What are Your Weaknesses as a Professional Writer?

In the post "Tip #2. Know Yourself", I introduced the idea of using a SWOT analysis to look at your own Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. In that post I suggested a few things about writers' Strengths. Then, in the post "Credibility in Business and in Writing" (yesterday), I talked about assessing your own values. It doesn't make sense to work on something you're good at, if fundamentally it's also something your values don't support. For example, I may have made a really good white collar criminal, but I'll never know. You may be the world's best advertising agency copywriter, but if you don't want to live in New York City, maybe working in an agency isn't an option for you.

Image: "Me and myself: What you see is what you get (Self Deception)", by Flickr.com user jcoterhals, under Creative Commons Generic Attribution License. Thanks for sharing!

Don't Let Your Weaknesses Rule You

A great example to illustrate this point is the famous Canadian hockey player, Wayne Gretzky. A fast and graceful skater, Gretzky could be counted on to score goals and set up winning plays out on the ice. But, he was probably a terrible goal tender. How much time do you think Wayne Gretzky spent worrying about being a terrible goal tender? How often did he practice goal tending skills?

The same holds for you. You need to know what your weaknesses are, but only the ones that are relevant to what you want to do, and that are serious enough to possibly harm you. Identify those weaknesses and minimize the risk of letting them hurt you.

Typical Weaknesses of Freelance Writers

You can come up with your own personal list of weaknesses, and write them in your SWOT matrix chart. Here are some ideas to help you. Only write down things that really apply to you in the work you want to do. Only write down things that could have a serious negative impact. Ideas:

- I'm never on time when working to a deadline;
- I don't have any contacts in the area I want to write about;
- I don't have enough money to go two months without work;
- I don't speak English and I want to write in English language publications;
- My speling is terible

and so on.

Often times, the weaknesses look a lot like strengths, just in the negative sense. That's OK. One person's strength will be another's weakness.

After you have identified the relevant and important weaknesses for yourself, take a look at the list, and narrow it down. Don't keep a lot on there. Just the ones that really matter.

Your job will be to come up with techniques for making sure those weaknesses don't hurt you. You probably have some ideas right now. Go ahead and make a note of them while it's fresh in your mind.

Next, we'll look at the Opportunities and Threats facing you as a freelance writer.

POMA Business Planning Session Information

Image: "Fishing at Blenheim", by wit on Flickr.com, under Creative Commons Attribution License. Thank you, wit, for sharing this.

UPDATE (August 21, 2009): My schedule rather fell apart, but I am back on track and posting info to follow up from the POMA conference. Thanks for reading! I hope you'll get something useful here.


Hello!

Thanks for finding this blog. Although this blog is public (anyone can read it), the posts in the next few weeks will be addressed principally to those of you who were at the POMA business meeting.

I am writing this post on the night before the panel discussion with Jay Cassell, Tack Robinson, and me.

It's very possible that tomorrow we will run out of time, and even if we don't, I want to give you some bonus material.

How to get more info via this blog:

1. You can remember to check again. (Not the best method.)
2. If you would like an automatic email notification of every update, there is a box on the blog to sign up for that.
   
3. If you have an RSS reader and you use it, you can subscribe to the feed using the button on the blog.
   
4. If you want to "follow" the blog there is a button for that.

I plan to do a few updates after the POMA meetings end (during the week following the annual business meeting). Then I will respond to questions and update this occasionally.

During the next seven days, I will post a few things for your use:

• Business plan information (already done, see below. If you would like more, just ask.)
  
• Tips that I don't see in every advice website, but that I think are useful to you as a business owner.
• Something to pick up any loose ends from our live session. I am going to wait until after the session and give this a bit of thought.
  

Business Plan Info

It's not hard to find lots of links and information on the "how tos" of making a business plan. Here are two from reputable places. I like the second one (SBA), but what's important is that you find an approach you like and can comfortably work with. Other sources: your bank, your state government (business development agencies), your local library.

• Association of Retired Executives downloadable business plan for a start-up business. This is fairly detailed. You can skip the parts that clearly don't apply.

• US Small Business Administration website has links to a full online training course (slides and voice) in business planning.

Making a business plan imposes discipline on what can be an unruly process.

Don't give in to the temptation to plan, plan, and plan some more. Plan, do, review how you did, revise the plan if needed, and do some more. In the end the doing is the reason for the plan.

OK, that's enough for now. I'll be back.