Business Plans For Dummies, 3rd Edition

Chapter 9

Assessing Where You Stand Today

IN THIS CHAPTER

Discovering your capabilities and resources

Spotting company strengths and weaknesses

Using SWOT to analyze your business landscape

Have you ever noticed how, when your BF texts you a picture of the two of you at that super little eatery you were at together last night, you silently say to yourself, “OMG, that couldn’t be me — that person seems so … so old, or looks like [fill in your favorite negative expression here].” Or worse, that new acquaintance is shown a picture of you taken, we mean really, not that long ago, and exclaims, “Wow, you must have been a real catch back then!” “Back then? Back then? But I still look the same!” Sorry, but no you don’t.

In fact, we don’t know exactly what we look like to other people, do we? Which explains the difficulty most people have creating an honest self-portrait — whether they try to recognize their appearance or make objective statements about their strengths and weaknesses.

Assessing yourself isn’t an easy task. You have to measure strengths and weaknesses relative to the situations at hand; a strength in one circumstance may prove to be a weakness in another. Leadership and ...