Starting a business in the midst of a global pandemic may not seem like the best time, but this isn’t necessarily true. Roughly 627,000 small businesses start in the United States per year, so it isn’t hard to imagine that those with an entrepreneurial spirit want to join in. That said, roughly 20% of businesses fail within their first year, and 50% fail before making it five years. The most common reason for this is a lack of capital. Either business owners fail to secure enough funding in the beginning, or the costs of maintaining their businesses simply become too much.
There are ways, however, to fight both the capital issue and the pandemic. If you start a tech-related business online, you should have significantly fewer start-up costs than a brick and mortar business, and you won’t have to worry about attracting foot traffic to your store. Here are just a few possible ideas.
Social Media Consulting
Do you fancy yourself an expert in all things social media? If so, you can make a business out of supporting other businesses and their social media campaigns. Many startups aren’t going to have the know-how to make the most of their online presence, or they’re at least unlikely to have the money to devote a team to it. That’s where you can come in as a social media consultant.
Naturally, one of the best practices for an aspiring consultant is to create engaging social media profiles of your own. It’s even better if you can collect a portfolio of successful social media campaigns that show off your accomplishments or even blog posts or videos that show off your expertise in the field. The more networking you do with these pieces, the more likely it is that you’ll be hired.
Content Creation
Speaking of blogs and videos, you can build an entire business around making content. Think about your favorite YouTube channels, for example. Video content is the most popular on the web, and it’s only looking to grow even more popular. You’ll need a good video manager to ensure that your files are always backed up. With personal cloud resources, you can upload and store all your most important photos and videos without a monthly subscription or need for a data center. Best of all, the skills you learn and hone from content creation can be used to support any business idea in the future through content marketing.
Device Repair
If you’re knowledgable about the inner workings of computers and other devices, you can start a device repair business. This is something you can set up at home, and customers can even mail in their smartphones, tablets, laptops, and other devices if in-person contact is an issue. You can also sell accessories for devices you support to increase your income.
Online Teaching
Specialized skills like computer repair are quite marketable, and if you have useful skills, you can make money by teaching them to others. This can certainly tie in with content creation if you think you can generate a revenue stream from video tutorials. Otherwise, there are many online platforms these days where you can create your own custom courses and charge for them.
App Development
Everyone in the tech world knows how profitable making the next great app can be, but it can be costly to outsource development. That’s why if you have coding and software experience, the best route may just be making it yourself. Naturally, you’ll need to be able to make your app compatible with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Beyond that, you and any team members you may have will need security.
With the Turbot cloud governance platform, you’ll have convenient, single-sign-on access to AWS services, Azure, and GCP APIs foe easy development. Automated policy guardrails also make it easy to assign roles and offer only the correct amount of access for each team member to do their job, ensuring a secure infrastructure.