The business world is changing. What was valid yesterday is no longer valid today.

As a B2B writer, you are constantly changing too. You acquire new copywriting skills and learn more about how to keep on top of the admin side of your business. You get better at negotiating, at project pricing, at convincing prospects (whether B2B marketers, small company CEOs, or agencies), you are the best contender to help them solve their more pressing marketing issues.

Regardless of where you are right now, you must make many business decisions to build and grow your business, such as:

• How to allocate your time
• How to choose your project specialty or niche
• When to get admin help, and more

You could hire a mentor to help you make those decisions and steer your business in the right direction. But you should still have the know-how and tools to monitor your own progress as you grow. 

A SWOT Analysis is a simple tool that takes a snapshot of where you are right now (whether brand-new or more advanced B2B writer) and highlights strategies for growth.

 

	From writer to…	business owner	and beyond.
	NEW WRITER	INTERMEDIATE WRITER	ADVANCED WRITER
SKILLS	Most of your time is spent learning copywriting	Continuous learning, adding tools to your skillset	Keeping on top of new tools and techniques
MARKETING	Some marketing as soon as one skill is acquired (e.g., blogging)	Most of your time is spent marketing (outbound, some inbound)	Mostly inbound marketing
CLIENT WORK	Few or no clients yet	Some clients	Most of your time is spent on client work
ADMIN/ BUSINESS PROCESSES	Identifying first admin needs and possible providers	Scheduling time for business processes (bank account, taxes, etc.)	Keeping on top of all admin activities, perhaps hiring others to help.

The changing nature of your business: from writer to business owner and beyond

What Is SWOT?

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

A SWOT Analysis gives you a bird’s-eye view of your business today by assessing both the internal factors (your Strengths and Weaknesses) and external factors (Opportunities and Threats) currently affecting your business.

A SWOT Analysis also helps you:

• prioritize your objectives and goals.
• organize your thoughts and ideas about your business.
• remove some of the emotion involved in business decision making.

Apply SWOT to Your Writing Business in Five Easy Steps

Step 1: Define Your Goal

You must first decide on a goal for your analysis, bearing in mind how much time you have at your disposal, and how fast you need to earn.

For example, maybe your goal is to decide whether a particular new niche is a good choice for you.

In this case, you will probably pay particular attention to your experience. For example: Do you have relevant skills, access to resources, or know people in the industry?

Or your goal could be to decide whether you should take that new copywriting course in a promotion you’ve seen advertised. In this case, it can be useful to go through the SWOT Analysis process to avoid a decision based on FOMO (the Fear Of Missing Out).

Step 2: List All the Questions

The next step is to brainstorm questions about your business. What are the factors affecting your copywriting business?

Typical questions to define Opportunities and Threats are related to:

• the overall status of the copywriting industry
• the status of your niche industry
• the demand for your specialty (e.g., white papers)
• the future trends likely to affect your industry or specialty (e.g., Web3, AI), etc.

 

To define your Strengths and Weaknesses, you may come up with questions related to:

• your level of experience as a copywriter
• your level of experience or background in your niche’s industry (e.g., B2B pet industry)
• your business skills (marketing, negotiating, project pricing)
• the efficiency of your business processes (filing, accountancy, invoicing)

Be thorough, and list everything that comes to mind. You’ll be able to set priorities in the next step.

Step 3: Fill in the Matrix with the Answers

Now it is time to fill that SWOT Matrix, listing the most important factors first.

Start by answering questions about external factors affecting your business, as they are easier to answer.

If you have a niche, you could have two sets of opportunities:

• Copywriting industry related (TIP: the 2023 AWAI Pricing Guide provides a list)
• Niche related (TIP: industry reports are a good source; check their free samples)

Then move on to the internal factors, answering questions about your strengths and weaknesses.

Be as truthful as possible.

Then prioritize the questions by order of importance. Focus on the top three of each category.

Step 4: Evaluate the Answers

A common way to analyze the answers is called TOWS. TOWS is based on the matching of internal factors with external factors to identify specific strategies (S-O, S-T, W-O, and W-T).

This process allows you to examine four different strategies:

S-O Strategy: What can you do to maximize opportunities and minimize threats?

S-T Strategy: How can you maximize strengths while minimizing threats?

W-O Strategy: How can you minimize weaknesses while maximizing opportunities?

W-T Strategy: What can you do minimize both weaknesses and threats?

This last strategy is the most important one for your business. In the next section, we will look at an example of a decision based on the W-T Strategy.

Step 5: Make a Decision and Implement It

Say you have decided to focus on the W-T Strategy. For example: I know nothing about taxes (weakness). The threat is a financial penalty for not filing my taxes accurately or if they are late. Because I don’t have much time and/or do not want to learn how to do my taxes, I need to find someone to do them for me. Hiring an accountant will help me minimize both threat and weakness.

My first action step? I will ask people in my network for help and/or google local accountants.

While the SWOT Analysis gives you an interesting overview of your business, it will only help grow your business if you use the above strategies to identify and implement specific action steps.

Update Your SWOT Matrix Regularly

Why?

The business world changes. Think of AI. Last year, it was barely mentioned. Now ChatGPT and other AI tools have taken the world by storm.

You are changing. You are growing as a professional. Every time you learn a new skill, it feeds into the top left quadrant of the SWOT.

But most of all, your business grows, one decision at a time.

The most critical and exciting growth moment? When you decide to really “go for it,” and see yourself as a business owner with financial goals in mind.