There’s a lot of talk right now about how to pivot out of lockdown. It’s obvious why. I popped into town today (June 10, 2020 – week ten of coronavirus lockdown) for a few bits and pieces. It’s still very quiet here with most of the shops, pubs and public spaces still shut. Supermarket shopping is less of an ordeal than in recent weeks. The queues are shorter and moving faster as the temptation to bulk buy lessens. The shelves are generally better stocked and Pasta, flour, toilet rolls and other essentials are no longer worryingly scarce. A kind of weird calm and stoic acceptance has settled on our once bustling little town. But what’s next is the question weighing heavily on everyone’s mind.
Here in Scotland a more cautious approach to relaxing the lockdown is being taken than in England. It’s a delicate balancing act between restarting a desperately suffering economy – all those furlough payments and grants to the self-employed are mounting up – and preventing a second wave of this hellish virus. For many people it’s actually quite a pleasant time. It has all coincided with some great summer weather and we find ourselves with time to enjoy it. Many are earning less but then again are spending less. But this slightly rosy picture will be changing before we know it.
Why Lots Of Us Will Need To Pivot Out of Lockdown
In a previous life I worked in the audio visual and live events industry, many of my friends still do. They have no idea when they will work again or indeed if their industry will ever recover. It’s an industry closely tied to the hotel, entertainment and tourism industries after all where the need for social distancing has made business impossible. My partner is a driving instructor and like many of my friends, has no idea when or even how resuming work will be possible.
These are just two examples, I’m sure you can add many more. We live in hope of an vaccine and new ways of working and doing business are being developed. Sadly its already late for many businesses in some of the worst hit sectors. Every day now we hear of company X shedding thousands of jobs or company B closing its doors forever. Most businesses simply can’t sustain months – possibly years – with few or zero customers. This is why so many will have to find a way to pivot out of lockdown into something new. One industry which is thriving and is big enough for and accessible to millions of us is the low touch world of the Internet.
Lessons Learned In The Credit Crunch
Close to ten years ago now the Internet was my lifeline during the banking crisis that began in 2008. As I mentioned I was in the AV industry then and it was hit badly by the global recession that followed. By 2011 I’d been laid off twice as had many of my friends and colleagues. No-one could afford to put on lavish events and conferences any more. Budgets were slashed and business became cut throat. At that point I was 48 – rapidly approaching the employment dead zone of 50. Like many people now I had to find a way to pivot from what I knew to something very different.
The Internet back then was still fairly young – it still is – but it was already an indispensable resource to most of us. If you were in business you had to have an online presence. In private life you were doing a lot of your shopping online. It was becoming an ultra convenient place to do many, many things. It was also becoming the logical place to start a business. Who needs, premises, staff, products or machinery when it can all be done virtually?
Actually there were already quite a few millionaire Internet marketers by 2008. They had seen the potential of emerging online business models like affiliate marketing and e-commerce. Both of these models have continued to grow exponentially to the point where companies like Amazon are the biggest in the world. You can even run a business on Amazon selling pretty much anything. Affiliate marketing – earning commission for selling other people’s products – offers a similar scope.
Jumping Economic Ships
The scalability of an online business is basically limitless and it can be started and run from anywhere with minimal equipment (A laptop) The opportunities this offers the individual are unprecedented in human history and there has never been a better time to seize them.
As you can imagine though the road to online success is littered with casualties. The early “wild west” days of internet marketing – back when Google was a lad and Facebook just a twinkle in Mr Zuckenberg’s eye – gave birth to the get rich quick mindset. The Internet has had a hard time shrugging that off. Scams, hot air and false promises were rife and there were easy pickings for the unscrupulous. Luckily its a very different landscape now. Google, Facebook and all the other places you can advertise online are very strict indeed about what you can and cant say, sell or promote to THEIR customers. As consumers we are all much more savvy now too and we have lots of rules and regulations protecting us from the baddies.
So while you are unlikely now to fall foul of an online scam – at least not on any of the big platforms – doing business online can still be a minefield.
Smart Pivotting
Every aspect of online business from building websites to creating graphics, from training to sending emails has spurned its own industry. Sifting through all this information to find the things you do need for an online business and avoid the things you don’t can be overwhelming. It can also be expensive and difficult to manage. Luckily though, help is at hand.
Over 10 years ago a couple of young aspiring entrepreneurs saw the potential of the internet to pivot from their existing careers into something far better. Stuart Ross and Jay Kubbasek, from the UK and Canada respectively had parallel success in their new industry. Both became millionaires in their late twenties. Inevitably they heard of each other and after meeting at a convention, became fast friends. It wasn’t long before they decided to pool their resources and become co-founders of a pretty amazing new platform.
Stuart and Jay recognised the massive growth of online business, the lack of experience based training and the Titanic nature of the traditional economy. They decided that what the world really needed was a mentorship, training and business platform dedicated to helping individuals and businesses navigate this epic new digital economy. That’s even truer now when so many will need to pivot out of lockdown and covid19.
They would provide everything the new online entrepreneur would need in as simple and step by step a way as possible. This included tools, digital systems, recorded and live training and live events. The platform was set up as a community and marketed by affiliates. In other words you could create your first online business promoting theirs.
Meet Your New Normal
This platform was a godsend for me when pivoting my life became an urgent necessity. In the six years I’ve been involved both as a student and affiliate I’ve seen it grow and grow. It’s ever improving and has attracted strategic partners including Microsoft whose Lynda training platform is now included in membership.
I’d thoroughly recommend you take a look at this by simply subscribing for their free video workshop series on the link below. It covers all of the modern internet business models and how you can get started with them. You’ll learn all about the platform I’ve described and how you can benefit from it as I have. Its practically a blueprint for your pivot out of lockdown
