As the owner of four online companies, my job is to sit down every year and decide my SWOT for the next 12 months and then to consistently revisit my SWOT throughout each year and tweak as needed. I base my decisions on my experience and the emerging trends in the industries I serve.

I also network, engage in learning with mentors, and a lot of the time I simply go left when everyone else goes right. I am a rebel that way and it works simply because it helps my companies stand out in a crowded marketplace.

SWOT is my favorite tool to help me understand at the strategic level how to go left when others go right.

SWOT is a business acronym that stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

EVERY single company, no matter what size it is, has SWOT.

Success is achieved based on how you leverage this tool. Here is how I apply SWOT to my companies:

• I decide what my acceptable weaknesses will be
• I predict the threats to my business
• I capitalize my strengths
• and finally I seize opportunities!

I have been known to say “yes” quite a few times to risky opportunities even when I have no earthly idea how the pieces will ever fall into place. I know that if I don’t say “yes”, someone else will and that my simply saying “yes” allows me to move forward and signal the universe to send those “pieces” my way.

Your overall goal in business is to communicate your strengths to your current and potential customers via your website and all of the communication systems (newsletters, blogs, podcasts, etc.) you use.

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Want To Use This Article In Your Ezine or Website? You have my permission, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

Sheri McConnell is the CEO of Sheri McConnell Companies, Inc. and the president and founder of two national organizations, the National Association of Women Writers-NAWW and the International Association of Web Entrepreneurs-AWE.  Under the same corporate umbrella she is also the owner of two high-level product and consulting companies: Create Your Group and My Millionaire Friends. You can visit Sheri, access her free article archive, and find out more about all four of her companies at www.sherimcconnell.com. Sheri lives in San Antonio, Texas with her husband, their four children, a weenie dog, and two cats.

Technorati Tags:   My Favorite Entrepreneurial Tool—Deciding My SWOT, SWOT, My SWOT, Favorite Entrepreneurial Tool, Sheri McConnell, Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats, Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats

By Sheri McConnell

Create a Timeless and Focused Marketing Plan for Your Business
As you probably have heard by now—you aren’t in the business of (fill in the blank here). You are in the business of marketing. Your marketing must be automated and systemized. Period.

Create Passive, Income Generating Information Products
Create your own advances and get paid to create information products. Many, many target markets are considered “information hungry”.

Build Your Most Important Asset… Your List
Success on the Internet is about providing high-quality information, solving problems AND the list.

Use Social Networking Sites Such As Facebook, Linked In, My Space, and Twitter
Used strategically, social networks extend your brand and funnel thousands of new leads into your business funnel each and every quarter.

Create A Very Profitable Internet Launch for Your Information Product or Book
Set up correctly, these launches generate thousands and tens of thousands dollars of income, new leads for you, and all your partners.

Create Your Own Certification Program
Certification programs aren’t just for large companies. Solo online entrepreneurs can also benefit from building and creating a certification program within their company.

Build Your Own Virtual Team
Learn how to find, build, and manage a virtual team. The key to “leverage” is the team. We all have weaknesses. Don’t make the most common entrepreneurial mistake: thinking you can do it all.

Approach, Create, and Solidify Long-Lasting Joint Ventures
All successful businesses are built on thriving relationships–on and off the Internet. And with all relationships, you should focus on who and how you attract partners.

Know Which Publishing Options Are Right for YOU
Learn what your publishing options are and make a choice based on the path that is right for you based on your personality, strengths, and weaknesses.

Double Your List Size With A Virtual Event
One of the best strategies for growing the list is an online virtual event with multiple partners or joint ventures. Give customers free access and structure the event correctly and it is a huge list builder.

Develop Your Intuition
Most entrepreneurs spend so much time focusing on all the “outside” stuff that they forget to get help on learning how to “think” like a CEO. Your success and ability to run a profitable company depends on your leaning how to develop your CEO intuition.

Use Visual Tools To Set Goals and Stay On Track
All successful entrepreneurs incorporate visual components into their strategy planning. They spend as much time planning as they do in the marketing, operations, finance parts of their business.

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If you want to learn more about your 12 Hightest ROI’s, please check out
The Smart Women’s Blueprint for Growing Your Business Online – Fast & Easy.

http://www.sherimcconnell.com/products/growingonlinebiz

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Want To Use This Article In Your Ezine or Website? You have my permission, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

Sheri McConnell is the CEO of Sheri McConnell Companies, Inc. and the president and founder of two national organizations, the National Association of Women Writers-NAWW and the International Association of Web Entrepreneurs-AWE. Under the same corporate umbrella she is also the owner of two high-level product and consulting companies: Create Your Group and My Millionaire Friends. You can visit Sheri, access her free article archive, and find out more about all four of her companies at www.sherimcconnell.com. Sheri lives in San Antonio, Texas with her husband, their four children, a weenie dog, and two cats.

I coach a lot of new business owners-many of them are women-and most of them have a common struggle. They have a spouse that gets stressed about the amount of money and time it takes to build a profitable business.

I know-the irony-it takes money to make money.

Here are some of my recent thoughts on how you might help your non-entrepreneurial husband understand your need to “have this business”…

First-sit your husband down and break the news.

Say it slowly so that he actually thinks you will say “baby” at the end and then be relieved when you say “business” instead.

So say, “Honey, I am having a business.”

Then proceed to get him ready for the arrival by sharing the following. And don’t worry-eventually-your husband will adjust to the new baby, I mean business.

Here are some points to make in your heart-to-heart conversation. Good Luck!

There will be at least nine months of waiting to see my hard work emerge-It takes time to build a strong foundation for my business. I will need coaches and mentors to give me the right advice on how to bring this business into the world. So please be patient if I get a little moody. I am growing and learning new things.

We will have to spend some money to help it flourish and grow-We will have to invest in some new “stuff” in order to give birth to and to be able to feed this new business in the coming years.

We will have to be willing to let it constantly learn and make mistakes-I won’t have all the answers and I sure can’t offer you guarantees about how this will turn out-but I know I will only become more successful at parenting this business when I am actively playing with it and paying attention to it. So I might not have as much time for you as I used to.

There will never be a right time to do this-I know for a fact that there will never be a right time to do this. We will never have the perfect situation to start this business. I am willing to grow into a new person if you are.

I know I don’t have all the answers-I won’t know a lot in the beginning and it will probably be stressful until we get used to our new lives, but I know deep in my heart if you are on board-we can make this work.

We will never know the feeling of having our own successful business if we don’t try-This will be an exciting journey for us with many challenges but I know it will be worth it and I do know that it will change our lives for the better if we let it.

Sheri McConnell is the President of the National Assn of Women Writers and the Assn of Web Entrepreneurs. She teaches online entrepreneurs how to discover, create, and profit from their intellectual knowledge. Get free reports and audios at nawwfreereport.com or awefreereport.com

Technorati Tags: Honey, I Am Having a Business, Sheri McConnell, NAWW, AWE, business, having a business, starting up a business