You don’t have to be an ‘ambulance chaser’ to survive – and thrive – in a recession
While bankruptcy and bailouts have become synonymous with the current recession, there’s a silver lining for industrious work-from-home entrepreneurs. Legitimate opportunities exist amidst the doom and gloom.
Whether picking up the slack left when companies downsize, or positioning the remaining firms to compete effectively in the ever-expanding digital era, you don’t have to be the figurative ambulance chaser sifting through corporate rubble to profit in a distressed economy or sail through its slow recovery.
“The innovative business need only present a fresh approach and some new strategies to get the ear of struggling prospects,” says Patrick Schwerdtfeger.
He knows of what he speaks: he’s the author of Webify Your Business, Internet Marketing Secrets for the Self-Employed and founder of Tactical Execution, an online marketing agency, both home-based businesses.
“The trick is to find the intersection of your own passions, your capabilities and market needs,” adds Ann Latham, a work-from-home business coach and consultant, speaker and author of Clear Thoughts – Pragmatic Gems of Better Business Thinking.
“To develop any good business model, you need to understand your potential customers,” she says.
With an eye toward finding your niche, here are a handful of recipes for turning lemons into lemonade in a turbulent economy.
Flaunt Your Marketing Potential
Create marketing techniques for struggling businesses, including how to expand their exposure through a range of social media.
It’s a hot area even in a recession, says Latham, because smart companies know they still need help with marketing plans, from formulation to execution. The former requires strong marketing experience. The latter runs the gamut from writing press releases, to upgrading websites, to project management.
Expertise in social media marketing – platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube – is especially valuable as businesses increasingly venture into this arena, says Schwerdtfeger: “Almost all businesses are willing to give it a try.”
Email marketing is another revenue driver, he says. By offering valuable information or resources online in exchange for e-mail addresses, businesses can build a list of qualified prospects agreeing to accept future communication.
Techno-savvy entrepreneurs or web designers can promote their own ventures or help others create websites or blogs, publish articles online, or host educational seminars. “Today’s social Internet provides countless ways to find relevant conversations and contribute expertise,” says Schwerdtfeger, adding that builds trust, which leads directly to revenue.
Businesses often will compensate social media subscribers and regular bloggers for creating word-of-mouth advertising within their network for a particular retail product or service, says Thomas Elwell, CEO of Tomi Financial and managing partner of MOMeo Community.
Cater To Moms
Develop services geared toward mothers.
Work-at-home moms are particularly attuned to the changing needs and values of other moms, says Latham, citing trends such as conserving gas, vacationing closer to home, increasing physical activity, dining out less, and serving healthier meals.
Anyone with fitness training, for example, can start a neighborhood boot camp with minimal overhead:
“Participants meet in a school yard, work out together with minimal equipment, and spend very little time traveling.”
Latham also suggests tapping the surging interest in crafts as an inexpensive home-based activity. While large craft stores, for example, might be daunting to the inexperienced, that’s just one possibility. There’s also selling craft kits, opening a paint-your-own-plate shop, or starting an arts and crafts birthday party service, and so on.
Provide Quality Care
Start a day care or elder care service.
With more unemployed workers at home, another baby boom is expected, says Elwell. Canada already is experiencing a daycare shortage with a critical need for educated, trained caretakers.
That trend will continue as the tide turns, as jobs become more readily available and workers seek childcare alternatives.
There are also opportunities to invest in dormant apartment buildings and condos, casualties of the real estate slump, and convert them into elderly care facilities to accommodate the aging Baby Boomers, he said.
Offer Sound Financial Advice
Meet the demand for financial consultants, analysts and advisors.
“The financial district is in such turmoil that they need more great minds, great consultants at the table,” says Elwell. For starters, check out accounting firms or government revenue departments known to have cut their workforces.
Employment of financial analysts, particularly personal financial advisors, was expected to grow much faster than the national average for all occupations between 2006 and 2016, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook 2008-09.
Although completed before the recession, some of the trends considered in the study still ring true. This includes the retirement of Baby Boomers from companies that have cut pension plans – leaving employees to manage their own financial security.