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: Before I answer your question, Samuel, I want you to reach around and pat yourself on back for not letting your eagerness push you into making a wrong decision. All too often we entrepreneurs tend to let our impatience drive us to make decisions that we later regret. In business such haste can be very costly, indeed.

I always compare starting a business to jumping into a pool of freezing water. There are typically two types of entrepreneurs who take plunge.

The first are "Toe Testers." These are those cautious folks who just stick their big toe in pool to gauge temperature of water. It is for these careful entrepreneurs that phrase "testing waters" was coined. Toe Testers enter business pool slowly, a little bit at a time. The lesson to be learned from Toe Testers is to start slowly and don't feel like you have to wade in too fast. Ease into business pool gradually to make sure it's right for you. Remember, many entrepreneurs realize that business world is not right for them only after they are in it up to their necks. And that's when term "sink or swim" takes on a whole new meaning.

The next type of entrepreneur is "High Diver." These are those fearless souls who climb ladder and dive into business pool head first without worrying about depth of water or dangers that lurk beneath surface. It is for these entrepreneurs that phrase "damn torpedoes, full speed ahead" was coined. Quite often these entrepreneurial daredevils find themselves drowning in unknown waters or end up with their heads buried in bottom of pool.

Both types of entrepreneurs may find success, depending on how well equipped they are to handle water they are diving into. Here are a few ideas to help better prepare you for plunge.

** Let your experience be your guide. Start with what you know. If you have spent twenty years working as an accountant or you love to build wooden toy trains as a hobby, consider how you can take that experience and turn it into a successful business. You might also find a great business idea right under your nose. Look around your workplace. Do you see needs that are going unmet or can you think of a better way of doing something? If so, you might have seed for a profitable business.

** Do what you love and enjoy what you do. I can't emphasize this enough. Many people start a business for wrong reason: to get rich. While it is true that many millionaires in this country made their fortunes from their own business ventures, that should not be your sole motivation for starting a business. If you don't enjoy what you do, you will not be successful, at least not from a mental point of view. Sure, monetary rewards can be tremendous, but mental anguish of working in a business you don't enjoy is a high price to pay. I talk to entrepreneurs all time who are running successful businesses, but are so unhappy as a result that they literally make themselves sick. If you don't enjoy what you do business will become a chore, not a joy.