Show notes from Episode #147 of the Sweaty Startup Podcast.
Continuing with the Businesses I Love series, Nick talks about the opportunites created by the recent coronavirus outbreak. COVID-19 has officially been labeled a pandemic among the World Health Organization and we’ve seen sporting events, concerts, conferences, and classes get canceled across the world. No matter how you feel about the outbreak, no matter your level of fear, you can’t deny that it’s happening and it’s changing how people act and think. People have new, unique needs that they’ll pay money for, and that creates opportunity for you.
Office Cleaning
Nick has a friend whose law firm calculated how much it was worth to keep their employees in the office and actively working every day, and then spent $15k to have a company come in and deep clean the office to make employees feel better about coming to work. They’re doing this for 6 weeks, totalling $90k in revenue for the company.
If you run a cleaning company or want to offer it as an additional service, this is your opportunity. Get proper insurance to clean commercial offices, walk into businesses, and sell the company on disinfecting the hotspot areas for germs like desks, counters, doorknobs, keyboards, and mouse pads. Use Google as your resource here to learn best practices on how to clean these hotspots. Not all deals need to be $15k, but if you can make a few thousand for a few hours of work among your crew, you’ll be able to grasp a huge chunk of revenue here.
Home Offices
More and more companies are going to start letting people work from home with this outbreak, a trend that’s already been on the rise in the past decade. Home office build outs are going to be in high demand for the next six months and moving forward. Consultants, attorneys, tech workers, and sales people will spend money to make sure they have the right office equipment and don’t lose productivity when they work from home. This is a great upsell service to offer, and if you can do the job quickly you’ll find people who are willing to pay at a high margin.
Ghost Kitchens
Nick has already talked about ghost kitchens in a previous episode, but the opportunity is even greater now. Ghost kitchens minimize the number of people exposed to your food and your dining experience, which means demand will rise as people are increasingly concerned about the coronavirus. You don’t need high value real estate or even a wait staff, ghost kitchens allow you to produce high quality food in a cheaper location and deliver it to the customer.
Build out a website and invest in a professional photographer to take photos of your dishes. Let customers visually shop off your menu online, and even let them schedule ahead of time for when they want the food delivered
Embrace Change
Change is an amazing thing for entrepreneurs. When things change, when people get scared, there are holes in the market, demand begins to outpace supply, and opportunity is created. When things change in your city, always ask yourself what kind of opportunities it creates.
Sweaty startups are already in high demand, changes will only accentuate that. 20 years ago only 5% of people paid to get their lawn mowed, and today that number is 40%. People are outsourcing labor all the time, and the market is growing. Just because you see a crowded market in your area doesn’t mean you can’t get a piece of the pie. When the market grows, new business will come to you.
Want to hear more? Check out Nick’s guest appearance on the Side Hustle Nation podcast.
Highlights
Office cleaning [3:15]
Home office build out [8:00]
Ghost kitchen [9:10]