During the COVID-19 pandemic, there's incredible uncertainty across almost all industry types and individual small businesses. As more and more people around the world are staying home, it's natural for people as consumers and customers to turn online for services, and it's important that all types of businesses move online.
You might be saying to yourself - as a service, an in-person class, as a brick-and-mortar destination - what can I do online? To this we say, any business can find success online, and this transition has to happen fast, which we know is overwhelming.
From confusing, expensive technology, to not knowing where to start, we want to provide a little clarity to getting online based on your industry. Check out ClickEasy, our automated website creator and social media tool to get online in less than a minute.
Health & Wellness Professionals: For individuals and small businesses in the health and wellness industry, the first thing to do is determine how you can offer your services either through telehealth or video sessions. Are you offering one-on-one or group sessions? Are you receiving payment at the time of service, before, or for multiple meetings at a time? Set up a quick, informative website with videos to show off your methodology, as well as information about your rates, credentials, and any specializations. For any HIPAA compliant professionals, ensure that you're following contractual protocol as well. Check here for more info.
- Personal Trainers: For personal trainers, you might be fighting with a lack of at-home equipment or space to do the same exercises from the gym. Be flexible and creative to offer up suggestions on turning soup cans into weights, or lunging with text books. Utilize social media posts and stories, providing free ideas, and then connect further through your site of via Zoom, Google Hangouts, or Skype.
- Yoga Instructors: Yoga instructors who share studio space with other teachers may find a community of teachers to provide an online studio with classes that start every hour, or pre-record morning and evening classes for people to tune in when they can. Think outside of your local community to offer stretching and movement to all demographics around the world - elders, children, and health care professionals.
- Therapists: A lot of LMSW are doing a great service by offering free telehealth calls for at-risk families and workers already. For those in private practice, now more than ever, our communities need help. Make sure the necessary protocols to offer psychotherapy, psychiatry, or social work are covered, and use a light weight website to organize your patients through one portal.
- Nutritionists: As half of the world stays home, the amount of grocery shopping and home cooking skyrockets. Registered dietitian nutritionist have an opportunity to help all types of individuals and families eat well, cook creatively, and stay healthy during a pandemic. Turn to social media for daily easy recipes, and use a website to offer weekly plans tailored to budgets, availability and conditions.
Local Shops & Restaurants: For local businesses who's doors have shut to keep their staff as well as customers at home and safe, there are ways to make money and keep your community fed and satiated. For retailers, consider phone orders and at-home shipping, taking inventory through photos and bypassing a complicated online shop set up. For restaurants, offer nutritious and healthy options, and ways to impart creative cooking knowledge to people at home.
- Vintage Shops: For clothing boutiques, new or old, it takes a long time to get an entire e-commerce business set up online. From fulfillment to shipping, we wouldn't recommend going to Shopify and stressing over this. Start by taking photos of your merchandise, writing short descriptions that include price, size, dimensions, materials, and posting on social media. Simultaneously add to a website page (just images and text) with a place for people to contact you to buy.
- Gift Stores: For gift shops who also don't have time to migrate inventory of all products onto an online shop in the immediate future, think about what people need at home. Better kitchen supplies? Photo frames to put more photos of friends and family around the house? Craft supplies or games for a family activity? If you are able to take sales over the phone and ship from the home, it's a great alternative to nothing!
- Restaurants, Bars, Cafes: If your local eatery has been shut down once deemed non-essential, and you're still able to provide take out or delivery, be flexible on what you can offer. Cut down on your costs by keeping options ordinary and consistent. What can you make that's nutritious, healthy and delicious like to-go salads and sandwiches for lunch? If you can't brew coffee, offer bulk ground coffee sales, and pour over tips, or latte art how-tos on your social media.
Professional Services: Financial, legal and business services are needed now more than ever on both a corporate level as well as an individual and small business scale. These are really unchartered times for folks monetarily, as well as understanding how to navigate federal aid. Get online and reach citizens around the country.
