Alrighty my friend, these are some seriously uncertain, scary and confusing times.
If you’re struggling in your business, you no longer have a business or you are freaking out – I got you covered (as much as I can at least).
I’ve got 12 ways to get paid to be you.
Click play below to listen or read on for the full episode in blog format!
As I attempt to deal with all the feels, keep my head straight, and focus on solutions versus panic, momentum versus fear, I had to do something to help.
I know that in times of crisis, opportunities abound.
As things suddenly come to an abrupt halt, other things can be started immediately.
So I did the research, did a lot of thinking, and drew on everything I knew to be true, as well as some unknowns – because let’s face it we don’t have the answers right now.
I’ve put together this blog post guide that includes:
- The Key Industries that Survive and Thrive in a Recession
- How to Make Opportunities Out of Despair
- The Two Best Methods to Earn Revenue Regardless of What’s Going On In The World!
- Twelve Ways to Get Paid to Be You and Earn Multiple Revenue Streams
- Exceptionally Handy Resources to Help You Even Further
Let’s begin!
The Key Industries that Survive and Thrive in a Recession
We are heading for a recession, one that’s perhaps bigger than the 2008 one. So it got me curious, as to which industries survive and even thrive in a recession.
I dug around, did some research and reading and chose my top picks.
#1. Healthcare Industry
With Covid-19 officially causing a global pandemic, our health and wellbeing are now top of mind.
However, no matter what happens in the short-term, people still need their medications and necessary products to stay healthy.
So this is one industry that will survive and even thrive when times are incredibly tough.
What’s more, as scientists search and test potential vaccines, more funding and resources will be thrown at the healthcare industry to make this happen as fast as possible.
#2. Education Industry
This is one industry that will never slow down. Kids and adults still need to learn, and even if schools and Universities shut as they are, online learning continues to grow.
According to Research and Market forecasts to $325 Billion by 2025- which is triple the growth and during a recession, while jobs may be lost, our hunger for education grows.
The same applies to leading-learners, entrepreneurs and freelancers who are constantly upskilling.
The future of work will favour those people who use their many professional skills, life experiences and human skills to stay ahead of the curve and remain relevant.
Read more:
The Future of Work is Learning
11 Benefits of Learning Something New
#3. FMCG industry
This stands for Fast Moving Consumer Goods and was one of the first industries I worked in with a major Haircare Brand.
In this case, I’m talking about household and personal goods like detergent, toothpaste, toilet paper (note the panic buying with Covid-19) skincare, haircare, etc.
These are basic necessities we always want or that make us feel good. Even during a crisis or recession, these products are in demand.
#4. Coaching and Counselling
While these are two very different things, I’m putting them together as they both are methods people value throughout their life, and especially in hard or uncertain times.
Coaches you are needed more than ever – whether you’re a business coach, life coach, relationship coach, sports performance coach, or anxiety coach.
Counsellors are critical for our mental health and even more so right now when people are dealing with panic, anxiety, fear, depression, grief, and shock.
#5. Financial Advisory
With stock markets crumbling and livelihoods being shattered, people need to turn to advisors and experts to help them manage their loss, look for opportunities and regain perspective.
Will your stock portfolio survive, should you invest in stocks at rock bottom prices, will your property price go down or hold steady?
While you can do your own investigations, and educate yourself as much as possible, turning to trusted financial advisors is key.
How to Make Opportunities Out of Despair
Depending on the work you do or business you have, you may have found that in the space of two weeks things are rocking for you, or you’re revenue has completely dried up.
If you think about remote working, right now tools and services like Zoom (remote video conferencing), Loom (online screen sharing) Slack and MS Teams (virtual team comms and project management) are thriving.
They’re making it possible to help the millions of people forced to work from home to stay calm and carry on.
With conferences and events being cancelled every second, Live Streaming Services to replace the physical event are now in demand.
Virtual assistants, marketing consultants and change management specialists will be, or should be capitalising this unique situation to create offers and solutions to help people get results now.
If you’re in the tourism, entertainment or event industry you’re likely feeling crushed.
I totally get it….my AirBnB cancellations on my city apartment are coming in thick and fast and I’m considering my options.
My fave airline in the world, Air New Zealand, like many other travel companies, are laying off staff, reducing flight capacity by 80% and seeing their stocks (which I invested in recently) plummet.
