Times are changing…
In the last couple of weeks, more people have had to get creative, adjust and adapt to what they're used to.
Home Schooling…
Working from home…
Or worse still,, being laid off and not being able to work, whether temporarily or permanently.
With that in mind, I wanted to give you some ideas of what types of things can be done from home to help to earn money and actually offer simple services.
There is a whole online worked out there with many businesses running 100% online or partly online and there are people searching for help with a variety of things.
If this corona virus situation has opened your eyes to actually being able to have a better work life balance and you've loved being able to be home more with your kids, or getting things done whilst working from home…
Then this list may help you if you're looking for how you might be able to make it more permanent.
Working from home isn't for everyone, and that's totally cool…
There are so many who would love to have the freedom of owning your day whilst still bring in the income you want so this is for you.
Or maybe you just want some temporary work to fill in the gap while we're in lockdown and you can get back to work or if you need to find a new job.
One of the first things that people will look to outsource as a solopreneur or small business is some of the admin tasks or simple tasks that don't actually need them to do…
Letting them focus on the stuff that really need them. (I'll be creating a whole new post for the business owners to help see what you might be able to outsource as you grow)
For now, let's get into what types of services are regularly searched for and see if any of these you might be able to offer.
1. General Virtual Assistance
A Virtual Assistant is an awesome service to offer and it comes with a wide range of tasks included. Some people look for admin type tasks as of a Personal Assistant you may be more familiar with if in the corporate world.
There are also more specialised Virtual Assistants people are looking for which I'll get to later.
The cool thing about being a Virtual Assistant, is you can take those small tasks away from someone and be doing them a huge favour.
Plus some don't need any sort of speciality so can be fairly easy to pick up.
You will just need to be super organised, know your way around computers and be resourceful.
What types of tasks are offers as a Virtual Assistant?
- Managing Email Inboxes/Replies/Messaging
- Database Management - Entry & Updates (sales, contracts, CRM etc.)
- Creating/Editing/Managing Spreadsheets
- Basic Bookkeeping
- Chasing Outstanding Invoices
- Typing up Notes
- File/Folder organisation
- Diary Management - Scheduling calls/meetings, adding upcoming events
- Event Coordination
- Personal Duties - dry cleaning, shopping, errands
- Writing up/Editing/Formatting reports and presentations
- Data Research
- Travel Arrangements
- Collecting Metrics
- Making calls, checking messages, leaving voicemails
- Creating & Sending out Greeting cards, invitations, thank you notes etc.
- Managing Cloud Computer Accounts (Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive)
- Preparing Training manual for staff or remove workers
- Create Forms/Surveys
- Taking Minutes from meetings
- Dealing with recruiting/setting up new team members, contractors, freelancers paperwork
- General admin errands (buying stationary, organising parties, events etc.
- Putting together welcome/goodbye packages for clients and staff
- Typing up processes
- Project Management
2. Social Media Services
Another big part of what people look to outsource early on is some of the social media work.
It can be time consuming and is often something business owners outsource.
For me personally, this was the first thing I wanted to outsource for myself to free up my time. I hired an assistant to take care of finding content and distributing my own content and scheduling it for me.
It was well worth the money and helped someone out earning an additional income for themselves.
A lot of VA's offer some of the simple Social Media tasks but again, you can customise your own package on what you feel confident in and what you want to offer.
The types of tasks that can be included in offering Social Media services are:-
- Content Research
- Writing, Scheduling, Sharing Social Media Posts
- Managing Online Communities/Groups
- Responding/Managing Messages
- Social Media Audit
- Engaging with Audience (responding to comments, messages on FB, Instagram, YouTube etc)
- Creating Pinnable Images for Pinterest
- Creating LinkedIn Articles
- Run a social media challenge/contest
- Repurposing Content (Turn a video into a written blog posts or social media post)
- Setting up and managing LinkedIn accounts
- Setting up and managing LinkedIn groups
- Adding Connections on LinkedIn
- Sending general messages (Happy birthday, congrats on work anniversary etc.)
