OpenMagazine

Andrea Ross is the founder of “The Career Establishment”, a Leadership and Team development company based in Singapore. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Sociology from Huddersfield University in the UK and is a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach, Behavioural DISC consultant and a qualified facilitator (ACTA V5). Before embarking on a career as a certified trainer & executive coach, online program curator, Andrea spent 13 years in Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam leading a multi-million dollar global search firm Robert Walters. Andrea is also a podcast host for Talent Talk Asia which features interviews with some of the most successful talents across Asia to discuss the forces, opportunities & challenges that are shaping the corporate landscape airing on spotify, stitcher and i-tunes.

An entrepreneurial pursuit may not seem ideal in these turbulent times, but there are actually many business ideas that can be adapted to be pandemic-friendly! After all, entrepreneurship is about creating a thriving business while adapting to new situations and overcoming challenges. 

1. Fitness and Wellness Programmes 
   There is an increasing demand for fitness and wellness content as more people spend their days stuck indoors. Some are seeking out ways to up their fitness game so they can emerge from lockdown as a new man, while others are simply prioritising their mental health.
   If you have a background in fitness and health, virtual coaching can be a profitable business idea since the clientele will have expanded due to work-from-home orders. The potential client pool would also be larger since distance and commute are not limiting factors.
    Start by providing free fitness and health content online, like home workouts or recipe videos, in order to reach a wider audience and gain a following. Once you’ve amassed a substantial following, you can start earning by creating personalised workouts or diet plans for paying customers.
   
2. Dropshipping Business
     Being cooped up at home means more people requiring delivery services. Besides restaurant meals, baked goods, and groceries, there is a rising demand for services that deliver miscellaneous items. First, focus on filling gaps in the market, i.e. delivering goods that are not readily available or starting a hyperlocal delivery system for housing areas lacking in these services. Starting off with a hyperlocal delivery system can be a great learning curve since it is more affordable and efficient than mainstream delivery systems. Consider collaborating with local businesses to deliver their merchandise as this can help you establish good business relations while stimulating the local economy.
   
3. Professional Cleaning Services
   It comes as no surprise that professional cleaning services have been in higher demand due to the pandemic. In fact, the industrial cleaning service market is expected to continue growing considerably between 2020 and 2025 due to the ramifications of COVID-19. Clientele like large offices, restaurants, and storefront businesses all over the world will heavily rely on professional cleaning services to disinfect their spaces in the years to come.
   
4. Box Subscription Services
   There has never been a better time to start a box subscription company. With people being forced to stay home, box subscription services can be both a way to change up a routine with new products or maintain one with well-loved products. These services can take on many forms, such as meal prep kits, beauty product boxes, board games, or snack boxes. To begin, identify a niche market and begin curating products to their needs, while keeping in mind that people are likely searching for products that can improve their stay-at-home experience. 

As working from home becomes the new norm, so will virtual meetings. Conferencing platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, and Skype have replaced cafes and offices. An unprofessional virtual environment can be unpleasant for everyone involved. Thus, whether it’s with a client, colleague, or potential employer, holding effective and smooth-running virtual meetings is imperative in elevating your personal brand. Here are a few tips to ensure your next virtual appointment goes without a hitch.

Practise with a Test Meeting 

• Before the actual meeting, do a trial run to ensure that the technical setup is in order. Get to know the conferencing platform and figure out all the necessary functions. In some instances, the platform will require explicit permissions for audio and camera access or screen-sharing capabilities, so be sure to have that set up in advance. 
• Test your equipment. Since meetings are all about communication, it is essential that your microphone and camera be working well to avoid issues like muffled audio or blurry videos. Solve potential technical issues beforehand to help avoid unnecessary frustration and miscommunication. 
• Test your wifi. While seemingly obvious, connectivity issues can happen more often than one might expect. Having inadequate wifi would nullify all your previous efforts if it causes laggy audio or videos.

Create a Professional Virtual Environment 

• First impressions matter. In virtual meetings, presenting your best self on camera is important as that is the impression you will be leaving. A dimly lit room and a cluttered background is not only distracting, it looks unprofessional. Find a well-lit area with lighting that properly illuminates your face. You should also make sure that your background is clean and tidy. If you find yourself in a pinch, simply use any plain surface like a wall or a draped bedsheet.
• An empty room may result in echoing. If echoing occurs, either find a well-carpeted room or place some blankets and towels around to help reduce reverberation.

Look the Part

• While it may be tempting to stay in your comfiest attire all day, putting on your work clothes sets the mood. Some people feel the most confident when they are well-dressed, and that may be the case for you. Even if the meeting is audio-only, try dressing how you would in a physical meeting and see how that affects your performance. 
• During the meeting, act just as you would in a physical meeting. Being distracted, either by your phone or other tasks, during a long meeting is ill-advised as you run the risk of missing vital information. 

A certified coach with credentials from Australian Strength Performance, Nana Al-Haleq (@nanaalhaleq) is a highly motivated individual who is constantly striving to be the best at what she does. She is the most recognised female fitness influencer in Malaysia with the most following on Instagram she creates products to help men and women achieve their health goals. Reinventing herself from an influencer to a TV-Host, in a short span of 2 years, she has hosted popular television shows on NTV7, ASTRO and RTM, namely the Feel Good Show, Fitness Battle, Jom Kurus, Kami Geng FIT, and A-Z Aktif. She’s an official brand ambassador athlete with Under Armour and Apple. Now a household name, Nana is also a businesswoman and the brains behind BodyLab.

Just about anyone is probably hanging out on Clubhouse, an invite-only audio chat app for iPhone users. Although it had launched in April of 2020, it only began gaining traction in early 2021. True to its name, the app has become akin to an exclusive club. 

If you managed to snag an invite, a quick peruse of the app will show how widely the quality of the rooms vary. It can be exhausting to constantly find yourself in mismanaged rooms, so whether you’re a regular or aspiring room host, here are a few ways to create a better experience for everyone. 

Here are a few tips for you, as a host, to improve your Clubhouse experience for the users:

1. Avoid lengthy introductions
Utilise the bio section, it’s your best friend! All relevant information about yourself should be available on your profile for those interested. Unless your room is specifically dedicated to your life story, save the autobiography for another occasion A brief introduction and basic pleasantries are all you need before diving right into the topic at hand.

2. Stay on topic
As is common in any long-form panel or discussions, listeners will often tune in and out. Tangents that go on for too long will bore the listeners and cause them to zone out and lose their attention. While some banter and jokes can keep things interesting, be careful not to digress from the main discussion for too long. As a listener, nothing is more frustrating than having a topic of interest be completely derailed.

3. ‘Reset’ the room periodically
You will likely encounter either listeners trickling in mid-session or dropping in and out of the room. In these instances, you can get them up to speed with quick reminders regarding the current topic and participation methods. These regular resets lessen the likelihood of having confused listeners leave the room while maintaining a lively session with participating listeners.

4. Be A Discerning Moderator
Not all raised hands should be put on the stage. It is important to allow them to speak, but it is more important to know when not to let them speak. As the saying goes: “Too many cooks spoil the broth”; it will be harder to maintain a quality discussion with too many speakers. Keep all the speakers on topic and be prepared to take them off when necessary.

5. Don’t Beg For Follows

Rather than blatantly asking for a follow, be tactful in your approach and give them a reason to do so. Encourage users with questions to contact you on other social media platforms. This makes the interaction mutually beneficial by offering something of value: the knowledge and information that you possess.