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One of the best ways to come up with new business ideas is by studying existing businesses that are already making money. Another great way is to search for opportunities created by the changing world landscape.
Watch the video below or read the written post to learn more! The content is from Pat Flynn at SmartPassiveIncome.com.
For other related posts, I recommend checking out: How To Track Global Trends & Spot New Opportunities and The Ultimate Guide To Starting A Digital Business.
Table of Contents
The Written Version:
In this video, I want to share with you 15 new business ideas that you can start during this crisis that may allow you to build something brand new that you never thought possible. And we’re going to do all of this in just 15 minutes. That’s right one business idea per minute.
But before we get to that, we need to talk about what is happening right now, recent data has shown that unemployment is at an all-time high. In fact, one out of every five Americans is without a job, which is really insane. It reminds me of my story back in 2008, having gotten laid off in the recession back then, for different reasons, obviously. And it took a little bit of time, but I found massive opportunities during that downturn, and you have those same opportunities too. The one question I want to ask you is this. What does this make possible?
All right now to help you get started, I’m going to go over 15 new business ideas in just 15 minutes for you. I’m going to tell you a little bit about the niche, a little bit about why I think there’s an opportunity there, and a lot of these are a result of what has happened now. There’s going to be a new normal, and it’s those who get in front of this new normal who can come out the other end better.
Before we get started, the most important thing is don’t use this opportunity, this crisis that’s happening right now, to literally take advantage of people’s fears. If you want to buy all the hand sanitizer, and then sell that, and that’s your business. Like, please stop watching my videos. Get out of here. Screw you. Should I say screw you? That’s kind of harsh, right? No, I think that shows like where I’m coming from. Right? Okay, I’m going to keep it. Screw you.
What I want you to understand is yes, you can take advantage of the opportunities that you have here, and you will be serving a group of people. But you need to come from a place of service first. How can you help others, and as a byproduct get paid in return? Now’s the time to get started. So let’s get started with idea number one.
1. Parents
First, let’s talk about parents. That’s a niche I want to focus on first because parents are experiencing things in their life right now that they’ve never experienced before. Specifically, kids are home all day, and if you’re like me, I don’t want my kids on the iPad for nine hours a day. Right? But we need to still get them to learn. So there’s that distant learning that’s happening right now. But, we as parents also have to get stuff done. We also want to make sure our kids are fed, too.
And so how do we keep them active? How do we keep them engaged? But how do we work on our own stuff? There’s a whole new set of businesses right now that are being created to help parents in the homeschooling space, in the teaching kids how to cook space, in all the areas of parenting right now is a time to focus in on that and help them out. So if you can find parents and understand what their pains and problems are, that’s where you can find some good opportunities right now.
2. Content Creators
Number two. I want you to think about content creators right now. Yes, there’s a whole load of people using this opportunity to consume more, to consume more YouTube videos like you’re doing right now, or to consume podcasts, or blogs, and read more; that’s great. But there’s a whole new set of people who are now creating for the first time. Brand new YouTube creators, brand new podcasters, and guess what? They’re going to need some support and help.
So, businesses that start to help those new creators, that are focused on their efforts, edit their stuff, repurpose their information. There are huge opportunities right now, and there’s going to be a huge boom in services that help content creators. I mean, even just think about being here on YouTube, helping a single person on YouTube: get set up, go live, and also how to repurpose their stuff…how to take it and make sure they do a great job, how to turn that into a business, how to edit their stuff. I mean, there’s going to be huge opportunities in that right now. And so, if you happen to have some editing skills, this might be a great opportunity for you to hone in on a specific niche in the creator space.
3. Speakers
Number three, let’s talk about speakers. Speakers have been hit so hard during this time, right?
People who used to travel, there’s no more traveling. Events are being canceled left and right. What do these speakers need to do? Well, you can step up and help these speakers in all different kinds of ways.
Number one, there might be an opportunity for you to help them book virtual gigs. There’s a lot of virtual conferences happening right now. And you stepping up to help them get those gigs can be worth their time and money.
Secondly, you might be able to actually help these speakers create their own virtual events where they can then create their own sort of mini-events in an online fashion, too. And many of them, having a load of experience talking about these topics over and over again, are perfectly suited to guess what? Write books now.
So maybe you can step up and help speakers write books, just like I did. I took a conference talk that I had about building superfans, and I turned that into a book last year, and it’s become a bestseller. So hey, plug that idea in, and they might hire you for services.