Yet, I see fast thinking business owners coming up with solutions like:
- prepaying for dinner tables, accommodation or flights to redeem in the future at discounted prices
- offering up accommodation to people who want to self-isolate but are stuck in the country
- changing AirBnB accommodation to house government officials and healthcare workers
- cafes and restaurants switching to takeaways or delivery to those self-isolating
- virtual cooking parties by chefs and nutritionists to ensure you make use of your supplies at home and preparing lots of meals to freeze to make life easier – and make the process fun
- running virtual concerts online that you can be part of in your own home
- live virtual dance parties daily to simply have fun and stay connected
Choosing the Right Right Revenue Streams for Extra Income
Ok, so what can you learn from these examples I’ve shared and you likely have seen for yourself?
I’d like to share an excerpt from my bestselling book The Freedom Plan, Chapter 6 Choosing the Right Revenue Streams for Financial Freedom.
Note: I’ve updated parts of it to be super relevant to the current situation we’re all facing.
It seems most pertinent to help you right now in this time of crisis and extreme uncertainty as it’s focused on how to get paid to be you, starting right now.
For simplicity’s sake, I like to break revenue streams down into two methods.
- Selling yourself, your services or products.
- Selling other people’s stuff.
You need to decide which of those suits you best right now and is most possible, or you can combine them both.
While right now you might need immediate income, the end goal is not to be self-employed, it’s to run a business.
I make this differentiation, as most people start their business trading time for money, and years after, are often stuck still doing that.
Within twelve to twenty-four months, you ultimately want to choose one that is not tied to you, your energy or your activity.
Method #1 is Selling Yourself
I’m not talking about anything dodgy here!
This is where you sell your knowledge and skills. It is one of the most natural ways to build a business that you love.
You start by packaging your sweetspot – what you’re good at, what you enjoy doing, what is meaningful to you and what people will pay you for, then marketing and selling it.
You can do this via social media, blogging, live videos, media opportunities, podcasts, interviews, engaging your email list or advertising.
Do whatever it takes to get the word out with free content and education people value, that includes a call to action to take up your offer or services.
Nine Ways to Monetise Yourself
Here are examples of revenue streams I have that you can consider. Some take longer to create and produce obviously, as well as know-how and tech knowledge.
But others you’re able to produce very quickly, and then work on the others by learning the skills or hiring someone who is already great at it to help you:
#1. Online courses
You have something to teach, you have gifts unique to you, you have knowledge that is valuable to others (even if you really don’t think what you do or know is that special – it is).
Right now you can presell then run a LIVE course to help people. How?
I teach the four-step method in my Launch Your Damn Course Accelerator, but in short:
- Know who you want to serve, who needs your help most and has a problem that you can solve
- Whip up a simple landing page on your website, via an optin form on your email provider or
- Using Podia (my fave course platform), that focuses on the problem and how you can solve it
- Hire someone on Fiverr.com or Upwork.com to do the tech, design or copywriting side if you need to – don’t get stuck doing stuff you hate.
- Focus the copywriting on that page on how you will help them solve it, a basic structure of what you’ll teach, and the results that you will help them get.
- Ask them to prepay upfront – so you know you’re offer is one that they actually want
- Then deliver them MASSIVE amounts of value as you teach it live, or record each module/ lesson weekly over the space of the next 7 | 10 | 30 | 60 | 90 days – proven to be most useful for learning.
#2. Digital products
Love writing, short on time and think you can whip up a digital product like an eBook, short video, audio, or workbook that your ideal customer will value?
Great, snap to it. Same principles as for an online course apply. You can again sell it on Podia. They let you sell courses, digital products and memberships in one place. Boom!
You can make your ebook 5 pages or 100 – doesn’t matter so long as it’s damn useful and teaches someone even just ONE thing that helps them a lot.
You can make your video training the same, short and powerful at 5 minutes, or up to 20 minutes with more info and examples, methods or concepts.
Already produced a webinar, epic resource, blog post or video? Great -now repurpose it into a digital product and sell it pronto. Then market it!
#3. Books
I’m talking about writing a bestselling (or just bloody great) book that will set you up as a leading learner, thought leader or authority.
So yes it might take longer than a few days to produce, but as you’re writing it, you can turn part of your content into #2 above right?
