Easy Side Hustles, Online Side Hustles and Covid.
Easy side hustles was something so many people desperately wanted this year (2020). I had traveled to Colombia in March just as the Covid virus was starting to create a Worldwide panic.
Two days after arriving the Colombian government closed its borders to everything that could move by land, sea and air.
Thousands of Venezuelans living in Colombia began a long trek back home. Many on foot, their ability to earn in Colombia gone.
Many who had been staying with relatives in Colombia and saw no point increasing the burden on their relatives who had also been thrown out of work.
At least in Venezuela if they didn’t have a home, finding an empty house isn’t going to pose much of a problem.
People in richer countries are not faring much better, the lockdowns and restrictions are taking their toll on peoples finances and, in a lot of cases healthy peoples lives. But actually…
Before the Pandemic, going back to 1990, researcher John Zogby found that 14% of adults were actually making less than they earned in their previous jobs.
In recent years, this figure has since increased to a staggering 35% – and will likely continue to rise as the world continues to wrestle with change and uncertainty.
2020 The Year Everything Changed.
It was not the year we were imagining, not by a long shot. The pandemic has not been without its share of conspiracy theories. Along with financial ones as well. Like the “Great Reset” and political slogans like “Build back better“.
I would be very suspicious of a politician promising to build something back better. Nevertheless, there is a great reset all of us are experiencing now, and it need not be all doom and gloom.
Now is a time of great opportunity.
For instance it has never been easier to leave the rat race behind. For many of us the way we work has changed ( most likely for good ), and this is probably as good an opportunity as you will ever get, to push your own reset button.
Rather than think about what is happening we need to look at the direction we heading in.
- More people than ever buying “everything” online
- People educating themselves online
- People seeking out online work
- A broader spectrum of people online, more often
- Working from home is now a thing
- People are moving out of cities in droves
- Green and EV are becoming a way of life
- A greater focus than ever on our health
Earlier this year I wrote about the Corporates, and how they are adjusting to the “ New Normal” in this article.
In May, Facebook told its employees they could work from home… forever. Twitter and other large Corporations did the same. My colleague, business analyst Sirnivasan Mahanti was talking about this way back in May, when I wrote this article.
This is not only in rich western countries, South American countries are permitting it as well. In fact they were doing it before Covid.
Sitel and others have been working online for a few years, and all the way through the covid pandemic they have been advertising for more people to work for them. This online work has helped keep food on the table for many people who lost their jobs or had to close their business.
The New Work From Home Generation
The big tech companies and other companies who followed suit and allowed their employees to work from home, were worried about their employees sleeping in, becoming slack… like they had a near zero trust that their employees would do the right thing doing online work at home.
However a couple of studies found the employees were more productive. One study found them to be 47% more productive working from home, including with the kids at home during the lockdowns.
Another study found that the average saving per employee working from home in the USA came to near $22,000 a year. Sirnivasan Mahanti mentioned that to me way back in May also, and I included it in this post here.
For those who want to learn more about working remotely, increase productivity, work less and live more, there is a quick course for you Here
2020 Created a larger Customer Base For Scam Operators.
As this report from Asia shows, the scammers got busy when the share market crashed and people’s financial insecurities were at there greatest.
Using the time proven tactics of romance and get rich quick online investment scams, they made off with nearly $US 26,000,000 in a few short months compared to $US 6,200,000 for all of 2019.
For many of these people having even a small, easy side hustle would have been enough to prevent them becoming victims of scammers.
Provided of course they were devoted to their side hustle and not distracted by the shiny object syndrome so prevalent in the online E-Comm world.
On Line Side Hustles and Offline Side Hustles. Which is Better?
Many offline side hustles often become become full time enterprises, usually they are in the fields of home maintenance, computer repair even washing dogs.
I label these easy side hustles because they are reasonably easy to set up and start making money pretty much straight away, even though you may have start up costs to pay back.
There are others too, such as freelance writing for local business’s and lets not forget graphics. Both of these can be on or offline side hustles.
Online side hustles has seen a phenomenal rise of online shopping and Work From Home over the past 15 years.
An online hustle will often take longer to start to bring in money mainly because of the problem of being able to target your demographic through the search engines.
One tool I use is Jaaxy. For those who have not heard of it click here.
Although this sounds difficult to achieve there is lots of help available. You may have also heard of niches and like many people you don’t have a complete understanding of them.
Possibly one of the best resources I have seen on understanding a Niche’s is the one at this link, which actually gets you to do a questionnaire then makes suggestions of niches which you would likely do well in.
It is also designed for “working people” who need the flexibility of self-paced study.
For anyone starting out I think this is invaluable. One other site that has very good wraps from people setting up online side hustles is Wealthy Affiliate.
It is free to begin, but ramps up into a full blown online learning center with video lessons, courses, and more.
You can see more by clicking this link here.
Once you have got this sorted, and once a properly set up online store or blog starts earning money, then it can be a money making machine, making money anytime, even while you are sleeping.
What Skills are Needed For a Side Hustle.
There have been times I have heard people say how they would like to do something then throw up any number of reasons why they couldn’t do it.
This can go on for years and finally the mantra becomes “I wished I had of done that years ago”. If only !
As the saying goes, you miss 100% of the shots you never take.
There is another mantra, and that is “Your never to old to learn”, has been true for so many people over the history of man on this earth.
Relying on others for your ability to meet your commitments is not good financial planning and hasn’t been for a long time.
So rather than get caught up in the scams that infest the online world, learn how to avoid them and prosper by checking through some of the links on this site.