4. Artists
Number four, let’s talk about starving artists, right? Starving artists, musicians, painters, artists, all kinds of starving artists. Guess what? They were already starving. And now at this time, they might be starving even more, and they’re gonna need some help.
There’s a load of people right now who are stepping up to teach art, to teach creativity, to teach their work. Guitar, you know, piano, whatever it might be.
There’s a huge influx of people who are using this time to learn a new skill, to learn a new hobby, and starving artists can help themselves by teaching their craft, and these people may not know how to do that. So if you can step up and help these artists teach others how to create something similar, there are huge opportunities there, too. I think we all know that courses about hobbies have been really successful, from piano to guitar to art, and all those kinds of things. Now’s the time to lean into that and help those who really need that extra income right now. And it might be a great situation with a win for everybody.
5. Students
Number five, let’s talk about students. Students have been affected quite drastically during this time of all ages, right? But I think especially I want to think about the college graduate or the person who’s in college right now who needs a little bit of supplemental income to see how they might be able to pay off that debt or continue their education. And I think there’s going to be a huge opportunity connecting students who are at home now learning while at home, to have a little bit of extra time to connect with companies, software companies, other companies that might need some help, who are now looking at a lot of remote work solutions.
So a student just coming fresh out of school might have a great opportunity to get in front of a business that is looking to hire people for relatively cheap, but you’ll be able to make have extra money, that connection can go really well. So if you can help a student or even a business find students, it can be a marriage that can work out really well. And you can get paid as a result of that.
For example, I know a lot of people who even before the crisis use Craigslist to find students. Well, why not be the middleman who can help connect great students with great talent with companies that need that talent?
6. Entertainers
Number six, let’s talk about entertainers. People who used to speak on stage as comedians, people who used to go to auditions, which are likely not even happening right now. Entertainers need some help, and where are they going? They’re going to YouTube. They’re creating their brands and personalities. And you could step up to become the person to help these people get set up online.
A lot of times they’ve been spending so much time in-person going from audition to audition, and working on their work outside of the house. Well, guess what? They’re in the house now.
You might be able to help consult and bring them ideas, and even help them create their brand online, build their personal brand, build up an audience, so that they can come out better on the other end. And in fact, even have more opportunities, growing that audience base entertaining them in an online fashion. A lot of times these people just need somebody to support them along the way, so you could become this agency/solution to help them build their brand online.
7. Health and Fitness
Number seven, the health and fitness niche. Now that’s a huge niche, obviously. And what I think there is in terms of opportunities are specialty fitness solutions for people in this current time in crisis and what the new normal will be. I’m reminded of a man named Joe who has a channel on YouTube called “PE with Joe.” He’s just exploded in his niche is helping kids get fitness every single day. He goes live. Literally has like a half million people watch him live.
And that inspired me because I’m like, if I was a personal trainer, I would hone in on a niche, too. And show up live or create videos just specifically for that niche. Or even do Virtual Training just like I get from my friend Jeff over at Totalbodyconstruction.com. There are huge opportunities and fitness right now. People are at home, they’re eating junk food, they need some help, and you could step up to help them too.
So that’s fitness, that’s nutrition. That’s all that great stuff. And obviously, that’s going to be important. There’s gonna be a whole load of people who are not going to be feeling good and are going to look for trainers. And if you have a specialty, they can come to you for help.
8. Software
Number eight, software. Now, this isn’t niche-specific in terms of where to look. It’s actually solution-specific, which is another way to approach businesses. Now, here’s what I would recommend. Finding out what a business type, because businesses are focusing on new things that they’ve never had to focus on before. And there could be solutions that are software-based that can help them.
So as opposed to coming in and helping them and consulting them, you might be able to step up and create a software solution for them, too. So what I mean is, you might want to have a conversation with a specific kind of business, maybe a business that is for the first time, you know, going online from brick and mortar. And you might be able to help them understand or even create software that helps them run their inventory and do a bunch of other things.
There was an episode that I did with a man named Dane Maxwell. That was Episode 46 of my podcast where literally it was calling businesses, asking them what they need help with, what is inconvenient that they wish they had a software solution for, and then working with them, and even getting payments upfront from them to help find a developer and build that solution, too. So creating software for companies who are experiencing something new right now can be a great solution.
9. Membership Platforms
Number nine. Let’s talk about membership platforms. This is, again, a solution based opportunity here. Memberships are huge right now. A good friend of mine, Steve McClaren, has just been talking so much about how his students in his tribes’ platform. They’re all membership-based website owners. They’re thriving right now. Because guess what people are craving in this time? They’re craving community. They’re craving connection.
