SWOT Analysis
User Guide
Welcome to the SWOT Analysis Genius
User Guide
This page has all the step-by-step instructions you need to easily create a stunning SWOT Analysis report in minutes.
Welcome to the SWOT Analysis Genius created by My Excel Genius.
With this template you can quickly create a professional SWOT Analysis dashboard and visually see how you fare against your competition.
There’s one page for each of your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Strengths and an executive dashboard which brings it all together.
Watch SWOT Analysis Genius in Action
Features
SWOT Analysis Genius is a Microsoft Excel based template to help you quickly create a professional SWOT Analysis dashboard.
Here’s just some of the ways SWOT Analysis Genius can help you quickly and easily create an impressive SWOT Analysis dashboard:
Revealing Charts & Tables
Translucent radar charts allows you to visually compare yourself against your competition.
Metrics table scores each strength, weakness, opportunity and threat against your competitors with unique Traffic Light score.
Hassle Free Data Entry
Quickly enter your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Strengths in dedicated management screens. All the data is consolidated for you instantly.
Know Where You Stand
SWOT Analysis Genius has a comprehensive dashboard so you'll always know where you stand in relation to your competitors.
Instantly know your strongest advantage and greatest weakness.
A Bill Payment Calendar that Speaks your Language
You can view the SWOT Analysis Genius in English, Spanish or French. You can even enter values for your own language.
Navigating Around
The SWOT Analysis Genius has menus to help you navigate around the template. The Main Menu looks like this:
Simply click an icon or menu title – such as Instructions – to jump to that page.
For the rest of the template there is a menu down the left-side of the screen. Also, some pages have menu tabs across the top of the page:
Main Menu
When you first open SWOT Analysis Genius, you’ll be presented with the Main Menu, shown below.
From here, you can select one of the following options:
Option | Action |
|---|---|
Instructions | View the instructions page with links to free online video tutorials. |
Settings | Click to view the settings menu. |
About | Click to view the About page with ‘Contact Us’, email and help page links. |
Strengths | Click to define and enter your strengths. From here you can access Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats. |
Dashboard | Click to view the dashboard to assess or print your SWOT analysis. |
Settings Menu
The Settings menu is your gateway to customising SWOT Analysis Genius to work the way you want.
From here, you can select one of the following options:
Option | Action |
|---|---|
General Settings | Click to change general settings including the colour of data entry cells, your competitors and score tolerances. |
Language Preference | Click this to select the language you want menus displayed in. |
General Settings
General Settings has a variety of options to customise how the template works for you.
Each option is described for you in the table below:
Option | Description |
|---|---|
Language | Click the cell and select your preferred language from the drop-down list. |
Data Entry Cells | By default, all the data entry cells are white. You can choose a colour to clearly see which cells you are allowed to enter values in. Click the cell and select a colour. |
Your Business | This is the name or title of your business, product or idea. |
Your Competition | These are the names of the businesses, products or ideas you want to compare yourself against. |
Good Score | The dashboard has metrics which measure you against your competition rated by a good and poor score. You can change the threshold for good and poor scores by setting a value between 0 and 4.  |
Language Preference
The General Settings screen has the option to select your preferred language.
The Language Preference page shows you the values that will be displayed for English, Français and Español.
If you have specific language requirements not covered by the first 3 options, you can define your own.
Under the Custom column enter suitable descriptions for each menu item. Then from the General Settings, select Custom Language to apply your changes:
Entering Strengths
Let’s start by entering your Strengths and assigning a rating to yourself as well as your competitors.
Once you’ve gone through this quick exercise, entering Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats is exactly the same process.
From the Menu select Strengths, so you have the Strengths table displayed (shown below).
From the Menu select Strengths, so you have the Strengths table displayed (shown below).
Under the Strengths column enter the title or name of your strength. This label will also be displayed in the chart.
Next to the strength you entered and below the You column, enter a value between 0 and 4.
This represents your competency in this strength using the following scale:
Competency | Description |
|---|---|
0 | You have no competency in this strength at all. |
1 | You have some competency in this strength but you’re below average. |
2 | You’re about average at this competency. |
3 | You’re well above average but not exceptional. |
4 | You’re exceptional at this competency. |
Now, below the three Competitor columns, enter a value between 0 and 4 for each competitor.
You’ll need to do some research to determine the competency level of each competitor for this strength.
Even with one Strength completed, the chart will still be empty.
Repeat this process for up to 10 strengths.
Here’s an example with 6 strengths:
Showing Each Strength in the Chart
The radar chart compares you against all your competition.
Sometimes it’s useful to simply compare yourself against one competitor or alternative. Or even two competitors against each other.
To remove the ‘noise’ you can hide one or more competitors using the Show this in chart? Option in the Strengths table.
Simply remove the check mark (tick) below You or one of the 3 Competitors to hide them from the chart.
Strength Metrics Table
As you enter the strengths and their respective competency ratings in the Strengths table, the metrics table below it will update.
The SWOT Analysis Dashboard
The SWOT Analysis Dashboard brings it all together
Dashboard Metrics
Below the charts in the dashboard are the metrics tables.
These provide a summary of your comparative advantage (or disadvantage) for each Strength, Opportunity, Weakness and Threat.
For each SWOT metric, the table compares you to the average of your competition. It also provides an overall score. This is the ratio of you against the average of your competition.
The ratio is colour coded: red, amber, green using the thresholds in the General Settings screen. Obviously you’re aiming for as many green flags as possible.
Printing Your SWOT Analysis
From the Menu select the Dashboard.
Then from the File menu, select Print.
If you prefer keyboard-shortcuts you can also
press CTRL+P.
As this is a Microsoft Excel template,
you can change any of the print options to
suit your needs.
