This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Let's talk about that Corona bump. You know what I mean? The Corona bump, the pandemic boost. While many businesses are struggling, some are doing better than ever. Zoom, the ubiquitous conference call service, video call service, which I'm sure you are now familiar with.
You might not have been familiar with it last year. Last year, they had 10 million users. They now have 200 million users from December 2019 into the age of coronavirus, 10 million to 200 million. Delivery apps are thriving. In-home exercise companies like Peloton are thriving.
And of course, liquor stores are doing a brisk business. Those are just a few examples. Today's caller is in a unique situation of seeing greatly increased demand for her online art classes. But she's worried about what will happen when life goes back to normal. I really like this question.
Let's talk it out. How do I maintain a pandemic boost in my business? [Music]
Hi, Chris, I'm a longtime fan. I've been listening to Side Hustle School ever since day one and reading all your books all the time. I started at Side Hustle a couple of years ago, teaching art classes once a week at a local community center.
Now, since the pandemic has hit, I have retooled that into twice daily art classes online. And this is going very well. I would like to be able to continue doing very well with my side hustle. But once the pandemic is over, I imagine people will be going back to their once a week art classes. So how do I retool this or reimagine this concept so that I can keep doing it after the pandemic is over?
Or do I need to scrap it and go back to something different? Thanks so much for your advice. [Music]
Susan, you are awesome. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you for reading the books.
I'm so glad they're helpful. And I'm so glad you are teaching those art classes. Well done on adapting to the new world order and taking those classes online. Okay, so there's a lot here. And I think this is relevant for a lot of people.
First, I think we should ask, why is Susan experiencing the increased demand? Because there's some clues here for other businesses and other side hustle ideas. So why is she experiencing the increased demand? Because the in-person classes can no longer happen, yet people still want to have this experience, gain the education, and perhaps also feel a sense of community. Just a sense of routine, of ritual.
This is my schedule. This is the class that I go to. I used to drive down the street to the community center. Now I just log on to Zoom or whatever the platform is to take the class, okay? So second, let's consider this assumption of hers.
Susan said, once the pandemic is over, I imagine people will be going back to their once a week art classes. Well, it's like this. In some ways, I don't think we're going to go back to what was normal. And I think in lots of ways, I think the world is going to be changed for a long time. At the time I'm recording this, we still have no idea what the timeline is and what the future may hold, not just in the next couple of weeks or months, but perhaps even beyond that.
And of course, it's also different in different parts of the United States and different parts of the world. So, you know, it's not like all of a sudden there's going to be a switch flipped and everything's going to go back to normal. It's going to be a very, very gradual process. And some places will be more accelerated than others. Now, presumably these online classes can reach people wherever they are, not just in Susan's area, but even so, let's imagine.
Let's just hypothesize and say that it is all of a sudden perfectly safe in all parts of the world. And everyone can go to classes at their local community center again. What happens then? So here is my prediction. Just as so many people are now working remotely who weren't doing so before, are probably not going to give that up.
At least a lot of them are going to say, you know what, this is actually pretty good for me. I don't have to commute. I'm pretty sure not every corporate employee is going to go back to their typical corporate life. I also bet that a lot of people are going to say, you know, I like this online education better. I can do this from my home and without driving or taking public transit anywhere.
Maybe there are still things I like to do, you know, in the so-called offline world, but there are a lot of benefits to this way as well. And just keep in mind that online education was huge before COVID-19. Like before all this happened and we were all kind of on lockdown, online education was thriving. And so many people were doing online classes and courses. Now, of course it has exploded.
And that means that the user base has widened. And I don't think that every one of those people, you know, at the end of this is going to say, oh, I'm never going to do online education again. Like that was fun for a while. No, I mean, like all these people have gained new skills. They have become more comfortable with different technologies.
They have experienced the benefits of online education and other virtual experiences. So I would say don't assume that people won't want it. Don't assume that people won't actually prefer this option or at least like this option in addition to the in-person one. So my suggestion to Susan is make it your challenge to provide value and benefit so that they will prefer it, or at least that there will be a market for them because the classes are going well now. I don't think there's any reason why they couldn't continue to go well after the age of the pandemic.
That's my two cents. Definitely keep us posted. I would love to know what happens so we can update the community. And listeners, if you have a question, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. We'll be featuring them throughout the year along with updates from listeners as they launch their projects.
I'm so grateful to be able to make this program for you wherever you are in the world. I hope you're taking care of yourself and be sure of course to check up on someone else as well. All right, that's it for today. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
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From the Onward Project.
