SWOT analysis
Reads an idea, project or organization through four windows: what is good and bad inside, what opportunities and threats exist outside. The point is not to produce four lists but to connect them into a strategy.
Register nowWhen to use it?
- Getting a complete picture of where you stand before committing to something.
- Assessing your current position ahead of an annual plan or budget.
- Evaluating where you sit against a competitor.
- Building a shared picture with a team: everyone looks at the same four boxes.
Step by step
- 1Type a name for the analysis at the top and press Create. A project can hold several SWOTs.
- 2Four boxes appear: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.
- 3Type an item in the field under a box and press Enter, or click the plus button.
- 4Click an existing item to edit it in place; changes are saved automatically.
- 5The bin icon on an item deletes that item; the one in the header deletes the whole analysis.
- 6To see how it works, load the ready-made example from the screen shown when there is no analysis yet.
Keyboard shortcuts (desktop)
Tips
- Strengths and weaknesses are internal — things within your control; opportunities and threats are external. A SWOT that confuses the two is useless.
- The real work is pairing the boxes: which strength catches which opportunity, which weakness exposes you to which threat.
- Filling one box with ten items and leaving another empty is not analysis, it is taking sides.
Worked example
Example: a small accounting practice
A five-person accounting firm wants to grow but cannot decide where to push. Filling in the four boxes moves the discussion off gut feeling and onto specific lines.
Strengths
- Client relationships going back fifteen years
- Almost no client churn
- Both partners are qualified accountants
- No debt
Weaknesses
- Everything depends on the two partners
- No digital process, all paper
- No marketing at all
- New clients only arrive by referral
Opportunities
- New e-invoicing rules are pushing small firms to look around
- Lots of new small businesses opening locally
- Remote service is now accepted
- Accounting software has become cheap
Threats
- Cheap online bookkeeping services
- One partner is close to retirement
- Regulation changes frequently
- Hard to hire younger accountants
The table says something specific: the biggest opportunity (e-invoicing) sits exactly on top of the biggest weakness (no digital process). The decision writes itself — not growth, but digitising their own work first.
Frequently asked questions
What is a SWOT analysis?
A method that collects the position of an organisation or a decision into four boxes: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Strengths and weaknesses are internal; opportunities and threats are external. That split is what gives the method its name, and it is the part people most often get wrong.
How do you do a SWOT analysis?
First write down in one sentence what you are analysing — "our company" is too wide to be useful, "should we open the second branch" is not. Then fill the four boxes. The last step matters most: pair them up. Which strength catches which opportunity, which weakness leaves you exposed to which threat.
How do I tell a strength from an opportunity?
A simple test: if your own decision can change it, it is internal. If it cannot, it is external. An experienced team is a strength; a growing market is an opportunity. Mixing the boxes makes the analysis unusable.
How many items should go in each box?
Three to six works well. Fifteen items in one box is an inventory, not an analysis. Choosing the few that actually decide things is what makes the decision fall out of the table.
Is it free?
Yes. Klarsti is free and ad-free right now, and you do not need an account to run a SWOT analysis.