- Scheduling messages in Many Chat
- Scheduling Pins with Tailwind
- Updating Profiles/Bios on Social Media Sites
3. Video/Audio
If you're good with a computer and have done any video editing work for yourself or others, this is another great tasks that people want someone else to do.
The most common tasks people look for in this category are:-
- Basic Video editing (Trimming start & end of a video, Splitting videos into segments)
- Uploading Files to YouTube/Vimeo/Wistia
- Video Transcriptions
- Editing Audio Files by removing background noise and improve volume levels
- Setting up/Managing Webinars/Podcasts
4. Content Marketing/Creation
Content Marketing is a great way to build trust and authority online.
There are some copywriting type tasks as well as simpler tasks that can be covered with creating or managing Content from the list below:-
- Content Research
- Blog creation/formatting
- Writing services (blog articles)
- Guest Posting and Guest Blogging
- Blog set up/SEO/Editing/Scheduling
- Email newsletter writing/Autoresponder Scheduling
- eBook editing/formatting/proof reading/publishing
- Composing press released and newsletter for news release
- Respond to Comments on Blog
- Interview industry guests, influencers, sources for report
- Interview previous customers to compose case studies
- Creating a Marketing strategy
- Creating product descriptions of online shops e.g. Etsy, Shopify
- Collecting/Editing Testimonials
5. Graphic Design
Got graphic design skills or a good eye for design?
This could be perfect for you.
Again, a big task people look to outsource.
Not everyone has the time or skills to create good quality and eye catching graphics, so this is probably first thing people get somebody to work on.
People share and refer so if you do a good job, ask for referrals and maybe offer an incentive because I've got friends who will always share their 'Design guy' when asked so it's a great way to get extra work.
I personally have design experience so I love doing this stuff myself. I tried to outsource but got frustrated when I couldn't make simple tweaks so I keep to doing this myself at the moment.
There may come a time when I have to give it up but it's one of those tasks I really enjoy so I'm keeping it! Lol!
- Logo Design
- Creating blog post graphics
- Creating slides for webinars/workshops
- Designing business cards
- Sourcing photos for blog posts, social media, books
- Creating graphics for video thumbnails
- Branding services
- Designing eBooks
- Designing lead magnets
- Digital Product Cover images
- Infographics
- Images for Pinterest / Instagram / Facebook
- Website Design
Canva is an amazing tool to use which is free or only $10 for more functionality. It gives you a lot of templates to with that you don't need to be a graphic designer to create some simple images
6. Website/Tech Related
If you're a big of tech whizz, you are going to be in demand!
Many people can start a business and when they start to learn about creating sales funnels and websites etc. they go a bit pale at the thought of tech.
There are some easy to use softwares out there, but again, for those who really struggle with Technical stuff, getting someone else to build pages, set up websites, creating automation and from the list below…
It's a god send to them.
Here are some of the common technical/website related tasks people look for:-
- Creating website pages / Funnel pages e.g. Sales pages, checkout pages, opt in pages
- Website Set Up/Management
- Page Organisation/Sitemap
- SEO managements
- Keyword Research for website and perform blog analysis
- Competitor Analysis
- Integrating with Third Party Sites/Apps
- Google Analytics Reporting/Monitoring
- Creating Google Analytic goals
- Setting up UTM tracking to track website traffic
- Create autoresponder campaigns
- Autoresponder Management (Tags, Segmenting etc.)
- Installing, Updating WordPress Plugins and themes
- Doing regular backups
- Creating online forms for content submission, customer feedback or enquiries
7. Affiliate Marketing
If you don't want to offer a service, then there are ways to make money by promoting other people's products - this is called Affiliate Marketing.
Think of it like sharing a great restaurant you just went to for a delicious meal and you're telling your friends about it.
Or a great film you watched and people then go and watch it from your recommendation.
