As the owner of four online companies, my job is to sit down every year and decide my SWOT for the next 12 months and then to consistently revisit my SWOT throughout each year and tweak as needed. I base my decisions on my experience and the emerging trends in the industries I serve.

I also network, engage in learning with mentors, and a lot of the time I simply go left when everyone else goes right. I am a rebel that way and it works simply because it helps my companies stand out in a crowded marketplace.

SWOT is my favorite tool to help me understand at the strategic level how to go left when others go right.

SWOT is a business acronym that stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

EVERY single company, no matter what size it is, has SWOT.

Success is achieved based on how you leverage this tool. Here is how I apply SWOT to my companies:

• I decide what my acceptable weaknesses will be
• I predict the threats to my business
• I capitalize my strengths
• and finally I seize opportunities!

I have been known to say "yes" quite a few times to risky opportunities even when I have no earthly idea how the pieces will ever fall into place. I know that if I don't say "yes", someone else will and that my simply saying "yes" allows me to move forward and signal the universe to send those "pieces" my way.

Your overall goal in business is to communicate your strengths to your current and potential customers via your website and all of the communication systems (newsletters, blogs, podcasts, etc.) you use.