When the economy goes south, we worry even more than usual, especially this go round when on top of a recession that’s getting worse by the month the very nature of the publishing industry is changing and many markets that were historically good to freelancers are drying up.

Some writers I know are battening down the hatches, sticking with tried and true markets, going after corporate work or devoting time they normally would have spent sending letters of introduction or queries to volunteer work, exercising or brushing up on their German.

Then there are those who decide that if they can’t earn what they need from writing alone they’ll take another job.

And there’s nothing wrong with that. When it comes to paying the mortgage and putting food on the table, sometimes you have to do what you have to do. And you’d be in good company.  Anton Chekhov considered himself a doctor who wrote on the side. Stephen King was still a high-school teacher when he wrote his first novel. Joseph Wambaugh continued working in the Los Angeles Police Department’s detective unit even after his first books were published. If it worked for them, it can definitely work for us too.

In the last year I have writer acquaintances who have taken full or part-time jobs as:

* A researcher/investigator for private investigator agency
* A chamber of commerce marketing and communications director
* A university professor
* A university communications representative
* A retail sales associate – that would be Caitlin Kelly, who wrote a fantastic essay about the experience in the Feb. 15 New York Times.

Another freelance acquaintance has her name in for a job managing a sports complex. She’s been told that if she gets the job she could even do freelance work from her office when business is slow. But she wonders about how it would look.

At a time when the country’s losing hundreds of thousands of jobs, we should be beyond caring how to looks. It’s a job, and that’s huge. And since we freelancers are good at turning anything and everything we see or experience into fodder for stories, think how much new material having a job in a different industry will provide when things turn around and magazines and Websites start buying stories again.

SWOT is the name of a career assessment technique espoused by Grant Plowman, owner of Interactive Media Publishing, a digital media publishing company in southern Oregon. I mentioned Plowman earlier this year in a post about how freelance writers can cope with bad times.

According to Plowman, freelancers can use SWOT, which stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, to pinpoint where they are in their careers and what they could be doing better. The exercise entails analyzing your strengths, evaluating weaknesses, examining opportunities with present or potential clients and looking at threats to existing client relationships and whether the services you provide represent a value that exceeds its cost. The entire exercise could be done over a weekend, Plowman says.

Here’s how it works:

Strengths- Write down all your strengths. Include everything you’re good at, whether you’re currently “selling” it or not. “Be bold, confident and put all those things on the matrix that you are comfortable providing,” Plowman says. “Be expansive, but honest – this is not a time for self doubt.” One way to find what you’re good is to ask friends, peers and previous supervisors for their input. It “may lead to new insights about your strengths,” Plowman says.

After creating your list of strengths, use it to re-do your marketing brochure, standard letter of introduction, Website and profile on LinkedIn or Facebook. Stress your strengths and the benefits you could bring to an organization you work with. Refresh recommendations and testimonials by re-contacting people. At the same time, ask them about possible writing opportunities. Use the opportunity to build your contacts list.

Weaknesses – Next, create a list of your weaknesses. Be candid and complete. This isn’t meant to be a downer, but to help determine where you cannot compete well, Plowman says.

Opportunities – Next, explore opportunities. Define which of your strengths represents the best opportunity. Build a contribution index, a cross reference between your strengths and how they apply to both short-term and long-term business opportunities.

Look at your existing clients. If you can, find out about their short-term and long-term plans. Look at your present work and consider how it applies to those plans. Explore what they see happening in their business in the near future. “Remember your contact’s position may limit their perspective,” Plowman says. “Develop new contacts through introductions from existing contacts. This is an intricate, delicate dance, be cautious not to step on any toes. Do not destroy or harm existing relationships in attempting to build new ones.”

Contact previous and potential clients as well. Inquire about possibilities for work. Remember to share your strengths and how they could benefit the company.

Threats – Finally, examine the work you’re currently doing and whether it represents a value to your clients that exceeds their cost. “You may not have all the information you need to assess the situation,” Plowman says. In that case, use your analytical skills to guestimate. Take a top-down perspective of your current relationships and look for weaknesses.

Have you done any kind of analysis of your current freelance writing business. If so, what was the result?