This will take a bit longer to earn some decent money but there are lots of Affiliate programs out there and even simply becoming an Amazon affiliate and share you best buys from Amazon.
A lot of Bloggers will add affiliate offers to help them pay for their website costs.
The thing to know about Affiliate Marketing, is it needs to be genuine and authentic.
Offer what you have used and genuinely really like and you're already winning.
The above 7 are the more common things, but there are some more specialist or industry specific things that you can utilise online.
I'm sure you have seen some of them in the last few weeks but hopefully it gives you intrigue and makes you curious as to how you might be able to bring your business online or start something you love doing.
8. Sales Calls
A more skills role, but virtual sales people are always in need to close sales for clients for business.
If you have sales skills & experience, this is a great thing to do and you can earn some serious dough!
I see a lot of my online friends and mentors looking for good sales people to close high ticket sales for them and it can all be done from home.
9. Customer Support
Another common role that is needed for online businesses are Customer Support teams.
Taking calls, dealing with customer enquiries, support tickets are some of the tasks involved.
You’ll just need to find a company that has a virtual team and see if you can help take care of their customer queries.
10. Consulting
If you have some skills,, why not turn it into a consulting business and offer advice based on your area of expertise.
For example - Marketing strategy, social media strategy, sales strategy etc.
More established and bigger companies need your expertise and help!
11. Media Buying
If you have experience with doing paid advertising, there are many companies and small businesses needing your help.
As we go into more of an online and digital world, companies are being left behind if they don't utilise these methods.
This is a great skill to have and offer as a service.
Media Buying includes things such as :- Facebook Ads, Google Ads, Pinterest Ads -
I'd advise you to only offer this if you know what you're doing as people will expect results for their money - but it's a common thing businesses want to outsource to help them grow.
12. Online Tutoring
Teaching, Tutoring, Teaching Assistant - all can be done online to help students needing some extra help or maybe are being home schooled.
13. Online Coaching
Do you have a skill to coach others?
Turn it into an online coaching practice.
Coaching is HUGE market and - Business coaching, Life coaching, Mindset Coaching, Health coaching - there are many coaches out there and people need help to push themselves in their life or business.
14. Virtual Fitness Lessons
Why not do some Live fitness lessons using FB Live or YouTube Live and help get people moving and working out from home.
You can then create a YouTube channel to keep short bite sized workouts people can do and offer a paid service for more in depth, personal service
.
15. Create Digital Products
(I'll go into this in a separate blog post as this will take longer to get set up potentially and deserves its own blog so I can go into more detail!)
If you have a service or offer some training/coaching, there are lots of different things you can turn into a digital product to sell.
This take a little more time but can be put together fairly quickly if you have a skill to offer.
16. Online Therapist
If you offer therapy, you can do a lot of it online using video call software and a booking appointment system. A great way to free up costs of needing an office and do it online instead.
There are many more I could add but I'd be here all day.
Hopefully this list gives you an idea of the plethora or opportunity and ideas that can be a way to earn money from home.
Even if it's just to pick up some part time work on the side, or if you want to completely take control and be able to quit your full time job and work fully from home, there are so many options.
Right now is a weird and scary time for many, genuinely though, I'm actually quite excited to see more & more people seeing the opportunities out there and see other methods that you can create to work from home…
Enabling you to have the freedom to have that family/work/life balance… if that's something you'd love more of?.
I love that my work is 100% online and I’m still able to carry on as normal which I feel very grateful for and I’m passionate about helping others who want that kind of freedom, find what works for them and making it happen!
If there’s something from this list that you think - Yep I can totally do that, then get going!
Do some research and see if you can find any jobs going.
I’ll be providing more trainings on how to get started and getting your first client so keep an eye on my blog and make sure you’re in my Facebook group for first access to my content - plus you can have more access to me to get any questions answered.
Click here to request to join and I’ll see you over there!
Talk soon
Jenny
