How to Write an Independent Film Business Plan - 5/7 SWOT/ Risk Analysis

In part 5 of my 7-part series on business planning, we talk about the risk management/SWOT Analysis of your project.  It begins with a risk statement that goes into exactly why film is a highly speculative and inherently risky investment, and then goes into a SWOT Analysis that illustrates how you plan on managing those risks.  For those of you who don’t know SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

Risk Statement

This is a boilerplate legal copy that you should not write yourself.  You’ll need a lawyer to write it, or some editions of Filmmakers and Financing by Louise Levinson have a statement you can use.  You’ll see it in the related books section below.  The purpose of this statement is to ensure that any potential knows that film investment carries a fairly significant risk of losing everything you put into it. 
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This is something you MUST include in order to not paint too blue a sky, or make false promises.  If it scares off any investors, it’s probably better you didn’t work with them anyway.

SWOT Analysis

The way I do my SWOT analysis is on the bottom third of the page that contains the risk statement, I do a 2*2 grid of strengths weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that outlines everything that will come for the following pages.  If it fits, this is succinct and a great way to manage space while informing your people.   

The other four sections of this plan are things I generally dress in a format similar to an outline, starting with a restatement of the Strength, Weakness, opportunity, or threat itself, and then stating how I intend to mitigate the negative and capitalize on the positive.  Here’s an outline of what each of these parts of the acronym stands for.

Strengths

Strengths are good things that are inherent to your project.  This could be something like holiday movies tend to have longer lifespans because they have regular movies to trigger people feeling the need to watch them, or there’s already an existing fan base for the intellectual property you’ve optioned.  Another good thing to focus on would be the track record of your team, and the general stength of any marketable attachments you’ve gotten. If you don’t have any of those, there’s an article on it in the free ebook in the resouce pack.
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Weaknesses

Conversely, weaknesses are things inherent to your project that may represent a problem. These could be things like the Fourth of July is a uniquely American Holiday, so the film may be difficult to sell internationally.  It could also be something like, the film is completely original and has no existing fanbase.   As previously stated, you’ll want to add exactly how you plan on addressing any weaknesses below each one. 

Opportunity

While Strengths are inherent to your project, opportunities are more related to the current state of the overall market.  This could be a marketable attachment you’ve got that just had a big win, such as one of your cast being cast in a major show or movie that was just announced.

Another example of this might be that there aren’t enough Fourth of July movies currently being made to sate demand and you’ve budgeted your film such that you can make your money back domestically.

Another example would be that a book from the same author as the book we’ve based our script on just got picked up for a television series by *insert name of the studio or PayTV Channel.*. Similarly, if your story is inspired by current conditions going on in the world or targeting a growing audience this is a good place to hammer that point home.

Threats

Just like opportunities, threats are reflective of current market conditions.  An example of a threat would be that due to the current geopolitical state of the world, many foreign countries are less likely to buy American than they used to be.  A potential trade war would also be considered a threat, although as of right now that’s not incredibly likely to effect to film and media.   Without being too political, many threats you’ll need to understand are a result of macroeconomic conditions that you can only really track by being politically aware.

Thank you SO much for reading!  I do a lot of this sort of work with my clients, so if you have a direct question that you need help answering for your business, then check out the Guerrilla Rep Services page.

If you like the content, you should grab my free film business resource package You’ll get great research aides and a whitepaper on the state of the industry, you’ll also get a free e-book, money and time-saving resources, templates, monthly digests of content like this segmented by topic, plus a whole lot more. Link in the button below.

Finally, this is part 5 of a 7 part series. Next week we’ll be tackling the financial text section, and then we’ll round it out with proforma financial statements the following week. In the meantime, check out the other parts of the series with the links below.

Executive Summary
The Company
The Projects
Marketing
Risk Statement/SWOT Analysis (This Section)
Financials Section (Text)
Pro-Foma Financial Statements.