If you are looking for a profitable side business you can do during this lockdown and COVID-19 pandemic, here are 7 businesses that are succeeding during this period.
With Covid-19, we are already seeing early signs of a shift in how consumers and businesses behave. Businesses are allowing employees to work from home, goods are drying up in the counter and people are more conservative with their spending.
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With all of these, the economic slowdown caused by the pandemic hasn’t hit all industries equally — and some are even doing better than before. Let’s take a look at some of these businesses that are doing well in spite of the lockdown.
Before we get to it, it’s important that I say this. We do not encourage you to exploit the current situation to profit from people’s fear. Just to make quick money people are selling face-masks, hand sanitizer and other essential items for 10 to 50 times the price. Not only is this wrong, but it is also very short-sighted. You may make the quick money but at the expense of your reputation. There is nothing wrong with making more money from your business when demand exceeds supply. Considering that the current situation is a matter of life and death, I think these people need to be more considerate. With that said, you can at least tell what this piece is not about. It’s not about selling hand sanitizers and face masks at an exorbitant price.
These are the 9 Businesses That Are Booming Because of This Pandemic
- Cleaning Services
As the fear of the corona virus spreads, it’s no surprise that professional cleaning services that sanitize offices, markets, hospitals, homes and other public places are in high demand. Demand for cleaning services has increased substantially for commercial buildings and medical facilities in light of COVID-19. A lot of people are counting on smart cleaning services to keep their environment germs-free. Business is picking up for cleaning services that some are hiring additional workers as clients want more frequent deep cleaning. If you have background experience in cleaning, this could be an opportunity for you.
- Delivery Services
Many people are either afraid to leave their homes or mandated to stay at home by the government during the corona virus pandemic. As a result, professional delivery services have stepped up to make sure goods can be delivered to homes and businesses. While nationwide food delivery services and corporate retail deliveries have been the largest beneficiary, local delivery services are also seeing strong demand.
- Productivity Apps
Staying at home for a long period of time can be boring for most people. To find something to keep themselves engaged, many people are visiting app stores to find apps to get busy with and also stay produce. Fitness apps, wellness and meditation apps have seen significant usage within this period. There are many ways to take advantage of this trend. You can develop the app, or help others promote their app and make affiliate commissions.
- Online Content Creation
Amidst the anxieties, fears and worries, people want to be entertained and informed. They want to know what is happened in relation to the pandemic, lockdown and economic slowdown. And they also want to be entertained and wind down. Bloggers, video content creators, especially those in news and entertainment, game developers are doing incredibly well during this period. However, it depends on the type of content you create. For instance travel and restaurant- review content creators are terribly affected by the lockdown.
- Digital Marketing
The unprecedented, almost-total disappearance of all channels related to living events and conferences, and the increasing barriers on face-to-face business, pose an enormous challenge for businesses. Smaller businesses that are used to getting new customers through word-of-mouth referrals have their loss coming as a shock.
In the coming months, businesses that are still open are going to become more reliant than ever on their digital strategy. Unfortunately, in many cases, it will be the deciding factor on whether they make it through the tough times ahead or not.
Although the closedown of many businesses has greatly affected digital marketing businesses in general, this industry still remains the saviour for most businesses to reach customers. In addition, businesses, where employees can work from home, have a greater chance of weathering this turbulent economic climate; and digital marketing businesses easily fall into this category. Also, with more people online today, businesses have a large pull of people to reach.
- Remote Services
Generally, businesses that try to replace instances that typically require face to face meeting are gaining popularity and significance. Some examples are technology tools that allow users to easily scan and email important and official documents, such as for a signature to close on a house like DocuSign; and tools that connect patients with doctors for appointments virtually. Anything that lets you see a doctor without actually going to the doctor’s office is a winner during this pandemic. It’s cheaper, it’s more convenient, and it’s a lot safer.
- Agriculture
One of the biggest challenges with the corona virus pandemic and lockdown is the threat to food security. While the lockdown may appear to be the solution to mitigate the spread of the virus, a major consequence is the shortage of food and hike in price. Covid-19 is disrupting agricultural activities around the world from farming, harvesting to processing and supply. The closure of restaurants, eateries and hotels is creating low demand for agric produce. In fact, some farms are destroying their product due to lack of access to the market. Innovative Agric businesses are now looking at digital technologies to sell their products. Businesses that offer food delivery services are in high demand today. People just have to eat.
- Digital Collaboration Tools
Companies are rapidly moving towards remote working. Some are laying of a significant number of their fulltime employees. These two current trends are accelerating the gig economy, and freelancing. The so-called stay-at-home economy will continue its ascent and it will only compound as more people experiment with working from home.
This trend has brought about rapid growth in the market for digital collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts and Zoom. Zoom has already experienced a 50% increase in its share price since the start of the year. Freelance services in the digital technology space are taking an upward motion.
- Ecommerce
Many businesses are beginning to realize that they have less need for expensive real estate. We’ve started to see many businesses moving to online commerce. Due to self-isolation, people who normally visit physical stores are increasingly shopping online. Although ecommerce businesses that sell non-essential goods like luxury items and the likes are experiencing low sales at this time, ecommerce businesses trading essential goods like food and groceries are very much in business. The uplift in e-commerce may become permanent if people remain wary of mingling in real life, and increasingly replace shop visits with online purchases.
Logistics platforms are already revamping their concepts to match the new market circumstances by enabling retailers to scale home delivery fast. Overall, businesses that lean heavily on technology are keeping afloat through this inevitable crisis.
Businesses that stay human and customer-focused and manage to quickly innovate new digital strategies to solve problems created by the new conditions are best placed to seize any nascent opportunities.
Finally, this crisis has taught all of us that there are more important things in life than annual sales and profit figures. The businesses that fail to learn this lesson may find that they eventually lose their profits as well as their souls. What are your thoughts? Let’s hear them in the comment section below.
