Covid 19 verifies abuse of nature. The worst reality it has shown is people losing their jobs, businesses, livelihood. Even if someone is able to save their job, there's a massive salary cut of 50% to 75% and in some industries "Leave without pay" has been announced. We might develop a herd immunity for corona but the deterioration of our financial health will take a long time to recover.
The scare of redundancy and salary cuts, every mind is thinking of alternative sources of income.
Internet-based businesses are a trillion-dollar industry. Whatever we see around us is good marketing on the contrary products with bad marketing will never see daylight.
A little disclaimer I want to share that all these businesses require "Patience". If you imagine online business will be like watching a youtube video or opening a gmail account..it's not. If you are looking for a get rich quick scheme, you will be disappointed. Just remember all our life we spend a lot of money in schools and colleges to get maybe a $100 - $300 starting salary job that we disliked even more. So sell a product online which is in sync with your values and you won't regret it.
The brick and mortar business can easily be translated into profitable online business. Amazon, Flipkart are great examples for it. It sounds difficult to create a marketplace like Amazon. Instead of climbing a mountain first let us find out what we can do to run or have a successful online business with little or no investment.
1. Blogging
The mind is filled with tons of ideas but nobody ever thought of writing it down and it goes away. Few people are now making millions just blogging.
There are two ways of blogging
- When you blog for someone else organization or business and you get instant money
- Blog for yourself and create your own brand which creates wealth slow and steady.
2. Create your own marketplace
Don't think about Amazon for a second but think about the small vendors who started online during this difficult time to help the community.
Grocery shopping or vegetable vendors or electronics online they all started small and when the demand increased they are big and now you know their name. If you are thinking this can be done on WhatsApp but imagine you have a website with all the items listed it's going to take time initially but people are just going to add everything to the cart you will have more orders. On WhatsApp one can take one or two at a time it can be used as a supporting app to the website.
3. Product start-up
Retailer's margins are compromised a lot during COVID 19 especially in few countries. What if you create your own product, physical or digital
- Physical Products: All the creativity of crafts, stitching, home decoration, furniture can be personalized if you have an online platform. All these products can easily be promoted online on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Fb. These platforms are all filled with self-created products. You can post your product's marketplace on Facebook, Instagram and other social platforms. The interested buyer will use messenger to connect with you. Buy changing the location on Facebook you can visit various local marketplaces online.
- Digital Products: products that are delivered instantly after the purchase like e-books, software, webinar, paid video tutorials. In many Asian countries, a two-hour webinar is making anything from $500 to $5000. The idea of these webinars is to engage more and more people globally to buy either a live online event or subscription for paid online series of videos or teaching services. If you know something teach it online by making paid videos instead of sharing it for free on YouTube. Again you don't have to be an expert but a good speaker and know your product better than the attendees or your students.
4. Affiliate marketing
This marketing is best for people who don't have a business or any product to sell. Every big marketplace like ebay, Amazon has affiliate programs and it's usually free to join. As one signs up they are provided with a link for the product they want to promote.
All the favorite products can be promoted on personal websites and social media like YouTube, Facebook.
Affiliate marketing can be done along with any other e-commerce option.
5. Social Media
All famous YouTuber started with the first video and succeeded by being consistent and providing great content. Videos have more impact than templates.
You don't have to become famous to start earning from youtube, the ads of famous products from Amazon can be provided in video description. For example "10 best cameras to look for in the year 2020" and provide links for all 10 cameras in descriptions below.
6. Domain Sales:
Buying and selling domains. Bigrock, namecheap, Godaddy sells domain. Many techies make purchases of the domain for as less as $10 and when it is famous they sell it at a much higher price. It's like buying land waiting for it to appreciate and sell it. The domain is digital space.
7. Stock Market
To invest in stock-market one needs to have a demat and a trading account. You should have a understandings of stocks. Unlike other online businesses one needs to invest in stocks. It must be kept in mind that there is a great chance of one loosing money investment in the beginning. It's better to start small in the Learning phase.
8. Freelancing
If you have certain skills or you are ready to learn a skill, online freelancing is best for you. Whether you are an event management firm, content writer, architect, etc you can have an online presence by making your business page on Facebook which is free and pay FB to promote your business online.
You can ask Facebook to give you a list of viewers who watched your video and then use email or video marketing to retarget them. It's no wonder you keep on seeing the same ad over and over again.
9. Online Consultant
There are thousands of HR consultants, Real Estate consultants, Marriage consultants, accounting consultants, Law and banking consultants and so on. How do they make money in this situation. The video conferencing industry has provided free video calling apps in the pandemics. This has Allowed regular consultants to become online consultants. Insta and fb is overloaded with such stories.
Conclusion
Here's is a list of most online businesses that can be started immediately. Depending on the country and government regulations there are more online options available to monetize. The above list is best suited for the global Market.
Discover your capabilities with Relevant Business Idea. Ask for a free consultation and digitalization help.
