110- Entrepreneurs face uphill challenge in post-pandemic environment

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In this episode of The Struggling Biz.com, we discuss the ideas that loom over the worries for aspiring entrepreneurs and startups in now beginning a small business in this post-sham-demic world after the fear-mongering tactics and the amount of failures in business that occurred due to the unfair lockdowns.

Well, perhaps you can be successful in South Dakota, as that was the only state that did not lock down, did not have a mandatory mask law or policy and did not force businesses to close due to the fear-mongering of the sham-demic.

But for all the rest, is the fear of failure now looming high in your mind, as fear of more lock-downs appear (not only for virus crises, but now for climate change and other excuses from the lame-stream media, Bill Gates or the governments)?

So what can you plan to do if you want to begin your own firm and become an entrepreneur?

Well, you will have to be in a business that carries NO INVENTORY, has no brick-and-mortar location, can be run from any desk and laptop on the internet and will not incur a very high investment of capital (but merely time and effort and sweat).

And although there are a lot of virtual businesses that can make this happen, what are the ones in which I would suggest for an aspiring or new startup or entrepreneur to consider?

The answer is obvious — podcasting for profit and screencasting or videocasting for hire.

Podcasting for profit would require a minimal investment of time and effort — time to investigate the podosphere and effort to learn how to podcast with a theme and subject matter that would create audiences for you, as well as the possibility of being a content creator for not only audio, but associated products (like online courses, shows that would interest many who would want your content so much that they would be willing to pay for it, and other attractions); and
screencasting or video-casting for hire — especially in the area of creating tutorials and courses (either for companies that need training videos, or for including them to a large learning library and online store like Udemy.com.

For these two areas in which we will specialize this targeted show, we will focus on several ideas:

learning the craft from books — from areas like books and tutorials (e.g., suggested is a book from podcaster Dave Jackson from The School of Podcasting) such as Profit from Your podcast
learning the craft from membership site and training site investments — such as The School of Podcasting from Dave Jackson for podcasting; and ScreenCapturevideo.com from Lon Naylor;
experience in using the tools of your craft with a minor investment for hardware and software:
- for podcasting, Dave Jackson (mentioned above) can give you what is needed without breaking your budget from his tutorials in SchoolofPodcasting.com;
- for screencasting and video tutorials, Lon Naylor (mentioned above) can give you bi-weekly training and instruction from not only structured courses (from Ron Hogue) but also from his training using Camtasia Studio (which is available for both Mac and Windows).

So, without going into a lot of detail and confusing the aspiring or new entrepreneur or startup, the most simple formula for us to use is:

acquire the hardware and software minimum investment to learn your new craft and excel in it;
join membership sites that are free (or low-cost) to learn how to podcast and screencast among a team of like-minded professionals who will be willing to share in a community to make your podcast and screencast better;
invest in the minimal way for the training sites to keep improving in a community of learners to better their skills in either podcasting or screencasting (or both); and
learn from the masters from their tutorials and training products and training sites; and keep investing in improving your skills and knowing about the new environment as an entrepreneur (with such things as clubs, meetups, conferences, sharing from communities, etc.).

One last thing — you should also have a master plan and direction for you to become a CONTENT CREATOR and espouse to become a successful THOUGHT LEADER.

Why? Because a thought leader is a proven career path that will make you a respected subject-matter expert, a proven solution provider and well-known and trusted advisor that can influence many of your audience members to buy your products and services over the long haul (and not just one-time sales).

And this 4-step approach can give you the best as far as leadership, recognition, respect and industry reputation that will have you become not only a recognized author and speaker, but also a successful entrepreneur who knows how to monetize his craft — as you can see from the chart, below:

I know that we have spoken about this before, but now more than ever, it is of vital importance that you should choose an area of entrepreneurship and skills that can help you in a business that can be as recession-proof and pandemic-proof as possible.

I give you these examples, mainly because I have gone down this path and have seen that it can be successful for an entrepreneur who can master the crafts which we discussed.

Thank you for your attention.