“To be honest, I broke down crying the other night - I can’t do this anymore. I’m closing for good.”

I could hear the heartache in her voice.

During the pandemic, her salon was shut-down, then re-opened, then forced to close again. She has several employees depending on her, on top of her family.

She was on a consultation call with me to discuss moving her business online. Now, you might be wondering how a salon could do any business online.

But believe me, its totally possible for brick and mortar businesses - such as salons, estheticians, gyms, book stores, florists, boutiques - to start making money online.

I'm heartbroken for all the brick and mortar businesses struggling right now. So today, I'd like to dive into how to start making money online. And even if you don't have a brick and mortar business, some of these ideas might help you better serve your customers during this time.

Step One - Consider How You Can Serve Your Customers Now

The first step is to ask yourself, “How can I serve my customers now?”

Rather than try to find a whole new audience to serve online, think about your current customer.

What are their current needs?
What results are they looking for?
How can you help them achieve those results now?

With everything going on right now, your customer might have different needs you can help them with.

For example, if you own a gym and have noticed a decline in attendance, you can help people get results with virtual classes or accountability calls/texts.

For estheticians, maybe your customers could use a virtual consult via Zoom, so they know how to best care for their skin at home.

I heard of a teacher who wasn’t able to teach during lock-downs, so she started making, selling and delivering Easter baskets.

She made thousands of dollars.

She didn’t have to find a new clientele. This service served her current customers, by attending to their current needs.

So take some time to think about your customers.

Or even go ahead and ask them!

What do they need right now that you can help them with?

What results are they looking for, that you can help them achieve?

Step Two - Decide How You’ll Start Making Money Online

The main ways you can start serving your customers online include:

• Online classes/consults

• Virtual events

• Selling products online

• Selling digital gift cards

Online Classes/Consults/Lessons

Online classes or consultations are a great way to serve your customers during this pandemic.

For example:

• If you have a gym, you could offer online workout classes. These could be live or pre-recorded.

• Some physicians and therapists can switch to online sessions.

• Estheticians can offer virtual consultations via Zoom.

• Music teachers and dance classes can offer online classes.

Some businesses might consider offering mini-courses to teach their customers how to do the service for themselves.

For example:

• A hairdresser might offer a mini course on a DIY blow-out or teach parents how to give their kids a basic haircut.

• Florists could teach a course on how to make a flower arrangement from grocery store flowers.

• Occupational therapists could teach parents therapy activities they can do from home with their children.

Virtual Events

Instead of in-person conferences, summits, meet-ups and speaking events, you can host a virtual event instead.

Attendees can watch the speakers from the comfort of their home.

You can include ways people can still connect and meet each other - maybe through small group video chats.

Perhaps you can make it extra special, by shipping their goodie bags to their house or a gift card to pick up some Starbucks.

Farmers’ Markets or Craft Fairs can host virtual events with a curated online shop of all the different vendors or create a webpage that links to all the different vendors’ websites.

Museums or art galleries can host virtual tours.

Musicians can hold online concerts.

DJs can host virtual dance parties - they pick the tunes and people dance at home.

Sell Products on Your Website

If you’re a product-based business that usually sells in a brick and mortar, there’s no better time to add an online shop to your website.

Or, if you’re not ready to invest in adding an online store to your website, you could sell your products on other E-Commerce sites such as Amazon or Etsy.

Selling products online obviously works great for businesses like boutiques, art galleries, or vintage shops. It also works great for vendors that usually sell at Farmers’ Markets or Craft Fairs.

But what about salons, estheticians or spas? Sell the products you use and recommend on your website.

Be creative.

There’s lots of ways brick & mortars can start selling products online.

For example, if you’re a bar that’s been shut down, maybe you could start selling a Happy Hour Home Kit with drinks and appetizers. Customers can purchase the kit online and have it delivered safely to their door.

Florists can sell bouquets on their website and offer contactless curbside pick up.

Pottery painting shops could offer a pottery-painting home kit, where customers can paint their pottery at home and then drop off their pieces to be put in the kiln and then picked up later.

Daycares or schools could start selling activity kits, to help working parents keep kids entertained while they’re working from home.

Sell Gift Cards On Your Website (With a Sweet Discount!)

Can’t figure out what classes or products to sell online? Sell gift cards. If you’re currently shut-down or experiencing low-attendance, offer a good deal if they purchase gift cards now that will be fulfilled in the future.

Implement Your Idea

Don’t just think about these ideas - go for it!

For online classes/consults/lessons, you can use an app like Zoom for live sessions.

Or you can pre-record the lesson and upload it to Youtube (make sure it’s unlisted and require a password to watch).

To start selling products online, you’ll need images of your products (ideally, professionally-taken photos). You’ll also need to write descriptions for each product.

Then, you can upload them to an E-Commerce website such as Etsy or Amazon, or have your web developer add an online store to your website.

For gift cards, decide the special deal you want to offer. Then, add an option to purchase gift cards on your website.

I hope this post provides some encouragement and hope for the brick and mortar businesses that are bravely navigating this challenging time. And hopefully, this post got you thinking about some of the ways your business can start making money online.

PS - Looking for more tips to improve your website? Click HERE to download a FREE calendar of simple, daily tasks to completely refresh your website in a month.

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