- Accountants: As tax day gets pushed to July, there is an entire nation of small businesses that needs professional help on filing. For businesses taking loans, or having their profits turned upside down, CPAs can offer their services far and wide. Create an easy website for businesses and individuals to contact you through, and consider pro-bono services or discounted services to those in need.
- Financial Advisors: With markets low, some able people may wonder how to navigate the stock market, or have questions about their retirement funds, or are thinking of buying a home for the first time and don't know how to begin. Financial advisors, acquaint yourself thoroughly with the state and federal stimulus bills and lifted restrictions - because you know that majority of American citizens do not know what it means for them individually, or in their state. Be available to all citizens.
- Marketing Consultants: Marketing professionals, now is your time to shine with so many businesses and individuals scrambling for a new way to be creative, and how to market themselves online and actually stand out from the crowd. Set up a website for yourself, laying out your strengths, experience, previous projects, methodology and rates. Hop on a phone call and get to work.
Creatives: Designers, photographers, and makers, you can help a lot of businesses with the creative side of things, such as gift stores and financial advisors. Influencers who understand the wacky ways of Instagram and YouTube, provide insight to accountants and restaurants on the tricks of the trade.
- Influencers: Online influencers who have relied heavily on social media and YouTube in the past, may be struggling to garner the same traffic, or the same level of photography and production from home. Consider launching a website that includes your best-of photos and videos, follower statistics, linking to all of your social media accounts, and a professional way for people to contact you regarding sponsorship opportunities.
- Crafters & Makers: Jewelry makers, artists, handmade clothes, and more, while you have more time to make, it may be harder to be top of mind while consumers carefully calculate their budgets or cancel their plans. Use social media to give lessons on your skill, offering tutorials on sewing patches onto jean jackets, or how to creatively reuse items from your closet.
- Designers: Designers, there are a lot of people who are unemployed and about to make a website for the first time, or small businesses who need an artistic touch to social media posts. Provide services for logos, social posts or team up with a marketing consultant to design materials for clients. Set up your portfolio and project website and share it through LinkedIn.
- Photographers: For photographers sitting at home, it may be hard to take fresh images when we aren't allowed to go far. See how you can partner with retailers who need photo editing done for their product photos, or connect with all the recently COVID-19 engaged couples and offer to shoot their wedding next year.
Education: Schools around the world have moved online, forcing entire departments of education and funds to be flexible overnight. Other niche instruction follow suite. Equip yourself with video conference tools such as Google Hangouts, Zoom, Skype, or WhatsApp. Think of ways to instruct through social media or a website, in case people don't have great Internet to stream.
- Music Teachers: For kids at home without musical equipment, try offering music history or theory in the meantime. If finding space and time is an issue, consider pre-recorded lessons that students can take on their own time. For new customers, use a website to show off mini lessons, and then encourage interested people to get in touch directly.
- Dance Teachers: If there was ever a time to dance, it's now. Dancing is fun, it makes people smile, and it's a great form of aerobic exercise even in a confined space. Offer family lessons or teach couples synchronized dances. Make offerings fun and acknowledge the different homes and arrangements people have.
- Language Teachers: Ooh la la, language teachers cannot only teach a valuable skill, but also help us to daydream of traveling again and being able to communicate in a native language. Teachers, add in history, a tour of the countries this language is spoken in, and more.
- Tutors: While test dates are rearranged and pushed back, students of all ages for all tests - SAT, ACT, LSAT, GRE and more - have more time to dedicate to their studies. Keep the sessions going per individual, or offer more group sessions at a discounted price to make options affordable for all. As more and more students take their classes online, it's inevitable that some students will suffer in their general learning. Be flexible in what aid you can provide.
We help individuals and small businesses get online, quick. Try our free website tool and social automation right now. Jump in to ClickEasy.
For more in depth information on setting up online, check out: 10 Things to Do to Get Your Business Online Today, Social Media Post Ideas for Health & Wellness, Free & Life-changing Tools for Branding and Marketing, and How to Prepare for Talking to New Online Customers.
