The SWOT Blueprint: A Step-by-Step Guide to Analyzing Your Competition and Winning

Your Blueprint for Market Dominance

If you don't know your competition, you will lose against them. The same is equally true if you don’t fully know your business. 

Understanding your business and your competition highlights areas where you can improve to gain an edge. Analyzing both shows you how to create superior products and services, which means you win and not them.

Here’s how I analyze businesses to survive and thrive:

1. Become a regular customer of your competition

You need to see how your competition operates its business, and the best way to do that is to be their customer. 

You can see what they do well, and where they fail, and you get to experience what it’s like being their customer. This will give you the advantage because if you find a flaw in your competitor’s business, you can capitalize on it. 

I did this with one of my first gyms.

My team and I mystery-shopped all of the boutique fitness places and the surrounding gyms. From our experience, I was able to identify why their customers paid a premium for a membership (or didn’t). For Crossfit, members enjoyed the camaraderie, engagement, and intensity. And across the board, most gym goers enjoyed flexible times to workout.

Knowing this, we made sure our gym had a welcoming atmosphere and was accessible 24/7. Now that we were on the same footing, we wouldn’t be seen as lesser than our competition and could now hone in on what made us unique.

2. Perform a SWOT analysis of your competition

Now that you’re a regular of your competition, you need to analyze them and your company with SWOT: 

• Strengths

• Weaknesses

• Opportunities

• Threats.

Here’s why you should look at each one:

Strengths

A true strength should be difficult for others to achieve. If it’s just having good customer service, that can be easily recreated in another business. While important to have, that is not a unique strength. 

You need to go deeper than that. 

They can be a well-established network, community influence, or exclusive resources like a low-cost workspace or strong investor backing. These advantages allow you to leverage what sets you apart. 

Clearly listing these strengths helps you better understand your competitive edge so you can lean into them and outperform competitors. 

Weaknesses

Weaknesses are limitations on your business capabilities. You need to identify tangible problems in your business that someone else could fulfill.

For my gym, one of our biggest weaknesses was that we had an owner who wanted to be paid a lot of money but wasn’t involved. That became a consistent drain on capital. Ownership or investors that require payments can stunt your growth. If another business doesn’t have that, they can outspend you (like a competitor of ours, who used his extra capital to buy more gym equipment). 

You need to identify the weaknesses in your business and your competition because if you find a weakness that they have and you're able to go around that weakness, then that draws more of their audience to you. It also helps prevent your competition from capitalizing upon an unknown weakness of yours.

Knowing unlocks a strategic advantage.

Opportunities

Identifying opportunities means recognizing market gaps and situational advantages, especially unrelated to strengths and weaknesses.

For instance, consider untapped market needs or new infrastructure—such as a highway bringing more traffic to your business area—leading to more exposure and potential market share. 

Also, opportunities closely related to your strengths can drive significant growth. Say your competitor can’t roast their own coffee beans. If you do, advertise that quality difference to capture customers who care about the difference.

Capitalizing on such opportunities is key to gaining market share effectively.

Threats

While weaknesses are internal and can be improved upon, threats are external and can impact your business even if your weaknesses are addressed. 

Here are a few examples:

• Relying heavily on imported materials (which can be impacted by tariffs and supply chain issues, like coffee beans).

• Geographical and political challenges (like a rising homeless population impacting customer safety).

• A similar company that opens down the street from you and wants your business.

Understanding your business threats gives you a chance to do something about them before they negatively impact you. The knowledge could help you make a life-saving decision for your business.

SWOT = Gym Success

When I bought my first gym in Broken Arrow, I used the SWOT analysis to take the company from bleeding money to substantial profit. 

Here’s what I found:

Strengths:

• Known for a personal, welcoming atmosphere ("Cheers of gyms").

• Few intimidating bodybuilders, attracting everyday members who paid consistently.

• Low rent due to partner connections, giving us flexibility to offer competitive pricing.

Weaknesses:

• Inconsistent revenue with $5,000/month in declined payments.

• Required hands-on management from me initially.

Opportunities:

• Demand for a locally-focused gym experience instead of impersonal box gyms.

• A large pool of former members to re-engage.

Threats:

• Low barrier to entry—new gyms could open with minimal investment (~$30,000).

Initially, the gym revenue was $17,000 per month with about $5,000 in declines from unpaid bills. After my analysis, I was able to capitalize on our strengths to create a welcome atmosphere that did not feel like a box gym, hire a manager to free up my time, take advantage of re-engaging former members and attract new ones with no-brainer offers, and reduce decline payments.

By the time I left, we had increased revenue to $72,000 per month, even with monthly expenses rising to $40,000. This left us with a $32,000 monthly profit. Even declined payments dropped to under $1,000 by the end of each month, thanks to tighter payment processes. 

All of this wouldn’t have been possible without a clear understanding of the competition. 

A well-executed SWOT analysis is essential for turning weaknesses into strengths and opportunities into profit. 

If you want to use it on your business and your competitors to win, here’s the template for a SWOT analysis: