To build strategies based on your SWOT analysis,  Build a 4x4 table per below.  Risk increases from bottom to top.  Reward increases from left to right.  

· BASE STRATEGIES — Build strategic actions where you have strengths that can help you take advantage of opportunities (S-O) and place them in the lower right box.  You spend most of you time executing these strategies because they represent high reward and low risk. These are "low hanging fruit" for you.

· SURVIVAL STRATEGIES — Where you have weaknesses preventing you from combat threats (W-T), place strategic actions to mitigate the threats or eliminate the weaknesses. These are areas of high risk and low reward if you don’t fix them (probably negative reward or penalty). These are areas that can put you out of business and you spend much of your time on these actions.

· EXPANSION STRATEGIES — Where opportunities exist but you can’t take advantage of them because of weaknesses (W-O), you place actions to eliminate weaknesses. These are high reward if you can overcome the risk. If you repair weaknesses, you can expand your business in new area. You prioritize these opportunities and execute these strategic actions when you have resources to devote to them based on that priority.  Keep in mind that Base Strategies and Survival Strategies take priority, so don’t lose focus chasing rainbows!

· DEFENSE STRATEGIES —  Where you have strengths to combat threats, you build monitoring actions to keep tabs on the situations. 

 

 

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