Startups in times of crisis A rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic

You can connect with them through online courses and video meetings to explain various ideas effectively. The majority of the organizations these days work from a distance and as a business specialist, you would require guidance for taking care of digital processes related to dealing with a business.

• If you’re a maker—whether you DIY soap, candles, sauces, or pottery—you’re in a unique position to find a small business idea, because product development and procurement are literally in your hands.
• Digital products like music, courses, podcasts, and templates are unique on this list of low investment small business ideas.
• If you have a computer and something to say that can help people, online courses have low startup costs and high profit margins when you hit the nail on the head.
• If you have a good ear and can type quickly, a transcription service would allow you to work from home with a flexible schedule.
• Gibson B, Cassar G. Longitudinal analysis of relationships between planning and performance in small firms.
• If you want to offer different options for your memberships, create variants.
• Rather, a less risky and investment-heavy option could be to sell your confections online and/or out of your home.

When running a new online marketing agency, you can also embrace your agile status to attract clients. While the start of the pandemic posed a challenge for Ryan Burch and his brand-new agency Tobie Group, his team used that strategy to thrive. “Luckily, part of our value proposition was to be an alternative to the larger, less efficient ad agencies that were gobbling up clients,” Ryan says. With businesses needing more affordable and efficient marketing, the Tobie Group could step in. If you don’t have the resources to start your own car repair business, you can offer these services to family and friends first. Over time, your business could grow with the power of networking and strategic advertising. Working parents constantly need child care services, so this industry will always thrive.

Test, learn, and grow as you go

Small Cypriot businesses account for 64% of the country’s employment and generate 55.9% of the total value added, statistics that are both well above the respective EU averages of 49.8% and 38.4% . Small Cypriot family businesses are usually owned and managed by a few controlling family members, and it is common for a single family member to exercise effective control of the firm (Leonidou et al., 2016a, b; Mandl, 2008). Nevertheless, not all owner-managed small firms are family businesses. For instance, a significant proportion of small businesses across the world are single founder-owned and managed (Deb & Wiklund, 2017; Langowitz & Allen, 2010), and Cyprus is not an exception. Consequently, we focussed on both family and non-family owner-managed small businesses, which involve a single person exercising control of both their ownership and management (Chrisman, Memili, & Misra, 2014).

Plus, you don’t need any special schooling to be a resume writer – just some basic organizing and proofreading skills. If you know what makes resumes appear professional and ready for employers’ eyes, you’re already off to a great start. If you have other sources of income that require nothing more than an internet connection and a laptop, pet sitting https://www.bookstime.com/ may be an especially apt small business idea. Almost all pet owners will be glad to let you work on your laptop while you spend time at their home with their pets, meaning that you can run two income streams simultaneously. If starting your own business seems daunting or too much of a risk, you can always use your car to become a rideshare driver.

Leadership resilience driven by personal resilience

It’s one of the best businesses to start because it’s low overhead, hands-off, and scalable. If you thought mid-lockdown was a bad time to open your own business, think again. Here are six pandemic-proof business ideas, which are strong contenders for when life returns to normal. Admittedly, people stayed away from cafes and restaurants but at-home consumption continued to soar. Thanks to food delivery services like UberEats, Grubhub or DoorDash, home bakers can easily sell confections online and deliver them to people’s doorstep. Those without the manpower to fulfill a lot of orders could promote their delicious concoctions among neighbors, friends and family for some extra cash. You could even start a vending machine business to quench people’s cravings when they’re on-the-go.

Implement work from home policies and technologies that support collaborative and secure at-home work . This guide from the Small Business Administration can help you assess your cyber risk and take steps to improve your security posture. For example, if critical personnel became sick or had to look after family members, how will your business accommodate these changes? Try to identify others who can step in and learn key tasks such as retirees, family members, or independent contractors and freelancers. If you’re a solopreneur or sole proprietor, prioritize your health first. Limit your travel and maximize home office communication and collaboration tools.

No. 3: Start a ‘Volume Photography’ Business

From 68 to 640 local businesses across every state have used help from USA Today so far. Only Save My Local seems to have fallen into oblivion, as the link to their website redirects you to some other site. According to WHO, seasonal influenza can spread to up to 20% of the population. The organization refers to a recent study that shows that respiratory diseases caused by such infections kill up to 650,000 people across the world annually. If you have an idea for one such app, we’d be happy to help you bring it to life. We may find the answer in 2022, when, according to Reuters, the pandemic will probably become endemic.

As of March 24, more than 19,000 users across the USA created over 174,000 data entries. The respondents expect the importance of personal hygiene and sanitation to skyrocket, which will require catering business models to evolve. “When cash is extra tight, it behooves us to buy as much as possible on trade,” explains David Yusen, the company’s director of business pandemic proof business ideas development. Heavy Restaurant Group based in Seattle had to close 10 of its restaurants, with some of the locations operating as pick-up-and-delivery to survive. The company recently purchased 56 cases of Malbec for barter credits worth $15,000. Meanwhile, all businesses are experiencing hampered cash flow as consumption drops due to rising unemployment.

Others focus on encouraging shoppers to add more items to their cart with conditional free shipping (e.g., free shipping on orders over $50) to maximize their profit. Think about how you can zero in on a specific audience for your products and how the business you build can serve them. If you already have a sizable audience , maybe you can even find a way to base your business off of that existing audience. Note, some petsitters offer on-site services while others care for pets in their own homes.

• On the contrary, digital platforms have turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the health and fitness industries.
• For instance, a significant proportion of small businesses across the world are single founder-owned and managed (Deb & Wiklund, 2017; Langowitz & Allen, 2010), and Cyprus is not an exception.
• The global financial meltdown caused by the pandemic has been rough on most people, including small business owners.
• Small businesses, in particular, are looking for ways to reduce costs while retaining as much staff as possible.
• It’s especially timely during recession periods for businesses to have a good accounting and bookkeeping system in place.

We provide insights into the micro-underpinnings of resilience within small firms, which are linked to the responses enacted and resilient qualities possessed by owner-managers at both the personal and leadership levels. Are working remotely and saving money too as you plan how to start a business of your own. So many of the business ideas on this list can be launched and run totally from your own home, but those that require in-person interactions are conducive to social distancing measures. And they all require very little or no initial investment—and very little or no overhead once you’ve launched.