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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