Create and produce as you go.
I’ve seen excellent books written in 30 days, self-published to Amazon and beyond, and turned into six-figure revenue streams, with more books being added.
Anything is possible.
Plus well-written books establish your credibility, thought leadership and authority. They open peoples’ hearts and minds, and open doors for you.
From here you can create courses, digital products, and do some of the following too:
#4. Coaching/ consulting*
This one is self-explanatory and the quickest and easiest path to some extra income, and making an impact in people’s lives.
Back yourself, and apply yourself to help people in need through coaching, mentoring, advising or consulting.
Look for the most demanding problem people are experiencing right now, do an asset audit of yourself – knowledge, skills, experience, resources, networks – and create an offer you can stand behind.
Set up packages of 3-10 sessions so you work with people over a period of time and make a difference – you don’t want to do one-off sessions here.
Attract your ideal clients and help them over the long run, as well as providing you with consistent monthly income.
#5. Group coaching/ training*
What’s better than helping one person or business at a time? Helping lots.
Group coaching, mentoring or training allows you to work with a one-to-many model and scale your time and energy.
You can easily shift to this after one-to-one as you start to understand your customers needs and challenges and realise while they are unique people, their problems aren’t.
Connect people together, answer their questions and solve their collective challenges and see how much progress and momentum they can all have while supporting and learning from you and each other.
#6. Workshops/ events* – online and offline
I love designing and running events.
You can create an event for a half-day, full-day, weekend or even extend to a retreat over a week or more.
At these events or workshops, share and show more in-depth information and methods, teach more and help people transform and get great results.
- If you’re a web designer run an in-person or online workshop to Launch a website in a weekend.
- If you’re a developer teach people to Learn to create an app in 24 hours.
- If you’re a guitar teacher, host an online event to Learn how to play a beginner song in 3 hours.
#7. Services*
I’m talking done for your services like web design, SEO, transcription, graphic design, copywriting etc.
If you have these particular niche skills, create these services and get them out there – hustle, partner, advertise, reach out – whatever it takes to get in front of people who need what you have to offer.
#8. Speaking*
Ok so right now most events and conferences are being cancelled, but this is temporary. And many are shifting to live streaming events online.
If you have speaking prowess or are currently honing your skills, it’s never too early to start pitching yourself to speak and get paid or to speak and make an offer from the stage for your product, course etc.
Start with being on a virtual summit and share your knowledge in an interview, and offer a freebie as your call to action to build your email list and make offers from then on as you build trust and rapport.
#9. Memberships
Right now people are craving connection. Memberships and clubs give people a chance to connect, to learn and to make friendships, find business besties and swap skills and experiences.
People come for the education but stay for the community.
I have clients and students who have memberships who are getting flooded with new clients right now, so are you in the right industry, with the ability to pull together a value-added membership offering?
I value my Launch Club members as much as they value me, as well as the communities I create through my live course experiences with group coaching and virtual coworking sessions.
In these memberships, you get clear on what results you want members to get, then reverse engineer what you need to do, like:
- Teach what you know so they can learn and apply their new skills
- Bring on experts to teach what you don’t know but would be valuable
- Offer virtual coaching and co-working sessions each week or month
- Create and share resources, templates and workbooks to add to what you teach
- Do Live Q&As
- Create a member directory or matching/ accountability option
Keep it simple yet highly valuable, charge an appropriate monthly price for this value, and start enrolling new members, and receiving recurring monthly income.
I’ve seen memberships at $10 a month like Find What Feels Good with Adriene Mishler who teaches yoga, to several hundred dollars a month for elite level business coaching.
*Typically these activities will see you trading time for money but do allow you to get immediate income.
I’m the perfect example of all of the above. I’ve built up to nine revenues in my own business over the years, and as a result now, I don’t feel exposed because I am not reliant on just one of them.
Thanks to my courses, books and memberships, affiliates and more I’m in a good place, and there are millions of other people doing the same.
With that in mind…
Method #2 is Selling Other People’s Stuff
Many people are not fond of being in the limelight or building a business around them and some aren’t actually suited for it.
(Note: In Chapter 4 of my Freedom Plan book I speak to several free and paid assessments and profiling tools I love to help you understand who you are and what your superpowers are.)
