A Step-by-Step Crisis Guide to Finding Your Remote-Working Niche
By: Shaunta Grimes
Tags: Remote Working, Writing, Covid 19, Productivity, Creativity

It feels like we’re living in one of those videos that shows a plant sprouting, growing, peaking, and dying in hyper speed, so that what should take weeks happens in thirty seconds.

The world isn’t just changing. It’s shedding it’s skin over and over, reinventing itself before we can even come close to understanding the previous iteration. It’s mind-boggling and scary. The news is full of warnings that a 20 percent unemployment rate is coming. And pictures of Times Square and the Las Vegas Strip shuttered and empty.

We’re all sitting in our houses, trying to remember how to breathe, and the only thing that’s clear is that we’re going to have to figure out how to make a living in whatever new normal the world finally settles down into.

And maybe that means remote working. Or freelancing. Or both. Figuring out how to translate your experience and your ideas and what you’re good at into something that you can do from your house and that other people need, even in uncertain times.

Even people, like myself, who already work remotely need a flexible mindset right now. The things that made sense — no joke — just days ago just don’t anymore.

So, how do you make the shift?

In a time of volatile change, your best assett

If you can make yourself do it, this is a good time for thinking about it and harnessing your idea machine so you can put it to good use, figuring out what your new normal will look like.

First — take a breath.

Things seem dire right now. And they are, there’s no way around that. There is no modern equivalent for what’s going on in the world at this moment.

But if there’s any sort of a silver lining to this whole ‘social distancing’ thing, it’s that a lot of that stuff that was making you too busy to work on building your own business has been eliminated.

Take this time to focus on what work is going to look like for you going forward. Being proactive and forward thinking is your best defense.

That’s what I’ve been doing the last week or so. And I think the exercise might help you, too. Here’s what I’ve come up with.

What are you good at?

Everyone has skills. Everyone. Spend some time thinking about yours.

Just make a list. Here are some questions to get you started.

What do you know that other people want to learn?

What can you do that other people need done for them?

What jobs have you had?

What have you done in your life that’s not school or job related?

What are your proficiencies?

What do you know how to do that either someone else might want you to do for them, or that will translate into useful for your efforts?

What are your resources?

Just like everyone has skills, just about everyone has resources. Some people have more than others, of course, but almost everyone has something.

Think about things like these:

Who do you know that might help you?

What is your education?

How does your experience translate into a resource?

Do you have any sort of an audience at all? Where are people paying attention to you?

What hard resources do you have — A smart phone? A computer? A car? Access to useful software? Don’t question how you’ll use it, just list everything.

Do you know any business owners who might need remote workers in the near future?

What have you done that other people want to do?

Spend some time thinking about your super powers. Pat Flynn, in his book Will it Fly?, calls this your unfair advantage. What is it about you that gives you a leg up?

My own unfair advantages include an ability to teach other people things that they’ve had trouble learning from other people and a highly flexible mindset. What are yours?

Plug your experience into a crisis translator.

The world is in crisis. It’s important, if you need to shift gears in your work life, to shift your thinking. That means thinking about your experience and your resources through the lens of how they can be useful right now.

That doesn’t mean throwing together something, slapping the word ‘Coronavirus’ on it, and offering it with heavy marketing to a frightened market.

It means thinking about how you can be useful to people right now, with the crisis we’re dealing with in mind. How do your skills and your resources translate in the world we live in right now?

Again, don’t worry right now about whether or not you actually want to do the work you come up with. Just get all of your ideas on paper. Let your imagination run wild.

Make it a goal to come up with at least ten ways you can translate your skills and resources into a remote working situation. Then come up with ten more ways.

Who are your people?

Once you’ve got some ideas, it’s time to think about who you’re going to reach out to.

Start by making a list of who you know that owns a business. Ask yourself how those businesses can shift toward remote work. It’s okay if they haven’t done it yet — maybe you’ll be the one to suggest it and make it a reality.

If you’re ideas include things that don’t require you to get hired by someone else — if you want to start your own remote-working business — then think about the people you know who might become your clients (or readers or audience or whatever.)

Then think about who those people know.

Think about the social media groups you belong to, the in-person groups you belong to that you have access to even now that we’re all under quarantine, the groups that those people belong to.

What can you offer those people?

Once you know who your people are, ask yourself this very important question. How can I help?

Obviously, earning a living is important. Dire, even. But if you start by thinking about how you can help, if you lead with generosity, I promise you that you’ll find opportunities. And those opportunities will naturally turn into income streams.

So, what can you offer your people? How can you help? Start here:

Is there something you can teach?

Is there some need you can fill remotely?

What do your people need that one of your skills or resources fulfills?

How can you translate their old way into a new way that involves you working remotely for them?

This is a time for building your own niche. Carve out your place.

How can you reach those people?

Now that you know what you want to offer and who you want to offer it to, it’s time to think about how you’re going to reach those people.

Maybe you’ll reach out individually to people you know who own businesses and let them know about what you have to offer. Or maybe you’ll start blogging and try to reach a wider audience in the hopes of connecting with the core group who will need what you’re offering. Maybe you can leverage your current position into a remote-working situation.

Do that work. I know how hard this can be. Planning something is one thing. Actually reaching out to people when you don’t know what their response will be? That’s a totally different animal.

Just take a deep breath, make a plan, and take the first step. And then the next one.

Here’s how this might look.

I thought it might be helpful to come up with a few hypothetical scenarios for you, so that you can see what I’m talking about here.

You might come up with a curriculum you can offer to parents who are homeschooling right now, perhaps for the first time.

You might offer your skills to business owners who are attempting to shift gears so they can stay in business.

You might write an ebook or create an online course, sharing your experience with a wide audience.

You might teach people how to do something themselves that they’re used to going out into the world to do.

You might help a traditionally in-person business pivot so that they can stay above water during this crisis.