Identifying Opportunities for Freelance Writers (Overview)

The SWOT analysis framework introduced in "Tip #2. Know Yourself" is a useful, simple way to organize your thoughts and show you where to start in planning your business strategy.

The Opportunities square is where you write the positive things in your external business environment.

Image: "Targets of Opportunity", by Flickr.com user Randy Son of Robert, used under Creative Commons Attribution License. Thank you, Randy, for sharing this clever montage.

Think About the Conditions That Will Help You be Successful

The word "Opportunities" makes me think of "markets". The magazines, websites, newspapers, book publishers, and others who might pay for my work. However, for this part of the analysis, let's look more broadly at the business environment in which you operate.

And, just as Weaknesses are often the negative versions of Strengths, so too are Threats often the negative versions of Opportunities. If, while considering Opportunities, you think of Threats, just jot them down in the Threats square on your SWOT matrix.

Opportunities in the Freelance Writer's Environment

Here are some prompts to help you observe and analyse your own business environment.

- The economy at a global, national, regional and local scale. Which of these are relevant to you? Don't worry about the ones that aren't relevant.

- The business success (or lack) of the publications you wish to sell to. Are they cutting back? Expanding? Changing formats? For example, a new publication starting up is an opportunity for writers. When publications are cutting back, it's more of a threat. But don't just think about the general situation, try to think about what's happening in your particular niche.

- The availability of funds, whether that's by loans, grants, support (e.g. press trips), free products (e.g. Google now has free software that is compatible with the Microsoft Office suite).

- The availability of photographs at low cost (e.g. from Flickr.com, which I personally love, and where many photographers share their work at no cost, according to the license terms of each individual picture).

- Major events or seasonal patterns that create opportunities for you (e.g. the Olympics, or annual hunting seasons).

- The growth of websites in need of fresh content.

I hope you can see that "Opportunities" at this point in the analysis means positive things in your external environment, not just a list of markets.

Of course, by all means make note of the particular markets that offer opportunities for you. I'm not saying to overlook them. However, part of what we'll be doing here is to explore ways of finding opportunities that fit you, and to do that, it's good to start with an open mind and a very broad idea of what aspects of your particular business environment will work in your favour.