More goes into who is a competitor than just being in the same industry. Consider who your prime target audience is and who each similar business targets, what price point do you and these other businesses fall into, are there things you do that the other companies don’t? What about any key differences like contract vs no-contract or retainer vs pay by service. Lastly, consider the competitors SWOT compared to yours.

That’s the point of doing competitor analysis and SWOT sheets is to determine any areas where your company falls short and things you need to improve on. If your SWOT pales in comparison to others, that just means its time to address those shortcomings and improve.

Do this as often as you want but at least once a year is recommended. Or when major things change in your company or your competitors. For example if you’ve recently doubled down on social media or marketing and your competition hasn’t, it might be a good time to revisit a SWOT template and see if your efforts have given you the edge or if there’s other areas that still need improved.

Also, if your competitors have recently began offering a new service or implemented something that gave them an edge, it’s time to do SWOT and maybe some additional market research to see how you can remain competitive.