The impact of the coronavirus pandemic has been massive and extensive. All over the world, cities imposed mandatory lockdowns to stop the spread of the virus. Businesses closed down, and everyone stayed home, hoping that the situation will improve two weeks to a month after. Fast-forward to four to five months later, and the pandemic is still raging. Many businesses remain closed, particularly those that are classified as non-essential by their governments.
While the intent behind lockdowns is good, the repercussions have been devastating for people who’ve lost their jobs. There’s no telling how long the world has to wait for a vaccine to coronavirus or economies to 100% restart again, so now’s the best time to be entrepreneurial and explore other options to earn money.
Here are some excellent ideas for online businesses during the pandemic. They require minimal capital and can be launched entirely online.
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Open a dropshipping business.
Online selling is an excellent business venture today as more consumers are now buying stuff online instead of going out of their homes, risking catching the virus. Unfortunately, setting up an online store requires huge capital since you need to buy products you’re going to sell. You can bypass this process and the attached expense by starting a dropshipping business instead. Dropshipping is a retail fulfilment business: you won’t buy stocks before selling, nor do you have to store them in a warehouse. Primarily, dropshipping companies sell products of third-party suppliers who, in turn, handle the packing and shipment of the purchased goods. With this business format, you don’t suffer financial losses when sales are slow.
The best part is you can sell all kinds of items via dropshipping. Clothing, home and kitchen products, paint by numbers for adults, bracelet-making kits, educational toys for toddlers, kalimbas — anything that can be packed and has a ready supply, you can sell them at your online dropshipping store.
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Sell your best-baked goods.
Baking banana bread and sharing videos and photos of the finished product may have been a social media fad, but it inspired so many to take their hobby to the next level. Today, you’ll find many up-and-coming pastry chefs and home-trained bakers selling their delicious goods on social media. Got a specialty that your family and friends have long raved about? Start by selling that. The people who’ve had it before will want to order and may even promote your new business voluntarily and for free!
You don’t need to start big or set aside a substantial capital for this business. You can begin by offering limited batches per product. That makes it easier to finalise the costing for your baked goods and track your ROI.
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Freelance as a virtual assistant.
You don’t need to be an IT professional to thrive as an online freelancer. There is much online-based work that has nothing to do with programming, coding, or graphic designing. Examples are data-entry positions, administrative support staff, secretarial, logistics supervisors, and more. There is, however, a catch: you need to work hard and find employers looking for candidates to fill these positions in their organisation.
A pandemic is the worst time to lose a job. If you feel you that you need to increase your income or prevent it from dwindling entirely, consider starting an online business this year. You may begin with the three examples we’ve provided.