SMART Goals to Use in Starting a Business
Final Paper: 1, 5, 10-Year Plan
For your final paper, you're going to build on many of the foundational principles we've discussed over the course of the semester in 3 distinct phases.
Read this webpage and watch the video embedded there:
SWOT ANALYSIS LINK: https://www(dot)mindtools(dot)com/pages/article/newTMC_05_1.htm (Links to an external site.)
Phase 1:
Your culminating activity will involve determining your major goal(s) for the next 1, 5, and 10 years as they pertain to your career path. Obviously, your career path will impact and also be impacted by elements of your personal life, so it is permissible to bring personal circumstances into the discussion. However, make sure to keep the overall focus on how your career life path is a central component to your future aspirations. You may choose 1 major goal to discuss for each year of your plan or several goals for each year--that decision is yours to make. Write your goal(s) with the S.M.A.R.T. goal method.
Phase 2:
Once you determine your goal(s), you will then conduct a SWOT analysis (as we discussed in class) to determine the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats you may experience as you work to achieve your goal(s). Strengths and Weaknesses are internal characteristics (think of family/friend support, skills and abilities, educational level, etc.) to consider, while Opportunities and Threats are external factors (think of changing technology, the economy, political influences, global security, etc.). Please view the video in the link below and read the corresponding article, then use the attached document as a template for creating your own SWOT analysis worksheet (if it's easier, you can create your own SWOT table in the Word document for your paper by making a table with 4 boxes--2 rows, 2 columns). You will conduct 1 SWOT analysis for each year of the plan (1 ,5, and 10 years) for a total of 3 SWOT analysis worksheets. When filling out the worksheets, you do not need to write paragraphs and sentences. Simply describing your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats as bullet points in each box will be sufficient. See the SWOT Worksheet here:
SWOT Analysis Chart – Career Management.docx
Phase 3A: (1 single-spaced page for each year; 3 written pages total)
In narrative form, describe each part of your SWOT analysis for the given year in more detail. You will do this for each year (1, 5, and 10) of the plan. For example, consider the following types of questions:
How can you use the strengths/opportunities to overcome the weaknesses/threats?
How can you maximize the strengths/opportunities and minimize the weaknesses/threats?
Knwin your weaknesses/threats, what can you do to overcome these challenges?
Which of these factors: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, or Threats will play the most significant role in the journey towards your goals...Why?
Based on the results of your SWOT analysis, what action steps can you take to help you achieve your goals?
Phase 3B: (a couple of sentences at the end of the narrative for each year)
Lastly, for each year describe one step you can take that may be daunting or scary, but you would be willing to attempt to help you achieve your larger goal(s). Think of it as a calculated risk. (Remember our discussion about not letting fear getting the better of you in your career decision making). This part only has to be a couple of sentences (what is the step you can take and how can it help you achieve your goal).
Overall, the format of your paper should look like this:
Year #1
1. S.M.A.R.T. Goal(s):
listed at top of the page (Phase 1)
2. Narrative:
(Phases 3A & 3B, 1 single-spaced page long)
3. SWOT Analysis Worksheet (Phase 2) (separate page)
Year #5
1. S.M.A.R.T. Goal(s):
listed at top of page (Phase 1)
2. Narrative:
(Phases 3A & 3B, 1 single-spaced page)
3. SWOT Analysis Worksheet (Phase 2) (separate page)
Year #10
1. S.M.A.R.T. Goal(s):
listed at top of page (Phase 1)
2. Narrative:
(Phases 3A & 3B, 1 single-spaced page)
3. SWOT Analysis Worksheet (Phase 2) (separate page)
Please include everything in one single Word or PDF document and upload it to Canvas. Your paper will consist of 3 written pages of narrative (1 single-spaced written page for each year) and 3 SWOT analyses (1 worksheet for each year).
Please use the following format:
please also filled out the SWOT doc thanks
12 point font
Single-spaced
1-inch margins
If you have any questions, please make sure to ask ahead of time. Good luck!
for this assignment. There is three years. For each year, there will be a single space page (2 double space pages) and a page SWOT analysis. So there will be 3 pages for each year, and 9 pages in total. Just to make a clarification, thank you
Subject and Section
Professor’s Name
May 3, 2022
SWOT Analysis Worksheet
Year #1
1 S.M.A.R.T. Goal(s): To learn and apply ten (10) new and essential skills on how to start a business, organize a team, and manage a small business within a period of one year.
