NICOLE'S FIELD MAP ｜ PART 4｜SWOT ANALYSIS
In business, SWOT is probably the most used and longest-standing analysis tool. Before rolling out any system or choosing any strategy, you need a little analysis to see clearly where you stand.
But when I diagnose clients, I keep finding that everyone has done a SWOT, yet few have done it right or used it well. Some write strengths as weaknesses, some treat weaknesses as strengths, and most fill in the four boxes and leave it there, never turning it into a next step.
In this article I'll cover how to do a SWOT properly, then share the pitfalls I hit in my own business because I didn't do one.
A SWOT analysis is a tool for diagnosing where a business stands across four areas: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. S and W look inward at what you control; O and T look outward at the market, competition, regulation and trends.
Figure 1｜The four SWOT boxes: internal vs. external, helpful vs. harmful
Most sources trace SWOT to business planning research at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in the 1960s, often credited to Albert Humphrey, though scholars still disagree about its origin. The safest way to put it: SWOT is a business planning tool developed in the 1960s, and it's still one of the most widely used strategy analysis methods today.
For the external analysis, pair it with PEST (political, economic, social, technological) to find opportunities and threats, so you don't only see the competitor in front of you.
The most common SWOT mistake is listing items without crossing them. In 1982 Heinz Weihrich introduced the TOWS matrix, which crosses internal and external factors to produce four strategic directions:
Figure 2｜The TOWS matrix: turning SWOT into four strategies
A lot of things have two sides. What owners most often get wrong is overrating or underrating themselves, and not knowing the real market threats.
One owner told me: "Our salespeople are all women, they're not aggressive enough." He believed salespeople had to be aggressive and energetic, ideally men, to go out and find clients and serve them. But flip it around: if they're approachable, communicate well, know how to read a room, know what to say and do from their training, and can find the right customers, that's actually a strength。
Market threats too. Short video has been popular for two or three years, and some people are only now saying "I'm about to start short videos." But the trend now is AI, GEO and workflow efficiency. Short video isn't being abandoned; it needs to be combined with AI to cut costs and raise efficiency.
Then there's the opposite: owners who spend a lot of time networking bring the whole outside world back to the office: "Everyone's doing AI, you do it too; everyone's making AI videos, you make them too." But they don't realize the team may lack resources, people or tools, and may need training first. AI animated video quality still isn't stable; if your customers like you for feeling local and genuine, switching in a hurry may actually reduce trust。
Take me. While building brands, I easily underestimated small things, like my supply chain and upstream/downstream contacts. For me, finding manufacturers in Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang or Shandong was just calling friends: asking someone to inspect goods, check quality, order a small sample or a few hundred units. Nothing hard. Accountants and law firms too; I thought it was all ordinary everyday work.
But to others, these were my strengths. What feels ordinary to you may be exactly what others need most.
The other way around, I've overrated myself too. E-commerce people are great with Photoshop and Illustrator; the faster you edit and produce images, the better your chances with sales channels and good placements. So when Canva came out, I underestimated it, until startup founders who came to me for advice said: "This is so easy, you don't need to learn Photoshop, just use a template."
Now I connect AI agents with Canva, and a full year of images for one manufacturer takes me a single day. The old software isn't necessarily replaced; you still need it for printers. But new tools are a bonus. When lots of people in the market say something is great, first ask why they think so. That's my biggest lesson from the past year or two.
Every industry is different; you can't compare aesthetic clinics with traditional businesses.
For aesthetic clinics, the biggest threat is market saturation. It used to be competition within Taiwan; now it's Shanghai and Korea, and even Thailand has joined in.
For traditional businesses, first separate manufacturing from retail. Take textiles: ten or twenty years ago many factories moved to China, then on to Southeast Asia: Vietnam, Indonesia, India. A manufacturer's strengths are usually technology, machinery and process, from single-color to two-color dyeing or transfer printing, then to digital weaving that weaves prints directly into the fabric, improving generation by generation.
Traditional businesses are the most underrated, because many do OEM work and have no brand of their own. Many ask me: "We'd like to do e-commerce and build our own brand too. Can we?" I actually see that as a big advantage: if you have the technology and process advantage, you control pricing; if you control pricing, you have room for a brand premium. That's why I love working with traditional businesses: going from 0 to 1 is something you can control.
