With the economy still sputtering and freelance writers complaining about clients taking longer and longer to pay their bills, it seems like a good time for a SWOT.
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?