While practically everyone suffered during the pandemic, women, in particular, bore the brunt of the hardship. Women who worked in the service industry were the first to go, followed by retail workers. Those women who had to leave their jobs to care for their children when schools closed found themselves replaced. If that was you, and going back to your old job is no longer an option or desirable, San Angelo Studios is here to share some ways you can make a living from home with your own online business.
The World of Online Business
With little to no capital or inventory required, online businesses are open to anyone who has an idea, an imagination, and a determination and drive to succeed. Women entrepreneurs are the fastest-growing sector in the county with 1.2 million or 21% of businesses being owned by women in the year 2020. If you found yourself handed some lemons during the pandemic, here are some ways to turn those into lemonade.
- Teaching Even if you’re not a professional teacher, if you’re a mom, chances are you had to be one for your kids during the quarantine. If you thought to yourself, I should get paid for this, there’s a good chance you can. Tutors, English language teachers, music and art teachers, and reading coaches are all available as online businesses. You can network with your local schools, dance and martial arts studios, PTAs, and other parenting organizations to get the word out.
- Retailing Your Home Crafted Goods. If you enjoy making candles, soap, jewelry, clothing, baked goods, or handmade home accessories, why not turn that into a business? Before, there were few sites to market them, with Etsy being the one most identifiable. Now there are dozens of sites where you can sell and market your products to a group of consumers who are looking for something not only unique but handcrafted. A lot of people have been turned off from shopping in the big box stores and want to support small businesses.
- Selling What You Know Are you fluent in a second language? You could earn a modest full-time income being an online translator. Can you design websites? Are you adept at Photoshop? There are loads of people who are in need of those services. Are you a good organizer? You can market yourself as a personal assistant. Almost anything you know how to do can be turned into an online business.
Marketing Your Small Business
You’re all about online businesses, so use online tools to help you market it too.
- Marketing is like sending out invitations to a party. You can have all the food, drinks, and ambiance for a great big blow-out, but if nobody’s there, it’s not really a party, is it?
- First, write a marketing plan. A comprehensive marketing plan will address budget, target market, sales goals and strategies, and how to quantify success.
- You can learn how to market yourself with some tutorials or you can attend college classes and even earn your degree in marketing. It’s all up to how much of your own time you’re willing to invest.
- There are sources to find free apps, downloads, and programs that can help you save a lot of your cash resources too.
Managing Your Small Business
Running a small business has a lot of moving parts and it’s easy to get overwhelmed or even worse, run the risk of all your hard work going down the drain because you weren’t prepared. Thank goodness there is online help for that too.
- Use online experts to walk you through what you need to know, from staying legally compliant, to finances and taxes. Eventually, you’ll want to hire an outside professional for help, but in the beginning, a good solid online resource like this one can make the process easy to understand and give you a thorough knowledge of everything you need to get started.
- Write up a business plan. You can use a professional who specializes in that, or you can find some online templates and guides to help you if you feel you’re up to the challenge. And it is a challenge. A good business plan not only outlines everything you’ll need to run your business now but forecasts what your needs will be as it grows.
- Don’t neglect your bookkeeping! Maintaining precise records is a must, no matter what direction your business takes, so invest in a bookkeeping system that you can trust.
If there is an upside to living through a worldwide pandemic, it is perhaps the great awakening to the possibilities of doing something new. If you think this is the right time to step out on your own, there’s a whole world-wide-web of help out there, right at your fingertips.
San Angelo Studios is a community of bold minds who have decided to work under the same roof. Our workspace and the people around us inspire us to take action, to grow, to do better. Call (325) 400-9957.