And when you can bring people together, it doesn’t even need to be a large group. The beauty of membership platforms is oftentimes you can get that holy grail of passive income, which is the monthly recurring payments, and people who are looking for a community who want to talk about something specific can come to you and come to your membership platform and connect with the community. It’s not even about the content that you put in there. It’s about the connection. It’s about that guidance. It’s about that sort of craving of connection and community and networking that people are so dearly missing right now.
So if you can create a membership platform right now, that can be a huge opportunity for you. You can even start small. You can even validate it to try to get people into a Facebook group, and then enhance it later, somewhere off of Facebook.
10. Gardening
Number 10. The gardening niche. Think about it. Everybody’s at home right now. And when it comes to going out, it’s more often than not a better decision to stay home, right? Especially during these times. And I know a lot of people who are starting their gardens in their homes or wanting to even grow their own food, which is pretty amazing. And I know that the gardening niche is exploding right now. I’ve seen it in some of the numbers on Amazon with a lot of the products that are being sold there. And I’ve even heard about it from a number of my friends.
So being in that space, or even going into it to research where people might need help. Maybe it’s becoming the tomato expert. I don’t know, there could be great opportunities there. Now, I do want to preface this by saying that you don’t have to build something that helps a million people by the way. You just need a small group of people who could use you for help and advice, and you know, expert curation. Whether it’s selling your own products or affiliate marketing as an opportunity, you could become the go-to person to help people start their gardens at home. And everyday check-in and share your progress to, you know, follow the journey and the gardening niche. Yeah, big opportunities in there right now a lot of people are digging and planting.
11. E-Sports and Gaming
Number 11. eSports and gaming. Now I’ll tell you from my own personal experience, gaming is up. And that’s because everybody’s at home now. A lot of kids are watching, and sports are almost nonexistent. But you know what sports are still going? eSports. Electronic Gaming Sports: that’s huge. There are big opportunities there. There are opportunities to create tournaments, for example, for different kinds of games that might be there. There are opportunities to create guides and YouTube channels and Twitch streams for different games that are up and coming right now. There are opportunities to get behind, you know, software companies and sharing reviews on all the best latest VR gear that might be coming out. There are opportunities everywhere in the gaming space right now. Now, you might not see results right away. But we all know that that business has been booming for a while. And I think it’s gonna boom even bigger as we go into this new normal.
This is where people are connecting. This is where people are finding a community. There are even opportunities in both VR and gaming and AR. It’s a big opportunity, what are you going to do to step up in that realm?
12. Athletes
Number 12. Let’s talk about another group of people who’ve been massively affected by the downturn here. That’s athletes. From college athletes to professional athletes, they’re going to need to do something, and right now, there’s nothing for them to do. A lot of them who are succeeding right now, however, have personal brands, or they’re making connections with their audience right now. And I know that a lot of those people don’t know how to do that. They often have people who support them behind the scenes, and guess what? You can step up and support them too.
So, finding college athletes, finding professional athletes in all different kinds of sports, and becoming their go-to person to help them get online to build their personal brand to show up on Youtube. To just guide them can be an amazing opportunity for you. Now, this is obviously a little bit more manual. However, there is a need there for sure. And so, if you could step up and help an athlete be able to create something that they can use now, and even later after they retire, or should something else happen and they’re not able to get back into their line of work. Well, that’s worth a lot in my opinion, and you could step up and become somebody who helps somebody in that space too.
13. Brick and Mortar Businesses
Number 13. I want you to think about brick and mortar businesses. A lot of those businesses specifically are struggling right now because nobody’s coming into the doors. And so you could step up to become a consultant. Or somebody who could provide service or help a brick and mortar business come online specifically, and that could be your specialty.
As you can see here, we’ve been talking a lot about specialties having a niche. As I often say, “the riches are in the niches,” and maybe your niche becomes “I’m gonna help brick and mortar businesses stay alive, sell more products online, start a Shopify website, or be able to, you know, deliver more products and help them fulfill their stuff” or you know, what have you.
There’s so many different problems and issues that brick and mortar businesses are having right now. There are solutions, though. And you can become a go-to person in that space. Maybe for a specific type of brick and mortar. Maybe there’s a specific, you know, maybe it’s boutique fashion places that might need help. And you can focus on learning the language of that audience and understanding what their customers need, and learn how to ship those items and, and get returns if they don’t fit, and things like that. I mean, there are so many opportunities there, just focusing on that niche, and then having conversations to understand what they might need help with would be the first steps for sure.
