- Hi everyone, I'm attorney Aiden Durham
with 180 Law Co. in Denver, Colorado,
and you're watching, All Up In Yo' Business.
(upbeat music)
So I am back, I haven't posted any videos
in a few weeks because I've been traveling
and out of town a few times over the last couple
of months and weeks and stuff.
And then right when I came back,
was when it seems like the whole world kind of was shut down
due to the whole coronavirus, COVID-19 thing.
And as I film and post this,
we are right in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.
And because so many businesses
and things are being closed down, or shut down or stopped,
a lot of people are unfortunately losing their jobs
or losing a large source of their income.
Everyone, please help me welcome a Bard
to the All Up In Yo' Business stage,
she's joining us now, apparently, but anyway,
it's a lot of people are losing their jobs or their income,
and so they are scrambling to find a way
to replace that source of income and do whatever they can
to stay afloat and continue making money
throughout this whole thing.
The State of Colorado has a statewide,
stay at home order too, so like many of you,
I too have been staying at home pretty consistently
for the last couple of weeks.
And so since I have literally nothing else to do,
I'm gonna spend this whole week talking to you guys
about online businesses and how you can make money
and start a business without leaving your house.
Because if there's one thing I'm an expert at,
well, I guess it's the law.
I should say, I'm an expert at the law, some parts of it.
But the other thing I know I'm an expert at is staying home.
I'm really good at staying home
for extended periods of time.
So here I am to share some of my wisdom with you all.
But before we get into it, please be sure to like, subscribe
and share and check the description below
for some more information and resources,
and some downloadable guides and templates and stuff too.
I'm gonna start with how you go about starting a business
if you can't leave your house.
That's probably one of the bigger hurdles
to get through right now is the fact that for the most part,
we're not supposed to leave our houses.
We're not supposed to go anywhere, and even if we did,
most things are closed down.
So how do you start a business
when you can't leave your house?
Luckily, it's pretty easy for the most part,
some of this is gonna depend on your state
and your jurisdiction and all of that,
but for most of you starting a business online
without even leaving your house is a total possibility.
So first with forming an entity,
if you want to form an LLC or a corporation or something
for your business, most States have electronic filing
and allow you to file your articles of organization,
or articles of incorporation, and all of those documents
online without having to leave or go somewhere physically
to drop off those forms.
This may not apply for every State, but I'm pretty sure
most States have some form of electronic filing.
And I actually have a resource on my website
that allows you to form an LLC,
or a corporation in any State completely online
and at a really affordable cost.
So if you are interested in forming a new entity
like an LLC for your business,
I encourage you to check that out
because it will make the whole process super easy.
Getting an EIN is another thing that you can very easily do
without leaving your house.
The IRS, their application to get an EIN is available online
and can be submitted online.
In most cases, you get the EIN back instantaneously
as soon as you submit the application
and it's completely free too.
A bank account, now, this seems
like it would be a pretty big challenge
when you're forming an LLC or a corporation,
of course, you need to establish a new separate bank account
for your business.
A lot of businesses, especially right now
with all that's going on,
are starting to transition to more online services,
so you can do more with your account
and open accounts online.
So that is becoming pretty popular being able to establish
a new, a business account, online
without having to actually go into the bank.
My favorite one hands down is Novo,
you've probably heard me talk about them before
but Novo is a completely 100% online bank and better yet,
it's completely free too.
So you can open up and apply
for a business checking account with Novo,
completely online without having to go into a bank
or see anyone face to face,
and then of course it's totally free too.
You can check the description for a link to Novo
and to that resource on my website to form an entity too.
And then another really important thing
if you're starting a new business online
or not online, is insurance coverage.
Exactly what you need is going to depend on your industry
and what you're gonna be doing,
but whatever kind of insurance you need,
pretty much all of it is available
and can be obtained online.
Most insurance companies allow
electronic signing of documents,
and you can do video meetings with your insurance agent
to discuss everything,
so insurance should be a pretty easy thing
that you can get online without leaving your house.
And so, even if you don't have the money available
because you haven't been working,
if you don't have the money available to start an LLC
or form an actual business entity,
don't let that prevent you from starting a business,
or doing something for yourself
to start generating your own income.
Even though it is a good idea,
you do not need to form an LLC or any other kind of entity
in order to operate a business.
You don't need to do that.
You can do it just as a sole proprietorship
without forming any kind of legal business entity.
But if you are going to do that at a bare minimum
I would suggest getting general liability insurance coverage
just to cover you, if some liability does arise
before you have what you need to form an LLC or an entity.
Alright, so that is the how you start a business
without leaving your house.
Now let's talk about what kind of business
you could actually start.
What can you do that doesn't involve having to go anywhere
or leave your house, or see people to face to face.
Really, as long as you have a computer
and a decent internet connection,
there are endless possibilities of what you can do online
to generate income.
I like to, when we're talking,
not just about online businesses,
but with any business idea in general, I like to think of it
in three different categories.
So there is the category of creating,
of performing, and teaching.
So, creating, what can you create
that you can sell to other people?
What are some hobbies or talents that you have?
Are you an artist?
Do you do sculptures?
Maybe you're really good at sewing.
Maybe you're a graphic designer, or even a marketing expert,
or an SEO expert, what can you create?
Whether it's a tangible product
or some kind of a digital downloadable product
what can you create that other people are gonna wanna buy?
And I bet you would be surprised
by what other people are gonna wanna buy.
There is an audience out there for everything.
