It is happening and we can’t ignore it. Recession is here and sooner or later, it will have a noticeable effect on our life. The prices are increasing but the income is not changed leaving us with less money at the end of the month. But if you act fast, you can find a way out of it and use the power of interest to make money online even during a hard recession like this one.
When the pandemic hit in early 2020, many people lost their jobs due to lockdowns, and global supply chain and manufacturing sectors were disrupted like never before. Governments tried to help by introducing relief packages by printing money and injecting it into the economy to battle inflation.
Now the pandemic is over, it takes a lot of time for things to get back to normal. There is a lot of money laying around but nowhere to spend or invest. This caused the inflation rate to rise globally, and given the war in Ukraine and the global energy crisis, prices rose globally and now we are dealing with a hard recession almost all over the world.
As a result, the rise in the unemployment rate is imminent. Companies want to cut costs to continue operating and employers may lay off some to meet financial deadlines. Put it on top of the prices that are going sky high, it will be quite difficult for those who may lose their jobs in this economic recession.
To deal with such hard times, we may have to dip into our savings to pay bills and rent, and this is something that can cause a lot of stress and anxiety. But if you stick we me, at the end of this article, you may have some ideas to make some extra bucks and maybe start a serious long-term business.
How to Deal with a Recession?
Dealing with recession is possible but you have to act fast, possibly even today if you want to be immune to its ill effects. What you can do to help your financial power during a recession is to try making some extra money and have more than one source of income (a.k.a. passive income).
There are a lot of opportunities that you can use to your advantage, With some computer skills, reading more, a little bit of hope, and patience, you can start one of the side businesses mentioned below and make yourself a new stream of income.
1. Become a Freelancer
Freelancing has always been a good way to make some extra bucks. You can consider becoming a freelancer and start working online on various job marketplaces to land freelance projects and make a decent amount of money that can help you during the recession.
As a freelancer, you can work from home, choose your clients, and manage your time. There are many people who make a living by freelancing. In the long run, you can actually look at freelance gigs as your main source of income that gives your more freedom. While companies may fire employees at such times, the freelance market is always flourishing, even better during a recession or pandemic.
If you like to become a freelancer, I actually have a good article you can read. It is a simple guide on How to Become a Freelancer in 2023. Give it a try and see if you are the freelancer material.
2. Start a Dropshipping Business
Dropshipping is a popular business model for many online stores and eCommerce websites. It’s easy too provided you have some knowledge about creating a website and managing a small business. Dropshipping is where you list products on your website and sell them to potential customers.
When someone purchases the product, the supplier will package the item and ship it to the customer. You’ll receive a percentage of the sale which is quite decent for many categories of products. It’s a simple, hassle-free business model. You just deal with building a website and attracting customers. Your supplier deals with production and shipping as well as returns and customer support.
You can easily create an online shop with Shopify service, find a supplier willing to dropship products, and list those products on your website. A good thing about dropshipping is its potential as a serious small to medium business. You can start small, with a few hundred listings, and expand when sales get better.
If you want to start a dropshipping business during this recession, my personal advice is to start with products that are cheap. Avoid luxury goods since people may not have enough money to pay for expensive things. Cheaper products in dropshipping business have less commission, but higher sales. So sales quantity compensates for the profit margin.
3. Start a YouTube Channel/Blog
This particular one is something that never gets old. Starting a YouTube channel can always turn into a good way of making passive income. If you have a smartphone with a decent camera and video editing software, you’re good to go.
Of course, the competition is high but if you choose the topic of your channel right, you can join YouTube Partner Program after, let’s say, six months and start making some money.
But if you want to be successful faster, then try to find some trending topics and video content and try to make videos about that. Also, during an economic recession, people won’t prioritize stuff like travel, cosmetics & beauty products, cars, or similar expensive subjects.
4. Sell Private-Label Digital Files
This is rather new in the online money-making niche. There are a lot of marketplaces where people customize digital files (ebooks, software, instruction manuals, online services, etc.) for buyers. You can also buy a few white-label files, customize them with your logo or name and then sell them on a website.
To do this, First, you have to create a website. Actually, you need an eCommerce store to sell digital downloads. It’s easy. Shopify service can help you do this too. You can also use WordPress to create a website without any coding.
Second, find some white-label files that people may pay a few dollars for. A good example of a white-label file provider is PLR Website which allows you to buy software, ebooks, and other digital download and sell them as private-label goods on your website.
Also, many online software service companies provide white-label versions of their service for customers. You sign a contract with the company and sell them as private-label services under your name & logo. But this one is a little bit expensive and harder to operate, so it’s better to stick to digital downloads.
5. Become a Consultant
Consultation service is a kind of service that everyone with any profession and background can provide as a way of making more money. One of the best things about the consultation is that physical presence is not necessary and an online video meeting can do the job.
To start giving out advice or even teaching others what you know, you have to create a personal website, publish some posts talking about your skills, and provide contact information so clients can call you for consultation. There are also platforms that connect consultants to people who need advice on different matters.
I can’t think of any skill that doesn’t have the potential for consultation. Doctors, teachers, lawyers, financial advisors, architects, designers, marketers, family counselors, accountants, and many more can easily benefit from providing consultation services.
6. Develop an App
Just like selling white-label digital downloads under your logo and name, you can also buy white-label smartphone apps and, release them with your name on Apple App Store or Google Play Store and make money by showing ads, selling subscriptions, or, in case of mobile games, selling in-game currencies.
It may involve coding and design but hopefully, there are many freelancers willing to do the job for an insignificant amount of money. You can buy white-label apps from Flippa and CodeCanyon or you can find open-source apps on GitHub and outsource development & coding to freelancers on platforms like Fiverr and Upwork.
In most cases, publishing a generic app doesn’t require massive advertisement campaigns for getting downloads. Smartphone app store magical algorithms usually bring a decent amount of users to your app page but paying a few bucks for downloads can greatly increase your profit from monetization techniques like showing ads.
7. Sell Online Courses
Like providing consultation, selling online courses is also one of the things everyone can do and make money online. Online courses can be for any skill and profession and there is absolutely no limitation. You can create a teaching plan, set up a camera (even a smartphone camera), and start teaching what you know and are good at.
The demand for online courses is always high and everyone like to learn more about some specific skill or get a certificate that can result in a promotion in a job. Granted there are a lot of free courses out there, but if you have some secrets, special tips & tricks, and some untold knowledge about the industry you work in, it always sells in the form of an online course.
There are various platforms where you can start selling courses. Check websites like Udemy, Teachable, and SkillShare and see what are their requirements for a successful online course. Then, go ahead and create one based on those standards and publish it on the website.
You can also sell your online course on your personal website. If you want to do this, then remember to publish the course on the above-mentioned platforms because they already have traffic from people who are eager to learn more. Publishing courses on a personal website alone require advertisement and a lot of effort to drive people to the site and this might be outside your marketing budget.
Conclusion
To wrap up this post, let’s see what we learned today. First, we talked briefly about the ongoing recession and what caused it. Then we learned the potential negative effects of such events on our personal & financial life. and in the end, we learned a few ways to make money online during an economical recession. They are as follows:
- Becoming a freelancer
- Start a dropshipping business
- Start a YouTube channel
- Selling white-label digital downloads
- Working as a consultant
- Developing an app for smartphones
- Selling online courses on various platforms
In this article, we learned how to do these things to make a passive income during this hard time and we also learned briefly about how and where to start, and that’s about it.
