to grow your small business, with the following five tools specifically emerging as worthwhile.
10 Best SWOT Analysis Tools You Need to Know
1. MindTools
MindTools is an excellent solution for those wanting to become more familiar with SWOT analysis. It offers a variety of relevant SWOT analysis resources, notably free worksheets in addition to explainer videos, starter questions and strategy ideas.
While someone very familiar with SWOT analysis may view the tools as unnecessary, there’s no doubt MindTools has a productive array of free tools for small businesses and budding entrepreneurs who are less familiar with the SWOT analytical process.
2. Canva
Canva is another one of the best SWOT Analysis Tools. You can save time by having business-relevant templates readily available when creating a SWOT analysis. Canva hosts these SWOT analysis templates for free, providing an excellent tool for when you need to convert relevant SWOT information into a presentable format that looks professional and comprehensive.
The option to choose from more than a million stock images or use your photos, in addition to filters, enables businesses to let their useful SWOT data presentation shine. Entrepreneurs strive to stand out from their competition, and Canva can easily help accomplish this.
3. Smartsheet
Smartsheet provides a comprehensive list of SWOT analysis templates. It’s another useful starting point for business and entrepreneurs starting to analyze their business. Wisely, Smartsheet has specific templates for your format of choice, including PowerPoint, Excel and Word.
Several of the templates have additional sections that focus on aspects of competition and inventory, which is very useful for entrepreneurs seeking a more comprehensive SWOT analysis than many default sheets show.
4. Map Business Online
Rather than use a default sheet without much personalization, some businesses will opt to create SWOT analysis maps. Such maps are useful since they add a visual component, helping study location-relevant datasets that can reveal new advantages for your business strategy.
Depending on the business, there can be an immense benefit in using SWOT analysis maps to conduct labor analysis across locations, color code jurisdictions, local competitor analysis and shipping location determination. Entrepreneurs are likely to enjoy the endless limits of creating their SWOT analysis maps, to help with a wide-encompassing SWOT analysis.
5. Creately
For entrepreneurs seeking a more open-ended vein of SWOT analysis, Creately offers SWOT analysis templates with professional design. Just click “Start Drawing Now” to get started.
You can share the work and collaborate with others in real time, in addition to exporting SWOT diagrams as PDF files or images. Creately also provides tutorials and templates that help familiarize small businesses and entrepreneurs with the SWOT process.
6. WikiWealth
Free from WikiWealth, the SWOT generator helps evaluate weaknesses, strengths, opportunities and threats. The customized analysis provides common SWOT statements and explanations, providing you the ability to upvote meaningful statements or flag statements for deletion.
Check the categories most important to your business, and WikiWealth will generate a helpful template based on your priority order and comments. The tool also allows for collaboration.
7. Lucidchart SWOT Analysis
Lucidchart provides an effective SWOT analysis diagram that helps identify pros and cons of your decision-making. Their SWOT chart maker emphasizes ease of use and does not require installation or setup.
Sharing is also seamless, providing the ability to send the SWOT charts to anyone. Users and collaborators can work from any Internet-enabled device, with integration available for Microsoft Office, G Suite, Slack and Atlassian.
8. CayenneApps SWOT
CayenneApps has a SWOT analysis tool that caters to experienced professionals and beginners alike. Start by using SWOT examples in Cayenne’s process or create your own. Start by typing in the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. After listing your features, you can select your most important features, using check boxes to choose the most essential items in each category. Your personal ranking helps you evaluate each feature accordingly.
Next, you can define relationships, such as how strengths can allow you to define opportunities. CayenneApps uses your data and a questionnaire with their analytical algorithm, which ranks and provides insight for your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Want to know whether you should focus more on your strengths or work on weaknesses? CayenneApps’ SWOT analysis tool can help.
9. TUZZit
Drawing board platform TUZZit provides another useful tool for SWOT analysis, enabling users to write in text or draw diagrams, which may work better for more visual-led collaboration platforms. TUZZit’s drawing board features enable teams to highlight certain areas after using several of the SWOT analysis tools above.
10. Milanote
Milanote is a tool for organizing your creative projects into beautiful visual boards. Created to replicate the feeling of working on a wall in a creative studio – visual, tactile and sometimes a bit messy – Milanote is a great fit for freelancers in both the marketing and design spaces.
Milanote has heaps of built-in templates to help you get started with a variety of different projects, from creating a moodboard to set out the visual direction for a project, to writing that perfect creative brief. Its sharing features make it a great option for those who regularly provide work to clients for feedback. Milanote’s basic plan is available for free with no time-limit.
Wrapping Up
SWOT analysis is an excellent opportunity for entrepreneurs to evaluate their business as changes are occurring, by focusing on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
These nine SWOT Analysis tools can help the SWOT analysis process immensely, resulting in an accurate depiction of data that can lead to a savvier business plan.
Author Bio: Kayla Matthews is a tech journalist & writer. Follow on Twitter.
