SWOT Analysis Outline
For Inspiration Creations: A Small Business Specializing in Unique Custom Home Décor
Jamie R. Ballard
Department of Interdisciplinary studies, Southern Utah University
INDS 6511: Strategic Leadership
Crystal Koenig Ph.D.
December 22, 2020
SWOT Analysis Outline
For Inspiration Creations: A Small Business Specializing in Unique Custom Home Décor
Inspiration Creations is a unique custom home décor company that utilizes recycled materials particularly wood and glass and incorporates the customer’s ideas and special design needs into one-of-a-kind products. The target market is the homeowner in the $85,000 plus yearly income bracket.
The team has many years of experience in woodworking, glass design and mixed media arts. They also have professional experience in quality control, home design, excavation, and building. One of the owners possesses a degree in industrial engineering and the other in business.
Vision Statement
To create the most innovative products in our field in an atmosphere where creators are free to express themselves and engage in amazing collaborations without fear of retribution for their beliefs. To promote based on merit and contribution and set the example for others to have the courage to do the same.
Mission statement,
We create products that make our customer’s visions come to life allowing them to express their love for their home and their loved ones.
Environmental scan
Statistical analysis was conducted for this type of business in the surrounding area of North Texas.
| Population of local community | 195,342 |
| Percentage of population adults 67% or | 130,879 |
| Employed | 82,370 |
Education Level of Community
| High School Diploma 92% |
| Bachelor’s Degree 31% |
| Graduate Degree 15% |
Gender
| Male 49% |
| Female 51% |
Ethnicity
| White 62.9% |
| Hispanic 18.61% |
| Black 12% |
| Mixed races 6.4% |
| Asian 3.3% |
The area is one of the fastest growing in the United States (McKinney Texas. 2017; Real Estate Agent, 2020).
Median income for the target area is $91,000 (McKinney Statistics, 2017; USCB, 2019).
This is substantially higher than the median income for the US of $68,703 (Heavey, 2020).
Industry Outlook
It is surprisingly good for the time being, unless we experience more government restrictions. Government interventions can destroy small businesses (Grundvig, 2020; Jaxen, 2020a; Jaxen, 2020b). There currently are no other companies in the area providing the same product and service. It is an industry where creativity in the use of recycled products is the only real limit to expansion. Even if other companies come to compete in this market, their inventory of products may be far different from ours and will attract a different clientele.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
- Personnel: Experienced, multi-talented, innovative, creative, varied experience, unique skill sets, work integrity, willing to put in whatever time it takes to accomplish the task, success oriented, excellence driven, aware of external forces, motivated.
- Company has access to some materials at lower costs
- Substantial tool and supply inventory
Weaknesses
- Not as savvy or active in social media, this exposes us to others who can market better with media.
- Lack the same level of competitiveness that most have these days
- Self-financed/less capital, a small business
- Small network
Opportunities
- More options for remote work for us and others
- New tech design equipment
- Rapid growth and home building in the area
- New connections
- Online opportunities for sales
- Completely new work environment to be re-imagined
Threats
- New competition could come to the area
- Increased labor costs and taxes
- No longer being able to obtain the materials we need. Supply chain issues.
- Permitting changes for this type of construction and production
- Government Regulations
- New technologies for this industry could emerge that are too expensive to adopt.
- Change in customer tastes and desires
We have a lot of strength in the capabilities of the key employees in production and business. We do need to invest in more development in social media and marketing knowledge and utilization. This could be facilitated by either employee training or hiring someone who possesses the necessary skills and desire to handle this area of the business. This will help expand our network.
We are currently financially sound with enough materials and tools for most of the coming year. Our goal to expand and grow into 2022 will require the acquisition of larger higher end equipment. This will mean we will need to be free to do business in 2021 to meet these goals for capital investments. This is also dependent on not having any supply chain issues which are showing more vulnerabilities.
Due to the current volatile political environment our most critical focus will be staying on top of changing business requirements. The 2021 year will be a big year for determining who will be able to stay in business.
As new technologies come on the market, we will need to determine the cost effectiveness of acquiring them. They have the potential of making products more efficiently. We will also need to research sources for better pricing.
We will need to keep in touch with changing customer tastes and desires and with the new contractors and their insights for what new trends are emerging.
Conclusion
The area is still growing rapidly as more people move from areas which have greater government restrictions. There are many new homes going up with lots of additional homeowners and new contractors to funnel those customers our direction. We have adequate supplies at this time of all resources: Supplies, tools, and talent. There is currently more work than we can handle. This usually brings in more competition with new ideas. We are creative, adaptive, and innovative and we will still be able to compete in changing markets.
References
Grundvig, J. (2020, Sept. 20). Vaxxter.com. https://vaxxter.com/the-real-meaning-behind-operation-warp-speed/
Heavey, S. (2020, Sept. 15). U.S. median income hit record in 2019, Census data shows. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-census-idUSKBN2662EY
Jaxen, J. (2020 a). Second wave of politicized lockdowns missing science and sanity. The Highwire.com. https://thehighwire.com/second-wave-of-politicized-lockdowns-missing-science-and-sanity/
Jaxen, J. (2020 b). Will the shots be mandatory? The Highwire.com. https://thehighwire.com/will-the-shots-be-mandatory/
McKinney Texas. (2017).Mckinneytexas.org. https://www.mckinneytexas.org/294/Demographics-Census-Reports
Real Estate Agent. (2020) Realestateagent.com. https://www.realestateagent.com/blog/fastest-growing-cities-in-the-u-s-in-2020/
United States Census Bureau [USCB], (2019, July 1).https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/mckinneycitytexas/PST045219
Master's Candidate Interdisciplinary Studies 