14. Virtual Reality
Number 14, VR virtual reality. Now I talked about gaming earlier. And this is a different realm, VR virtual reality in terms of health, in terms of community and network. There’s games or platforms like altspace and recroom that allow people virtually to connect with each other and have that human connection again. I would imagine that meditation within VR is going to be a thing. I would imagine that traveling through VR is going to be a thing. and there’s huge opportunities. there’s always been the opportunity to do that in VR. And I think now is a perfect time for a lot of those spaces within VR to boom, right?
So you know, travel, for example, a lot of the travel industry has been hit hard, however, you can still go to places, and if you can go together, maybe bring a community behind it, you can still explore. You can still have those feelings of discovery, which you might find in real life travel, but virtually. And then for health and fitness, specifically, and connection. And again, the gaming part of it’s huge too. But I think the VR community is going to see a huge boom here as a result of what’s happening even outside of the gaming realm.
15. Education
All right, number 15. And this is a huge one for me, education. There’s going to be a new norm in education and you know, you can extrapolate whatever new problems or new issues or new discoveries are going to need to happen there in order for it to flow and work well. But there are huge opportunities in education right now, from helping parents learn how to do social learning with their kids at home, to helping teachers learn how to better connect with their kids online, to helping colleges understand how people can better learn online, to the more independent education opportunities like with what I do with my online courses. You all have the opportunity to create online courses to teach your specialty, too. There are so many opportunities in education right now.
And I think out of all the things that we mentioned today, this is likely where the biggest opportunity is going to be. Because we know education cannot stop, but it is going to change, and you have to grasp on to where the new pains, the new problems are in that space and see how you might be able to focus your energy and efforts they’re focusing on and honing in on a specific group. Whether it’s parents, teachers, colleges, what have you, and seeing how you might be able to create something. Is there an opportunity for you there?
16. Live Streaming
And number 16? Yes, I said there are only 15. But we’re doing 16 because I always like to over-deliver for you. And that’s actually what I’m doing right now. And that is helping people go live. Going live is a huge opportunity right now. You might be like, “Pat, I’m not watching this live right now.”
Well, in fact, there are hundreds of people watching this live right now because I’m doing behind the scenes. So that’s a little meta, but I’m actually filming this video live in front of an audience right now, which you didn’t know because I go live every single day on my show The Income Stream. 8 am Pacific/11 am Eastern here on YouTube. So if you want to check out the links there in the description below, I’d love to show up for you. And I wanted to do something fun today.
But guess what? There’s a lot of people wanting to go live and have no idea how to do it. By the way, if you want me to show you how easy it is to go live in a situation like this, you can just click that little icon up there or click the link in the description below that will take you to a quick and easy tutorial about how you can get started with live streaming and the best software that you can use to do that, too.
But think about it. There are people who are used to having you know, those daily television shows or the late night shows. Everybody’s at home now. And I don’t know. I don’t know if you’ve seen them, but they’re at home with their selfie cams and their webcams. And guess what? The playing field is level now for all of us.
And if you can help people, or maybe even you want to go online, well guess what? We all are at the same level right now. And it’s just the opportunity for you to provide value to serve others. And I think you can become the person who can help other people go live, too. So if you want to know how that works, and help perhaps, and even get paid to help others do that, too, just click on that link that’s up there in the icon or click on the link in the description below. See how you might be able to help other people go live, too.
Final Thoughts:
So there you go. 16 business ideas in less than 20 minutes. I don’t know where we ended up in terms of timing, but hopefully, that helps you.
Because again, I know you might have just recently lost your job or perhaps know somebody who’s recently lost her job. There are new opportunities coming out every day, right? I think it was Russell Branson who said, you know, “business ideas are like buses if you miss one, you just gotta wait for the next one.” And guess what? There’s a whole load of business idea buses that just showed up. Are you gonna take advantage of it? I hope so.
So leave a comment in the comment section below and let me know which of these business ideas is the most interesting and exciting to you. I’d love to know what is in your mind right now. And by the way, make sure you hit subscribe, hit that bell notification icon, so that I can send more videos to you when they come out that are helpful just like this.
And by the way, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate you. If you want to watch the next video that’s going to help you click on this video right here. It’s popping up on your screen right now that’ll help you too.
And to finish off as always, thank you so much, and team Flynn for the win.
