- In 2020, I was on track to make more money than ever — until the pandemic dried up my income streams.
- To make money, I turned to side hustles I could do from home.
- I created online courses, sold my stuff, sought out freelance writing gigs, and took online surveys.
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At the start of 2020, I had a plan in place to make more money as a solopreneur than I’ve ever made before. I had a long list of client work, speaking engagements, and projects in the works that were going to generate a six-figure income for the year.
In March of 2020, when the pandemic put the world on pause, I lost more than 75% of that work and that money.
I had no choice but to sit down and do some serious brainstorming. I wanted to figure out multiple gigs I could do from home to bring in money and stay busy during a chaotic time. After making a long list of potential jobs, I narrowed it down to four side hustles that I ended up doing to recoup income during the pandemic.
1. Online courses
I had created my first online course in 2017 and saw the potential of how having courses can be a great way of bringing in recurring income. I narrowed down a few skills of mine that I knew I could teach in a unique and engaging way and set out to create an online course for each skill. It took 20-30 days to write, design, and film video for each course and I released three in 2020.
To make the courses stand out from others out there, I did a competitor analysis research chart, asked my audience what they wanted to learn in the courses, and gave each participant individual feedback throughout the course. I was able to generate a few thousand dollars a month by selling online courses.
If you want to create your own course, look at the skills you have that are in-demand, write out an outline for your course, and begin building it on a platform, like Thinkific.
2. Selling my stuff
With so much free time during the pandemic, I found myself constantly cleaning out my apartment.
I decided that I was going to sell as much of my unwanted stuff as I could. I gathered all the furniture, appliances, clothes, and household goods that I wanted to sell and wrote descriptions for each item along with a purchase price. I then took photos of everything and used an app called OfferUp.
While this was a bit time intensive at the start, it …….