So even if let's say you are really good at sewing,
but you can only so one thing,
you can sew this one really great
I don't know, piece of clothing, beautifully,
but that's literally the only thing you can sew,
that's fine, there are gonna be people out there
who want that one piece of thing
that you can sew beautifully.
So start sewing it and start selling it.
You can sell things like on Etsy, or on Amazon,
or through your own website that you can set up
with like Squarespace, or Wix or something like that.
Again, a lot of these are free or very affordable to do
and there's little to no setup costs in the beginning.
You can also do things like going on Fiverr or Upwork
and creating things that way, if someone needs help
with graphic design, designing a logo,
or designing some kind of materials,
that's something that you can create for them.
Or if you're more of a, I wanna create things
and then just kind of put them out there,
you can create templates for, let's say, if you do marketing
you can create templates for different marketing collateral,
graphic design, creating templates that people can use for,
you know, Canva or other creations.
Think about what, even one thing,
you are really good at creating,
and then put it out there and sell it,
because someone will wanna buy it.
Performing, now, when I say performing, this,
I mean primarily performing a service,
but this could be an actual performance
but if you are in a service industry,
or if you have some kind of a service that you can provide,
perform that service.
So this could be something like professional services,
lawyers, I can still do my job pretty much the same
completely online without ever meeting clients face to face
or having to leave my house.
Same with services like coaching or consulting.
Again, if you are in an industry where you do a job
but you're not able to actually do it now
then coaching or consulting is a great way
of transitioning that to something else.
So, coaching someone else to get better
at that industry that you know a lot about.
And then performing this could also be actually performing.
If you are a dancer, or a singer, or a musician of some way,
film yourself performing, and put it on YouTube,
or some of these other streaming sites, or download sites,
put your content out there,
and someone out there is gonna wanna watch it
and is gonna wanna pay for it.
Or if you like playing video games go on Twitch,
start a Twitch stream, whatever thing you are good at
doing or performing, let people see you do it
because somebody's gonna wanna watch it.
And then finally, teaching.
Now, this is my favorite avenue of business,
as you, you might be able to tell from the existence
of my YouTube channel and everything altogether.
You know that old saying, "Those who can't do teach,"
well, that saying still applies.
If you literally cannot do your job,
if I don't know, if you are a interior decorator,
or a plumber, I think plumbers are still considered
necessary businesses and they're exempt
from most of these stay at home orders.
But if you're in something
where you physically can't do your job,
then teach people how to do it for themselves.
Again, this is where YouTube comes in,
and as you might notice, there's a lot of,
there can be a lot of overlap between teaching and creating.
So you might be teaching people
how to do something themselves,
but then you are creating some content, or some workbooks,
or sheets that go along with those teachings,
but whatever you know about,
teach someone else how to do it.
If you are a massage therapist
create content showing people how to do self massages
or how to give their partners good massages.
Very much like I do, I practice law,
but I teach it to people via my YouTube channel,
and that generates a little bit of income on its own.
So, if you can't do what you want to do,
then teach people how to do it for themselves.
And this can be things like online courses, or workshops,
masterclasses, lots of online video content
or downloadable content is great for teaching people
how to do something themselves.
And again, with all of this, so you don't get overwhelmed
by, well, what am I gonna teach them?
What do I know, what am I an expert in?
Or what am I gonna create or perform?
One thing is really all you need,
and that's gonna be enough to at least get started
and probably start bringing in a little bit of income
and then generating some more ideas
of other content or things that you can create.
So if there's one thing that you're really good at doing,
teach people how to do that one thing, or write in ebook,
teaching people how to do that one thing,
or post your services on Fiverr
offering to do that one thing.
You don't have to be an expert in every element
of your field, or every aspect of your field,
you can be an expert in one very specific thing
in your field, and really the more specific the better.
Because that's how people are gonna find you,
that's how you're gonna be able to stand out
from other people who do a little bit of this,
a little bit of that, so don't be afraid
if you can only think of one thing or one aspect,
that you can use for your business roll with it.
Worst case scenario, it doesn't work out for you,
and nobody buys it, and you're right back
in the same position that you are now anyway.
And then, like I said resources like Etsy, Amazon, Fiverr,
Upwork, are great for selling products
or selling your services.
And then there are a lot of platforms like Kajabi
or Teachable, and other things, other platforms like that
where you can do online classes or online courses.
YouTube obviously is a fantastic one.
And then I'm gonna give one final little tip,
this one primarily applies to women,
but men certainly aren't excluded from this,
and I say this half jokingly, but half seriously.
We are in a little bit of an advantage as women
because most men, how do I put this gently,
are weird, and perverted?
Anyway, us women have this opportunity currently
to use things to our advantage,
such as webcams, or selling pictures of our feet.
There again, there's an audience out there for everything.
So if there's something about you physically
that you think you can make money off of online
or through social media, and if you're comfortable with it,
heck why not, someone out there will buy it.
Again, go into this with extreme caution
and keep in mind the laws and what's legal
and not legal in your area, but if you're super desperate,
there are very easy ways for women primarily
to take advantage of the weakness of men.
Especially in times like these where men are cooped up
and not able to get out and talk to ladies.
Alright, hope that didn't offend anybody.
That's all for this episode folks.
Drop a comment below, and let me know what you think.
If you are starting some kind of a business right now
to supplement income or a job that you may have lost,
let me know what you are going through,
or what kind of things you're struggling with,
'cause I wanna talk about it this week.
And again, be sure to check the description
for some resources to set up an LLC online
and open up a bank account completely online too.
Thank you all so much for watching,
I'm Aiden Durham, and I'll see you next time.
(upbeat music)