Case Study — Life Designs Architecture

Our independent architect who specializes in designing residential homes, Life Designs, has a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) list that includes:

Strengths:

  • ability to respond quickly to customer demands and changes
  • ability to make acceptable margins on small jobs, with low overhead
  • high-quality of work and experience
  • reputation for being affable, honest, and easy to work with
  • reputation for good value of services and prices
  • appeal to customers of working directly with the architect/principal

Weaknesses

  • very limited financial, personnel, and time resources
  • a limit of three to four projects at any given time
  • inability to sell and work on a project at the same time
  • not having a personal relationship with influential local business leaders
  • being known for a limited number of architectural design "styles"

Opportunities

  • a growing market for new homes and more upscale homeowners moving to the area, fostered by a growing local economy
  • a chance to contract with a local developer for an exclusive agreement
  • a chance to work with the university architectural design department as a visiting lecturer
  • a chance to relocate his office from his home to a co-op business office center, with shared secretaries, receptionist, conference rooms, and computers
  • the availability of hiring independent sales reps to work with residential owners, real estate firms, and contractors

Threats

  • a growing amount of advertising and business inroads by outside regional and national firms in the local area
  • new local zoning codes and state/federal legislation increasing the cost of new home and remodeling/addition work
  • increasing costs of building materials
  • a possible shortage of skilled building trade people in the area
  • a new competitor in the area specializing in residential home design, especially in his known "style" of design


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