Retail-type traditional businesses are harder, because their suppliers also supply many others, which leads to price wars downstream. They need brand value, a distinct personality and channel development to stand out.
If I had to name what Taiwanese businesses have in common, I'd say what they lack most is opportunity, because competition is so intense.
| Industry | Common strengths S | Common threats T | Nicole's take |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aesthetic clinics | Doctors' skill, equipment, reputation | Saturation: Taiwan, Shanghai, Korea, Thailand | Differentiate through service, experience and trust |
| Traditional｜Manufacturing | Technology, machinery, quality control | Production moving abroad, OEM price pressure | Know-how means pricing power; well suited to an own brand |
| Traditional｜Retail | Channels, local relationships | Suppliers serve many sellers, causing price wars | Strengthen brand value and channel development |
Yes. At first I didn't even know analysis was a thing. I'm hands-on, everyone around me was in marketing and moved fast, and when I saw a few benchmark brands doing something, I followed. Starting a business fifteen years ago, you didn't think this much; you just found ways to make money.
At first I didn't even have an online store. I sold through retail channels the way senior mentors taught me. There were lots of shopping channels then, and if you built good relationships with the channel managers, you kept getting promo slots and steady business. I ran lots of brands too: beauty devices, clothing, toys, lucky charms. I wanted to do everything and never thought about focus.
Around 2016–2017, online stores took off. I built my business from nothing and was always thinking how to do the most with the least money, so I put one brand on 91APP's cheapest trial plan. After it went live, no sales. That's when I learned: you need traffic.
So I went back to school, learned advertising, drove traffic to the site with ads, and sales finally took off. The first month passed NT$600,000 in revenue, and 91APP's account manager came to talk to me, because that kind of revenue on a trial plan was rare for them. Later, when the platform was overhauled, SHOPLINE approached me sincerely, and my first official online store was on SHOPLINE.
Looking back, I didn't know my strengths were my supply chain, channels and network; and I didn't face my weaknesses: I couldn't run ads or manage an online store. Because I didn't understand myself or the market first, I spent more time and money than others building brands, with a lot of trial-and-error costs. Staff and operations need cash flow every month; if you don't use your time well or get better skills and knowledge, that's a real waste.
Figure 3｜Nicole's early e-commerce journey: filling in the weaknesses she didn't see
SWOT helps you understand yourself and the market, see what you can do, and get the team aligned.
The market moves too fast. Last year AI wasn't booming yet; this year it can run workflows, edit videos, organize materials and draft strategy. So every year, look again: this year's strength may become next year's weakness. For example, last year everyone on the team was great at video editing; this year editing is no longer a barrier, so we need to build sales skills.
Listen and look around too: the government and many organizations offer support programs and training, and you can meet lots of mentors. But keep your focus on the company. Exchanging knowledge is great; spending too much time on social networking isn't.
SWOT isn't filling in four boxes. It's seeing clearly what you have, what you don't, what opportunities the market offers, and then deciding your next step.
I suggest doing a SWOT each year when you plan the next year in October–December, and each core team member does one：
Figure 4｜Four steps of a yearly SWOT workshop
Figure 5｜Where SWOT fits in the yearly plan
A SWOT analysis diagnoses a business's position across Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Strengths and weaknesses look inward at what you control; opportunities and threats look outward at the market, competition, regulation and trends.
Have several key people each fill in the four boxes, keeping it specific, benchmarked against competitors and judged from the customer's view; compare for consensus; then cross factors with a TOWS matrix to get four strategic directions: attack, improve, defend and stop the bleeding.
Use a TOWS matrix: SO uses strengths to seize opportunities, WO fixes weaknesses to seize opportunities, ST uses strengths against threats, and WT limits weaknesses exposed to threats. The four boxes describe the present; crossing them is what creates strategy.
Nicole Chen recommends at least once a year, when planning the next year in October–December, with a quick quarterly review, because the market changes fast and this year's strength may be next year's weakness.
Further reading
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