Saturday, August 22, 2009

Tip #2. Know Yourself

Knowing yourself is essential to being truly successful in business, in writing, and in life. From a business perspective, one way to start is with a SWOT matrix.

Image: "Ani and Ani" by Flickr.com user lokate366, under Creative Commons Attribution License. Thank you for sharing this picture, lokate 366.


In the POMA panel session (Tack Robinson, Jay Cassell, Jill Browne), one of the points I wanted to stress as a foundation to making a good business plan is, "Know Yourself". There are lots of books out there giving general advice for writers, and also for people writing business plans. But... one size does not fit all! It's important to play to your strengths, and not let your weaknesses take you by surprise.

The 2X2 Matrix as a Tool for Self-Discovery

The simple 2X2 matrix is a useful tool for sorting out complex information, and for organizing your thoughts. It's going to give back according to what you put in. As with many tools and fundamental concepts, its simplicity can be deceiving. A sincere self-analysis using a 2X2 matrix can show you a map of your strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

The SWOT Analysis Applied to You Personally

As a writer and as a business person, you have strengths and weaknesses, and your business environment provides you with opportunities and threats. Those are the four boxes of the 2X2 matrix we talked about in the POMA panel presentation. Here's what the box looks like:



Begin by assessing your strengths as a professional writer. Here are a few strengths you may have. I hope this list will prompt you to come up with more strengths, especially those things that make you stand out.

Ideas for strengths as a professional writer:

  • always ahead of deadline
  • editors tell me I am easy to work with
  • wide network of well-placed contacts
  • take own photographs
  • inventory of research to draw upon
  • well-informed and experienced in the things I write about (e.g. a fishing writer who has 30 years of fly fishing behind her)
  • I write quickly
  • I do features very well
  • I do fillers and service pieces very well
  • I have won awards
  • I am a recent graduate with knowledge of current electronic publishing tools
  • I am experienced in computer-assisted research.
Add whatever comes to mind. Then rank your list, but don't agonize over it. Within your strengths, it's enough if you classify them into an A-list and a B-list. The A-list is what jumps out at you and feels like your strongest strength, if you will.

After this, we'll look at weaknesses, and then at opportunities and threats.

If you missed the earlier posts, my first tip for anyone in business is #1. Get The Money.

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