#unpause your dreams

Many businesses, including salons, across the country are on #pause. Waiting for the ok to reopen and serve their clients.

Some have found work arounds, including the following:

• home visits
• online sales
• online content creation/ad revenue
• a second job or side hustle

I’d love to know, in the comments, how this #pause has impacted your life, and what you have been able to do, if anything, in order to see yourself & your family through what may be challenging times.

I’d also love to know, if the #pause hasn’t directly impacted your work life, how your favorite businesses have continued to serve you, their favorite customer!

Now, I’d like to move on to some potential solutions.

There are so many possibilities. Sitting by and watching your hopes and dreams float away is not one of them. Choosing to allow your circumstances and other people decide your future outcomes, is not an option. CHANGING your situation. Doing something while you’re #paused, IS AN OPTION! What you’re going to do about it will depend on your personal resources, your family make up, your skills, and your local job market. Let’s hit on a few!

• Second job. Many business are seeing greater demand, such as warehouses/shipping facilities, grocery stores, etc. You might consider that a temporary solution, either part or full time.
• Gig Apps. Becoming more and more a part of our lives, especially in 2020, there are several possibilities. Food delivery, tasks, personal assistant, content creation, grocery shopping, etc. The great thing about gig apps is that you can generally work on your own schedule and can work as little or as much as you’d like/need to. A short list of a few that I’m aware of:
  • Shipt (several informational and training videos created by yours truly can be found here)
  • Takl
  • Task Rabbit
  • Roadie
  • Instacart
  • Uber
  • Lyft
  • Merchandiser
  • TakeOut

I won’t make an extensive or all inclusive list here, because those available to you will vary.

• Direct Sales. There are most possibilities here than you think, and they’re not all bad or ‘icky’. You don’t even have to let your friends know you’re doing it, much less annoy the crap out of them. The trick to this is considering companies that match your lifestyle, interests, and, hopefully, your skillset. If its not a product or service that you believe it, it won’t go well. Now, take those companies that you’re considering and thoroughly research them. Reach out to reps. If they are pushy or you don’t like their tactics, its likely not the company for you! You want to be proud of any brand or company that you affiliate yourself with.
• Sell your stuff. This goes without saying. Most of us have more stuff than we need. Where to sell it? Depends on what it is!
  • Facebook Marketplace
  • Etsy
  • Poshmark
  • eBay
  • Local Facebook groups
  • Yard/Garage Sale
• Sell other people’s stuff. Serioiusly, this can be quite lucrative! You can start with just a few items, and then use the money you make to get more of other people’s stuff. Thrift stores and yard sales are excellent inexpensive resources. You can sell those items on any of the sites, among others, listed above!
• Start a blog! Start a blog about your biz. Now, this obviously is NOT going to generate immediate income. But, eventually, if you’re serious about it, you can earn with ads, referral links, affiliate links, etc. Heck, I even made a swag shop for my blog! (I’ll share that another day, as well!) Or, write for other people’s blogs! If you’re a great writer, there’s actually money to be made here!
• Rent out a room, or if you happen to have an extra house or apartment stashed…rent that! Check out AirBnB or Homeaway online and see if you can pull it off!

I’d love to know what’s working for you, and if you’ve researched/tried any of the above options. I’d especially love to know if I missed something! I hope this post encourages you to seek out viable options.