Analyze This New or trendy it's not, but an updated analysis of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats may be just the check-up your business needs.

Before taking a swing at his business plan last year, DavidDayton took a SWOT. The co-founder and CEO of AlumiPlate Inc., a14-person Minneapolis metal-coating company, used the time-testedmanagement tool called Strength-Weakness-Opportunity-Threatanalysis to not only identify his strengths and weaknesses, but topinpoint potential pitfalls and prospects as well.

"We took all the things we know about our business andlisted them in four columns labeled strengths, weaknesses,opportunities and threats," explains the 44-year-oldentrepreneur. This brief exercise, done as part of the 4-year-oldcompany's annual strategic planning process, highlighted ahandful of areas for AlumniPlate to focus on in the coming year.Specifically, Dayton identified a high barrier to competition as astrength, while the company's proprietary aluminum coatingtechnology is its best opportunity. Lack of a high-volumeproduction demonstration was one weakness that was revealed, andheavy demands on key personnel were shown to pose the biggestthreat.

Countless other entrepreneurs have used SWOT analysis torecognize and organize crucial factors determining theircompanies' success or failure, says Eileen Shapiro, presidentof management consulting firm The Hillcrest Group Inc. inCambridge, Massachusetts, and author of The Seven Deadly Sins ofBusiness (Capstone). SWOT analyses are easy and intuitive, and canbe done quickly. Perhaps most significant, the technique helpsharried entrepreneurs avoid missing important connections incomplex situations. "A SWOT analysis," Shapiro says,"gives you the framework to make sure you're beingthorough."