Company

A SWOT analysis identifies your company’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. As you scale, it’s a useful tool for unlocking long-term, sustainable growth. Here’s a step-by-step guide to conducting a SWOT analysis, along with examples and templates.

Running a business can significantly impact your life. But before you can run a business, you need to start a business. That’s why we put together this step-by-step guide to help you plan, validate, and launch your next business, whether it’s your first or your 10th.

How can entrepreneurs build a sustainable business and ensure competitive advantage? It all starts with your business model. Learn about the most innovative types of business models, with examples and insights from companies using them.

Though most small businesses know the importance of a vision and mission statement, many struggle to write one—it’s normal. Learn the basics of mission and vision statements, with real-world examples from top brands, and tips for writing your own today.

Starting an ecommerce business is as exciting as it is challenging. To help, we've put together a list of essential advice, compiled from Shopify's most popular guides and videos, on all the steps involved in getting a new online business off the ground.

Excited about your new product idea but don’t know how to make it a reality? This guide to finding a manufacturer will help you bring it to life.

Starting with a business plan template is the easiest way to simplify the work of writing a business plan. We put together a template (and an example) to help you optimize your planning time.

Business plans aren’t just for entrepreneurs who need to secure funding—they can help you plan and evaluate new ideas or growth plans, too. Find out how to write a business plan and get the most out of the process in this comprehensive guide.

How well do you know your competitors? In a world where competition is fierce, you can’t afford to stay in the dark. Learn how to do a competitive analysis and stand out.

Sometimes the hardest part of entrepreneurship isn't starting a business, it's knowing where to go next. Check out our guide to the most important milestones to hit in your first year of business.

In October, we surveyed over 150 aspirational entrepreneurs in the US and asked them to answer a deceptively simple question: “How much does it cost to start a business?” We then compared their answers to the reported spending of 300 business owners. Here's what we found.