2020 will always be remembered as the year where the world stood still.
Well most of the world stood still for a few months, some places like New Zealand who had a fantastic response from their government stood still for less time than other countries and then there were those who thought they knew best and didn’t stand still at all.
Putting all political opinions and grievances aside, 2020 was the year when the COVID-19 pandemic hit closing down countries and shutting down economies. It was an incredibly tough period for a lot of people. And still will be for quite some time.
Many hospitality businesses like cafes, bars, restaurants, night clubs and hotels have suffered bad with many closing due to large gatherings of people being outlawed and strict social-distancing rules put in place to slow down the transmission of the disease.
But where there is an issue, there is always an opportunity. I like to think of the popular Chinese Yin Yang symbol which represents balance. Wherever there is a bad, there will always be a bit of good and vice versa.
During the pandemic, while a lot of people suffered financially, others did fantastically well. Such as Michael Saiger who made £21 Million in 97 days.
Read more about Michael Saiger here: How To Generate Bigger Chunks Of Money For Doing Less
Michael figured out a way to make a lot of money due to the pandemic and I am more than certain that when this pandemic will be over, he will continue to make more money because what he is providing will still be required.
Michael is actually a jewellery designer yet he has recently signed a contract with the UK government to provide the NHS with PPE which is being manufactured in China. He isn’t even making it himself.
It was needed before the pandemic, it is desperately needed during the pandemic and it will be needed for many years after too.
Michael figured out what the world needed now, and set about finding how he could supply it in bulk to those who were willing to pay big money for what he had. Hence how he made £21 Million in 97 days.
There have been people who quickly set up companies to manufacture hand sanitizer and hand wash, which is in big demand at the moment. They too have built up multi-million pound businesses within a few months.
This is the art of becoming seriously wealthy, you find what is needed, and you supply it. It is even better if you can supply something which is going to be needed when times are good and bad.
This article wasn’t to just talk about building big multi-million pound businesses supplying people with products or services which they need. It is more about what you – the average guy on the street – can do to make money during a pandemic when times are hard.
Betting, Trading & TAX FREE Profits
While most of the UK slipped into lockdowns and social distancing rules, many of the major sporting events still took place. Just without the live crowds. Because of the easy access to television, it was decided that sports should go ahead without the crowds as they can offer up some light relief and entertainment for people who were housebound.
This meant that people were still able to gamble and trade sporting events. If done correctly, people can make a lot of money trading sporting events such as horse racing, tennis, rugby and football. I am not talking about simply placing bets on teams or horses you think might win and hope for the best.
No, you do research and you place a trade on the team, horse or person you believe will win based on the research and statistics you now know. You never bet blind or on a whim.
There are a lot of people who already do the research and share their tips and selections on social media. You can learn a lot more about that here: The World of Football Twitter Tipsters, And Can You Make Money Using Them?
Obviously, if you haven’t done anything like this before, you should not gamble with money you cannot afford to lose and you should always paper trade or start small.
Professional sports traders use betting exchanges like BetFair and they cash out if a trade is going against them so that they minimise any losses and in many cases, break-even not losing any money at all.
Gambling and betting when done from a complete professional approach can make a lot of money and the great thing about sports trading is that for people within the UK, it is completely TAX FREE and so it doesn’t require you to keep accounts and do any bookkeeping. Well, unless you declare yourself as a professional sports trader then HMRC will want you to do a self assessment form each year.
If you do it as a part time business then you are fine. The reason that winnings from gambling is TAX FREE is that the government realised that if they can claim tax on winnings, it also meant that people could offset their winnings with expenses and losses which would mean the government would lose more money than it would make in the long term.
The Internet: The Great Saviour Of 2020?
One thing we have learned thanks to the pandemic is how society today depends a lot on the internet.
A lot of jobs are now based solely online and can be done online from anywhere. And we can buy all of our basic necessities such as food and clothes shopping online. 30 years ago that would have been impossible.
The internet has also allowed people to work without any disruption because they can work with and for people all over the world and they can sell products around the world. The pandemic has meant that some work from home freelance writers have been more busy than normal.
One writer I know was busy converting physical manuals into digital ebooks and download versions of courses. The company he worked for sold information products and due to lockdown restrictions their staff could not go in and print and post the physical manuals. Working from home, he was given the task to convert products which people were still buying.
While doing that, he was working in the evening writing content for other people. He didn’t need to leave his office in his house. Not only was he safe because he was not mingling with people, he was able to carry on working because he offered a service people all over the world needed.
He was incredibly busy and earned more money during the lockdown months than the months leading up to the pandemic.
The internet has opened up new opportunities to people. Allowing them to work for people they have never met who are on the far side of the planet. Writing is an incredibly easy business to get involved in online. Most people have a good enough command of the English language to be able to write content which is suitable for websites and eBooks.
Further Reading: How YOU Can Make Money Using The Written Word
Going back to the story of Michael Saiger, the man who made £21 Million in 97 days providing PPE to the NHS here in the UK. Michael is a US citizen living in Florida, a jewellery designer by trade and here he is selling a product he doesn’t make, possibly will never touch, made by people in China who he may never meet, to an organisation in the UK he will never meet.
If he can do that. What can you do?
Is there a service or product which you can offer to people during this strange period in history?
Delivery Drivers And Home Delivery Services
Another thing which has seen an increase during the COVID-19 pandemic is home delivery.
Over the recent years, 3rd party delivery companies like Deliveroo have been popping up offering collection and delivery service for food outlets such as McDonalds and KFC who don’t offer home delivery.
Since the pandemic struck, the demand for take-away food delivery has rocketed. But it’s not just the big well known take-aways which are now delivering food to their customers more.
Local cafes, bakeries and chippies are stepping up and offering delivery services to help generate the money they would normally get from people going into their shops. Thanks to complete lockdowns they have endured periods where they were not earning any money at all. So they had to improvise.
Plus the social distancing rules has meant that most establishments have had to remove half or more of their tables to ensure people are not sitting too close to each other during the periods they are allowed to be open. This has at least reduced their income by half.
These little local shops have lost a lot of revenue and have been forced to improvise and so many have resorted to baking cakes, pastries and cooking meals which they sell online and deliver to their customers.
Supermarkets have also stepped up their delivery services due to the lockdown restrictions and the government insisting that vulnerable members of society stay at home and shield for their own protection.
Those people need supplies, they need to eat food and the supermarkets don’t want to lose custom so they have improved and increased their delivery service to cope with the growing demand.
More and more people are buying goods and items online from websites such as Amazon and eBay. These products need delivering and the current demand is high.
So again, the question is, are there businesses in your area where you can offer a collection and delivery service where you take their goods to their customers?
There might be a service which is in demand right now which you can offer to people. Personally, I am a fan of finding a service which commands a premium price for the work you do. Delivering food cannot pay big money, to make a decent wage from it you need to be delivering a lot of it during a shift otherwise you will not earn much.
The writer I mentioned earlier, was being paid several hundred pounds to sit in his warm office at home, supping big mugs of tea while listening to chilled reggae dub music writing web content.
Outside in the cold and rain, delivery drivers were speeding around town dropping off stacks of cheap food trying to scratch a living from a few pounds per hour.
Ideally, if you need to earn some money then you need to figure out what is the best way to be paid more for doing less… or at least, get paid fairly well for what you do and find something which is not overly stressful and doesn’t require a lot of hard physical work.
