A: Laurie, before you call in SWOT team to deal with this investor (sorry, couldn't resist that one), let me tell you exactly what a SWOT Analysis is and how it can not only help you plan for future, but get a gauge of how your business is doing today.

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. A SWOT Analysis is a written exercise that can help you clarify and focus on specifics that make up four areas that most affect your business. The purpose of a SWOT Analysis is to help you build on your business' strengths, minimize and correct weaknesses, and take greatest possible advantage of potential opportunities while formulating a plan to deal with potential threats.

Think of a SWOT Analysis as a checkup for your business. By spending a little time examining internal and external factors that affect your business' health you can better gauge present state of your business and identify things that may adversely affect your business' health in future.

It's a good idea for every business to perform a SWOT Analysis on occasion, especially if you are doing strategic planning, contemplating a change in direction or formulating new strategies for distribution, marketing and sales.

Should you hire a consultant to perform a SWOT Analysis for you? Speaking as a consultant who has been paid to perform SWOT Analyses for companies in past, I can honestly (and yes, without bias) say that depends on three factors: (1) size of your company; (2) how in-depth SWOT Analysis needs to be; and (3) how much of your investor's money you'd like to spend.

Larger corporations are most likely to hire professional firms to perform such analyses, primarily due to complex nature of big business. Some corporate SWOT Analyses can run on for several hundred pages. Typically, a consultant will charge up to $100 or more per hour to perform a detailed corporate SWOT Analysis and most large companies consider this money well spent as a good SWOT Analysis can reveal otherwise ignored factors that might increase company's bottom line or help avert future losses.

For a smaller business, however, a professional SWOT Analysis can be an exercise in overkill. For your money you will get an impressive, detailed report that will make for great show at your next investor or board meeting and a wonderfully expensive door stop rest of time. I don't mean to belittle value of a professional SWOT Analysis for small businesses. It's just that smaller companies can learn as much from their own efforts as that of an expensive consultant.

You can perform a simple SWOT Analysis with a #2 pencil and a fast food napkin, but to get a truly accurate view of your company's SWOT factor I suggest you do things a bit more formally (and without aid of condiments). I recommend that you involve all key players in your business, including management, employees, your attorney, accountant, even your spouse. My wife often gives me insights into my business just from listening to me talk at dinner. Sometimes we business owners and managers can't see forest for trees. It's good to have someone else point out things we might miss.

A: Regina, have you seen television show, Fear Factor? If you haven't seen it you've probably heard about it. Fear Factor is show where they put contestants through all sorts of pseudo-death defying feats like bungee jumping off a bridge over a pool of crocodiles and driving a car through a wall of fire (you know, stuff we did for fun in high school).

The contestant who overcomes their personal fear factor wins cash and prizes (usually at cost of their dignity, but I digress).

The highlight of Fear Factor is eating competition. That's when contestants are invited to partake of all sorts of culinary fare. Yummy stuff like monkey brains, all manner of live bugs and spiders, moose intestines, old fruitcake (the horror!), and my personal favorite, live giant worms. At this point competition becomes not so much who can overcome their fear actor, but who has lowest gag reflex.

Your question makes me feel a little like those contestants, Regina, because no matter how I answer I am opening a can of giant worms that I will undoubtedly be forced to eat later.

My highly educated peers will argue that education is much more important than experience, while my highly experienced peers will argue that experience is more important. Either way, it's worms ala carte for me.

Oh well, I've eaten more than my share of crow over years.

How much worse can worms be?

It's important to understand that success of an entrepreneur is not measured by how much education he or she has or how many years of experience are under his or her belt. An entrepreneur's success is measured by achievements, not words on a resume.

By definition, an entrepreneur is a risk-taking businessperson: someone who sets up and finances new commercial enterprises to make a profit. Entrepreneurs start businesses. The smart ones then hire MBAs to run them.

Let's start with education. Is a Bachelor's degree or better required to succeed in business? Of course not. An MBA from Harvard might give you a leg up in a job interview, but it certainly doesn't guarantee that you will succeed in business. Nor does it automatically mean that you will be a better business person than someone who didn't finish high school. Knowledge is a good thing - if you know what to do with it.