Did COVID-19 create the best time ever to start your online business?
My beliefs around money and business are a little different than what most news articles are sharing at the moment.
What if we’re in one of the best times there’s ever been to take the dreams you’ve had on the backburner for so long and finally turn them into your own online information or coaching business?
A Forbes article from 2018 stated that “Market research firm Global Industry Analysts projected “E Learning” would reach $107 Billion in 2015 and it did. Now, Research and Markets forecasts show triple the revenue of 2015 — e-learning will grow to $325 Billion by 2025.”
And after having personally helped thousands of clients tap into this ever growing industry for the last decade, there are some specific markers right now that I believe make this time ideal to join them and finally launch and grow your business too.
Here are 3 Reasons why now is the best time to launch and grow that business you’ve always wanted to:
#1 >> People have a lot of time on their hands right now.
Let’s be honest, the fact that you’re reading this article probably has something to do with you being at home, social distancing from others, and having a lot of time on your hands. Am I right?
And guess what? You’re not the only one.
Entire countries are requesting, if not enforcing their citizens stay home right now. Which means there are a lot of people at home and most likely spending a lot of time online scrolling, reading, learning, and looking for something more.
How many times have you wished that you had more time to focus on the things that are important to you? How many times have you thought if you just had more spaciousness in your schedule you could finally start your dream business, coach clients, or even create your first online course?
Right now is a time to hunker down in terms of staying at home to protect yourself and your community. For me, I’m not going out in public at all, just lots of time at home and in nature.
But, this is not a time to hunker down in your business and prepare for the worst — now more than ever, the best version of you is needed in this world and you’re being given an opportunity to rise.
People are stuck at home right now with a lot of time on their hands to think about what’s really important in life and if they’re willing to keep putting off their big dreams and desires for someday.
People are feeling out of control with everything that’s going on outside of them and are choosing to take control back in any area they can by starting their own businesses, taking control of their finances, their health, body, relationships, and more.
And if you can take your work online and create a course or coaching that supports them with that then right now is the best time there may have ever been to finally launch your business into the world.
You think right now is a bad time for you to get your online offer together or launch a business?
Quite the opposite! People want to feel in control in their lives, fulfilled and like they’re moving forward and I think we’re going to see an upswing of new online business growth this year and a shift into it being considered more normal than ever to have an online business.
And one of the key reasons supporting this growth right now is the fact that…
#2 >> Startup costs for an online information or coaching business tend to be incredibly low — and this hasn’t changed.
There’s absolute changes going on right now in the global economy, but none of those affect the fact that it’s still incredibly low-cost to start your own online business.
At the simplest level, you really just need a way to accept payment and deliver your services or offer. Payment services like PayPal will accept payments for you with no upfront costs, just a processing fee, meaning they don’t get paid until you get paid.
And if you’re a coach you can start hosting coaching or consulting sessions with services like Zoom or even video calls over Facebook messenger which is totally free.
Wanting to create your own online course and think that’s going to be much more difficult and complicated? Not really.
There’s free services like Canva where you can design gorgeous workbooks totally for free. Combine the workbooks you create on Canva with some powerful training videos recorded from your laptop, uploaded to a free or super low priced platform like YouTube or Vimeo and then save the videos as private and you’re starting to have the core pieces of a course with high value content ready to deliver, created for free.
But, how do you deliver the content? Get a free email service provider, like Mailchimp, that can send out a delivery email once someone places an order with the content of your training course or coaching and you’re well on your way to being ready for paying clients for less than you were probably spending on your monthly gym pass before that was cancelled in the last week.
You could set up an entire website if you feel inspired to do so, but it’s not required to start getting paid. One of the biggest blocks I see my clients have when going from idea to getting paid with their online offer is they think it’s going to be much more complicated than it really needs to be.
Startup costs for an online business are low, you have nothing to lose, you have a lot of time on your hands and the potential payoff could be replacing your 9–5 income (if not substantially more) and having the freedom and fulfillment you’ve been dreaming of — so why not dive into this billion dollar industry?
In addition to all of this, our society needs positive leaders right now more than ever and this is your opportunity to step up, inspire others and do work that can immediately impact someone else’s life.
Just imagine how good it would feel to be connected and of service during this time while also creating income for yourself and helping our economy.
#3 >> People feel uncertain and are looking for positive leaders.
Yesterday I saw a fellow online entrepreneur share in a private group that they were so excited because they’d just bought a new house and wanted to celebrate with us because it was socially unacceptable to be celebrating things like that publicly online right now — and I couldn’t disagree more.
I think it’s so important to share what’s good in your life to inspire others and show what’s possible despite everything else that’s going on right now.
If all we share about is what’s going wrong we’ll start to believe that everything is going wrong in the world when that’s just not true.
I have clients right now who are starting their own online businesses, booking their first clients and sharing celebrations like replacing their 9–5 income doing work they love on their own terms.
They’ve found the gift in a tumultuous time and found a way to empower themselves even though many other areas of life feel uncertain and changing at the moment.
The world needs positive leaders and examples of what’s going right at this time and the best way to do that is to not hide who you are but share your true desires and gifts with the world and tell us what’s good in your life.
I have seen zero drop in my income from coronavirus this year and I’m actually on track for my best month of 2020 in terms of reach and income because people are looking for leaders, guidance and new forms of income that aren’t dependent on needing to go into a job, now more than ever.
By speaking out on this I believe I can present another option for fulfillment, positive impact, entertainment with purpose and income during a time when so many other things seem uncertain and changing.
What I know is that people are creative and innovative especially during times of pressure and change and it’s been such a joy in just the last couple weeks to help those who desire their own business to finally be creating it — they feel like they’ve taken their power back in all of this.
In the last week I’ve helped some of my favorite fitness and yoga studios take their classes online so they can keep running, earning and serving despite having to shut down their brick-and-mortar locations.
New clients have reached out letting me know they’ve lost their current form of income and they’re done with treating their coaching business like a hobby and ready for it to be a real viable business.
And I’m seeing these new coaches quickly book sessions with their own clients because people are hungry for guidance, connection and support in the areas where they need it most as well.
I’m not saying starting an online business is for everyone, but having worked with an incredibly diverse array of clients from writers to jazz singers, boxing studios to therapists, sex coaches to spiritual healers from every corner of the world, what I know to be true is so much of our lives are online now, more than ever.
And whatever message, story or gift you have to share, it can be taken online, shared and even monetized in a way that’s for the highest good of you and for all.
So what I would like to invite you to consider in the midst of all this change and uncertainty is what if there is a gift in all of this for you related to your work, income and life.
And if there is a gift, what might it be? If you believed just for a moment that all of this is happening for you and not to you and that everything is always working out for you, what might be the silver lining in all of this that you hadn’t noticed yet?
I think this awareness has the ability to turn this from a trying time into a time of great transformation, growth and maybe even new levels of connection and aligned prosperity for all.
I’d love to hear from you, what’s one gift (no matter how small) that the pandemic has unexpectedly given you? Maybe it’s a deeper sense of presence in your life, more time with your kids, or even more time alone to discover who you really are.
Tell me in the comments and inspire every beautiful being who gets to read your comment.
And just maybe the gift in all of this for you is the opportunity to finally start your own business and set yourself up to get paid, doing work you love from anywhere in the world.
To Living Free.