In large part, your values and desires will reveal this to you.
The great news is there are plenty of ways to build profitable businesses that don’t need you to be at the forefront, doing all the work.
That’s because there are plenty of other people and companies out there with great products and services that you can promote, distribute and resell to build a lucrative freedom business.
In fact, this can be a highly profitable model, with a very low setup cost because most of the work is being done for you in terms of the actual product and their business systems and support.
You’ll end up with residual or passive revenue streams that often help you put some or all of your business on autopilot, but it will take more time than some of the above options.
#10. Become a distributor
You can instantly join a consumer distribution network (also known as network marketing) of existing products you like.
Here you act more as a franchisor and coach and train teams to work with you to grow their own independent business.
This is a great example of a leveraged business where the more people you help set up initially to grow, the more you will earn passively over time.
I’ve added this into my revenue stream this year and am helping people to set up their business and earn $10K a month in the next 6-12 months.
It falls perfectly into my business development skills, coaching, and training, plus it helps that I love their products, use them everyday, and have gotten great results from them.
Interested? Let’s have a chat.
#11. Become an affiliate for both physical and digital products or services
It’s likely you already recommend apps, tools, software, courses or products you love to your friends, peers, and customers.
So what about earning a living from doing that?
Find out if they have an affiliate program, join it and earn commissions each time someone signs up.
This can be really lucrative over time, if you believe in your product, do great in-depth and helpful reviews or video tutorials and have an audience or platform to share this with.
The best thing is you receive recurring revenue each month, for as long as those affiliate links remain live.
Handy Examples:
My Review of Podia – The Best Course Platform to Create and Sell Courses – I switched all my courses over to Podia late last year, love their platform and recommend it to my students.
This video overview and blog post I did helps people find Podia and try it for myself and earns me commissions to cover the monthly cost of using it myself and some.
Thrive Architect – Your Must-Have Website Tool Builder – same with this video review I did when first getting started using this amazing WordPress plugin.
Despite not fully knowing all the functions of it, I was so damn excited to finally be able to produce a professional website home page, sales pages and landing pages with Thrive Architect I couldn’t wait to show people its features.
When people find it through my blog or YouTube and find it valuable, they sign using my link and I earn revenue. Just wait until I use and review Thrive Themes too – it’s just come out and looks epic.
I digress…bit excited over here.
#12. Set up and run an eCommerce site to sell physical products
Again this isn’t an instant income earner and takes time and investment upfront, but you can sell from your Facebook page, Shopify, Amazon, and Etsy to name a few.
That said I ran a live course called Earn $3K in 3 Months in 2018 to test this, and did in fact, with no prior experience, manage to source a product from china, sell it on Amazon and Shopify and make $3K in revenue (not profit to be clear) in 90 days.
My students did pretty damn well too!
Yes, you will need to educate yourself and learn skills as you go, as well as reinvest your profits initially, but as it grows, you’ll continue to receive a recurring income from it and then the skies the limit.
Helpful Hint: Consider selling products in the industries I shared above that tend to thrive no matter what (although no industry is bullet-proof).
Final Thoughts and Helpful Resources
I appreciate there’s a lot to take in here, and it may feel overwhelming or seem daunting.
I suggest you start with what you have, look at what’s worked for you in the past, is currently working and what you’d like to do – and go back to revisit this post to look at opportunities that stand out.
Also keep an eye on what is trending right now, that you may just be able to offer help with, and is a potential opportunity you can capitalise on during these uncertain times.
For further reading, I found these three articles to be very helpful:
- How to Adapt Your Business in Times of Social Distancing – excellent article I’ve referred to in this post and podcast by Hanna Vervaeck at Thrive Themes
- How To Thrive In A Crisis via Jodie Cook on Forbes (with a lovely shout out to my tip)
- Coronavirus Support Guide: How To Stay Strong Together – excellent resource filled blog post by Marie Forleo
And finally, below is my free eBook that will help you further figure out your sweetspot and what you can do right now, to get paid to be you!
Stay strong. Stay open-minded. Be adaptable. Be resilient.
Natalie xo
Want to build a kick ass business that lets you create the income and impact you desire? Then download my 'Get Paid to Be YOU' Guide to learn 10 ways to monetize your skills and knowledge and do the work that matters today!