It’s the so-called dog days. Many investors and key decision makers have ‘gone fishing,’ so to speak and while it may seem like there’s nothing going on but the rent on that front, don’t be fooled, founders: it’s SWOT season and we’re not talking about mosquitoes and sand flies, although they’re out there, too. We’re talking about that now is a good time to do a SWOT analysis, the acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.

Here are some excellent guidelines from Forbes, with a few tweaks:

Strengths. “Your Strengths are internal positives about your company that you can control and that often provide you with a competitive advantage. Some examples might be the quality of your product, the effectiveness of your processes, your access to physical or team assets or other competitive advantages.” Most importantly, what’s your superpower? What are you doing, short or long term, that will put you ahead of your competitors, or will possibly even be an industry game-changer?

Weaknesses. “A Weakness is an adverse internal attribute about your company that negatively takes away from your Strengths. Some examples might include knowledge gaps on your team, a low-quality product, a lack of money or other tangible assets, bad locations and more.” This may be where the term, ‘hire slow, fire fast’ comes in handy. Is all going according to plan and if not, why not? And you do have a plan, right? ‘Build it and they will come’ only works in Hollywood.

Opportunities. “An Opportunity is an external factor that provides promise or is likely to contribute to your potential success. Some examples might include the growth rate in your industry, specific laws or policies that will benefit the need for your product, positive customer feedback or technology advancements.” We know that you’re heads down building the product but always keep in mind that you’re building a business, too. It’s important to keep up with industry trends and whether you might need to make a pivot, large or small, and keep in mind that all startups pivot. All of them. The only real questions are when, why and in which direction?

Threats. “A Threat is an external factor that you have no control over, which could negatively impact your success. These are typically acknowledged so that you can provide a plan to overcome each one. Some examples include potential future competitors, costs of supply, upcoming market trends, negative technology changes and upcoming regulations or laws.” Real world example: do you depend on a product that comes from a country that has been impacted by tariff changes? What’s the back-up plan?

“Conducting a SWOT analysis can, for example, identify a market niche where a business has a competitive advantage, said Tech Target. “Ideally, this should help to develop business strategies and improve operations while also helping to set more realistic goals.”

Now, before you pull up Perplexity or whatever, STOP. Do not pass go, do not collect $200 or any funding. No AIs or LLMs were invoked to create this editorial, and please don’t use AI for your analysis. Like AI itself, SWOT is a tool, not an advisor, to help you evaluate where you are. Recognize your real problems and opportunities, and address them.

As Forbes pointed out, there are alternatives to SWOT and in case one of them might better serve your company’s needs, here they are:

1. SOAR analysis. SOAR stands for Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations and Results. This method requires you to evaluate the “sixes” of collaboration (initiate, inquire, imagine, innovate, inspire and implement).
2. SCORE analysis. SCORE stands for Strengths, Challenges, Options, Responses and Effectiveness. Many like the “challenges” point of SCORE because it encompasses Threats, Weaknesses and obstacles in a single point while making all of them more of a positive opportunity. The SCORE methodology also focuses on actions you can take to improve instead of just focusing on the information from the analysis.
3. NOISE analysis. NOISE stands for Needs, Opportunities, Improvements, Strengths and Exceptions. The needs point focuses on the things your business or team needs to succeed instead of focusing on your shortcomings as things that stand in your way. This approach really trains you to see potential growth instead of roadblocks.
4. Gap analysis. Gap is the only analysis on this list that doesn’t stand for anything. A gap analysis looks at where you’re at right now, where you want to go and how you close the gap between the two.

Whichever you choose, keep in mind that now is the perfect time to do that deep dive, which is something established industries have been doing forever. It’s not a requirement and isn’t often discussed in the tech sector. Think of it as a sort of half-year review, considering that Q3 didn’t start all that long ago; that it’s something your competitors may well be doing, and found that one element that proves to be the game-changer in your vertical, so don’t miss it. Choose your path and your acronym wisely, or you may well find yourself SOOL when it comes to moving onward and forward.