2 Narrative:
1 A There are several circumstances and traits that I have that I consider to be a strength to achieve my dreams. From the SWOT Analysis below, it is clear that I can have a good foundation of my leadership and business skills through our small business and my experiences during middle school. I am also fond of talking to and interacting with others, which I firmly believe is necessary for effective communication in the workplace. In line with the weaknesses and threats that I have outlined, I believe that these strengths would help me scale my experiences, reduce my worries and anxieties, and even improve my public speaking skills since both of these open up plenty of avenues to talk to others, learn from them, and apply the skills that I learn even in smaller quantities. For example, if I learn about being a servant leader, I would like to learn more about this by reading both course- and non-course-related books that would illustrate how this can be applied in real life. After that, I plan on testing these skills in minor roles that we will be conducting in class, whether I become a leader or a member.
In addition to this, knowing that I still have ways to go before I can effectively and completely deal with my weaknesses and threats, I believe that I myself should seek more ways to connect with others and practice these skills. As I emphasized in the threats section, the lingering fear of COVID-19 makes it challenging to practice leadership in a face-to-face manner. Nonetheless, I also emphasized in my opportunities that new digital and online modes of interaction would help me train in these changing landscapes. Aside from this, I believe that I can practice my personal relationship and leadership skills while helping manage the store while also improving my digital interaction during course hours. This is essential considering the shift towards digital modes of work setup, professional interaction, and business dealings because of the pandemic that has happened.
Nonetheless, an analysis of my goals would suggest that my opportunities will play the most significant role in my journey toward this short-term goal. This is because these opportunities in my school, subject, and technological advances, to name a few, are very significant during these changing times when I will become a leader myself one day.
2 In order to further improve my ‘gains’ and ‘learnings’ for this objective, I want to increase my opportunities for learning by actively seeking roles and responsibilities where I can demonstrate my leadership skills. In other words, I would like to put myself out there by going outside my own comfort zone. Studies show that going outside your comfort zone, facing your fears, and taking the extra mile for the things you do in life are effective ways to develop one’s leadership capabilities CITATION Bli18 \l 1033 (Bliazis).
3 SWOT Analysis Worksheet – YEAR 1 (Phase 2)
STRENGTHS (internal)
* I am a fast learner
* I have experience in managing small projects and businesses
* I know how to work under stress and manage my time effectively
* I was awarded a leadership award when I was in middle school
* I am fond of talking with and learning from others.
WEAKNESSES (internal)
* I get easily worried when things fail to go according to plan
* My skills were limited to small projects with at most seven people in a team
* There are certain times when I feel too stressed out that I feel like not moving at all
* There were times when I felt afraid when talking in front of many individuals
OPPORTUNITIES (external)
* Good support system in the university and classes
* Our family has a small business with six (6) employees
* My courses provide several opportunities for us to be a leader
* Studies show that leadership skills can be developed through group projects
* The presence of various online and digital tools to interact with my peers
* Course materials and subjects that teach leadership and business skills
THREATS (external)
* The lingering threat of COVID-19 Pandemic
* Shortage in face-to-face interactions to effectively test leadership skills
Relatively large number of classes
Time needed for work and other non-academic requirements
Year #5
1 S.M.A.R.T. Goal(s): To build a small online business with a team of about 8-10 individuals within two to three years after graduation.
2 Narrative:
1 A The SWOT Analysis for my fifth year (5th year) shows a projected significant improvement after reaching my goals for the first year of my own development. Accordingly, this is the reason why I believed that during my 5th year, I should have been able to improve my (1) theoretical and practical business and leadership skills, (2) get over my ‘perfectionist’ attitude and my fear of public speaking, and (3) increase my experiences in dealing with a relatively more significant number of staff and members.
Accordingly, I realized that in order to use these newly developed strengths and lingering opportunities to deal with my weaknesses and threats, I would need an effective team that I could work with. Luckily, one of the opportunities from Year 1 to Year 5 (and even Year 10) is the developments in digital and technological modes of interacting with others. Thus, To use and maximize these strengths and weaknesses, I plan to build a network with trusted, diligent, and friendly colleagues during my courses and use social media networks to find other partners to fill my effective team.
Additionally, knowing my weaknesses and the threats that linger during my startup's development, I plan to work diligently and learn continuously on how to be a more effective leader, especially in a highly-risky and stressful environment like a startup company. This is the reason why I would simultaneously work with our core team and take an MBA course so that I can apply these additional skills every waking hour.
However, knowing the competitiveness of online businesses, I believe that this would play one of the most significant aspects in my 5th year onwards as someone who has yet to build a solid professional network, challenging existing businesses and expanding my own consumer base would be very difficult. The sheer lack of funding and connections would surely make it one of the most challenging times of my life. Nonetheless, similar to what I have said before, I plan on doing three essential things in order to help achieve my goals, namely; (1) working diligently and proactively with others, (2) reaching out to trusted and diligent colleagues, (3) taking advantage of online and digital technologies, and (4) continuously digesting information by reading, attendin...