As partners, we share many of the same visions – some basic, some complex, some high and some low on the priority chart. But most of us share the same, fundamental goals: Produce more revenues, recruit more agents/advisors, find more clients, hire talented personnel, differentiate ourselves from competition, provide the best service, adopt the latest technologies, etc.

You don’t know what you don’t know is a popular phrase, but one that it’s best to not be satisfied with when running a company. About your business, there IS a way to find out what you don’t know.

At ISN we didn’t invent the SWOT analysis but have first-hand knowledge as to its benefits. Definition: An executive analysis of a company’s “Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.” Management at ISN Network conducts this analysis yearly in January in the form of a focused retreat off site. There is no designated day of the year in which it should be conducted. Formal or informal, off-site or on-site, some businesses conduct a SWOT annually and others bi-annually to bulletproof themselves from industry changes that come at warp speed and that can be devastating if unaddressed. Like so many insurance agents without a life policy of their own, attorneys without an estate plan, and doctors who avoid yearly examinations, surprisingly, there are business owners that are too closely involved with the day-to-day operations to see a need for inventory on their own business.

The benefits that come from examining such basic categories of your business are priceless. Delving into detailed discussions to outline the condition of your operations can be both inspiring and painful. But the generation of new ideas gleaned from this cost-free endeavor are one of many reasons why every company should partake in it. Bring your company’s talent together in an all-day setting to find that undiscovered pearl. You will find together different ways to not only view your business, but other ways to shape and grow it. Remember, any ideas and revelations that come alive within the SWOT process, it is paramount to bring those discoveries into a phase of initiatives to be carried out.