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💪 SWOT 2 Success - Analyzing your way to success.

In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 253 - SWOT Your Way to Success, I asked on the Sugar Cookie Marketing Facebook Page how Easter sales were so far (🐰 Easter falls almost two weeks earlier this year than it did in 2025). 

And the answers were all over the place - from being completely sold out to selling out of nothing. So what gives? 📍 Is location that big of a factor between selling out and selling a big fat egg (🐣 Easter puns)? 

Likely no - while it is a factor, conducting a SWOT analysis will give us a better answer as to what's working for you specifically and what needs to be buried in the backyard grass (🌱🥚 forced Easter puns).

The goal of SWOT analysis is to establish what's working, what's working against you, where there's room for growth, and what to watch out for. SWOT is an acronym that stands for:

• 💪 Strengths - What the business does better than anyone else. 
• 💪 Weaknesses - Areas where the business could improve or lacks resources. 
• 💪 Opportunities - External chances to grow or find a new market. 
• 💪 Threats - External factors that could cause trouble. 

In this week's podcast, ✝️ we run Corrie's Easter Pre-sales through a SWOT Analysis to determine that the cookie she thought would sell the least because of its religious affiliation actually sold the most. 

A SWOT Analysis determined that next year, ✅ she should offer more religious cookies, ✅ more exciting designs, ✅ allow for more of a marketing runtime by 2 weeks, and ✅ cross-promote with a cookie class that's not so close to Easter (so she can sell more leading up to Easter).

Let's adapt a SWOT Analysis to cottage bakers. When you think of your strengths and weaknesses, those are things that fall within the home - so ❌ your aging equipment (weakness) or ✅️ your automation software (strength), while your opportunities and threats are things that fall outside of the home - so a ✅️ new farmer's market opening (opportunity) or ❌ increased gas prices affecting delivery costs (threat).

SWOT for Cottage Bakers:

• 👉 Strengths - Low overhead costs or a "secret" family recipe.
• 👉 Weaknesses - Limited oven space or being the lowest priced baker (burnout risk).
• 👉 Opportunities - A local farmers' market opening up or a trend in gluten-free treats.
• 👉 Threats - Rising flour prices or strict new county health labeling laws.

Now that we know what a SWOT analysis is and how to look at the four quadrants (S-W-O-T), we need to find an objective. 

For the example above, we were conducting a SWOT analysis on how Corrie can increase her pre-sales for Easter 2027. By keeping this analysis in a living Google sheet, she can reference her analysis, take notes, and write future suggestions to herself (🧠 because goodness only knows we won't remember what happened yesterday, let alone what happened 364 days ago).

• 💡 How can I increase my Easter Pre-sales next year?
• 💡 Could I quit my 9-5?
• 💡 Should I expand into a brick-and-mortar?
• 💡 Are my sales dropping month over month?

Having an objective tells us where to look and guides the analysis. Listen to this week's podcast to hear more about the TOWS matrix of developing three SMART goals from your SWOT analysis (holy acronyms, twins!) 

👂 Snag this podcast on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or watch it on YouTube) by searching for Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 253 - SWOT Your