Q: The ongoing pandemic has altered my career plans, and I’ve decided to permanently work from home. I’ve started to brainstorm job opportunities—any thoughts?
A: There is potential success with every opportunity. It’s a matter of choosing wisely and having a clear and realistic understanding of your skill sets and then knowing how to leverage them into a successful, profitable business. Although I’m unfamiliar with your work history and passion, here are a few options to help you find a possible fit:
- Consulting. One of the most common business opportunities is consulting. Whatever your specialty, you could begin your consultation by helping a broad range of people with a specific skill. For example, you might consider being a Facebook ad consultant to educate businesses on running more effective Facebook ads. Or perhaps, you can share your fashion expertise and become a personal shopper. Essentially, if you’re looking for other examples of business opportunities from home, think about what skills you excel in. Then, focus on finding people who need that help.
- Freelancing. Another career opportunity is freelancing. The difference from consulting is you share your knowledge by practicing your skill for other businesses. If you’re looking for a more hands-off business, you can hire freelancers to manage those projects, which may result in better bottom-line results. Freelancing is an ideal work from home opportunity as it often entails remote work such as writing, graphic design, photography, etc. For example, you might be hired as a team of freelance makeup artists, and you could outsource work for various weddings, corporate events and other photoshoots.
- Tutoring Business. Because so many people want to learn, tutoring is still popular. However, if you don’t want to personally tutor and prefer to own the business, you can hire teachers to educate younger students. If your budget permits, you could even rent office space for a couple of evenings instead of investing in your own office space to cut costs and sustain your business. There are a number of online teaching sites to help you find customers.
- Influencer Services. If you have a wide social media network, one of the most exciting business opportunities involves influencer marketing. You can partner with other businesses to promote their products to your audience. You might consider when starting out to partner with affiliate programs to see how well your audience grows. Whatever your niche or topic is, focus on building various accounts.
- Blogging. Bloggers can create many sources of potential income from creating affiliate marketing, ads, sponsorships, product/service information to influencer marketing. Many bloggers focus on creating and marketing their content to build website traffic. Your efforts need to be promoted via search engine optimization and social media to gain new website visitors.
There are so many incredible business opportunities. Whatever you decide, choose wisely and stay laser-focused.
Joan Lee Berkman is a marketing and public relations consultant. if you have a question for Joan, send it to business@townandstyle.com.