12 of the best post-corona business ideas – Part 4

by Streamlion Consulting | Aug 17, 2020 | Post-corona business ideas

Welcome to the final blog in my lockdown start-up opportunities series. Hopefully you’re feeling inspired to go out there and take full advantage of the benefit of a crisis generating new and unusual opportunities.

I’ve used Startups.co.uk’s list of ‘best business ideas’ published over the past few years to take a look at which businesses might make the startup success list in 2021.

1.   Living With Less

I’ve certainly noticed an increase in people having clearouts during lockdown. Skips have arrived on driveways and random piles of unwanted belongings have been left with ‘please help yourself’ signs. It’s true that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure but the trend these days seems to be to minimise clutter wherever possible.

One angle on this is the ‘borrow instead of buy’ trend, started by the likes of Uber and AirBnB who ‘lent’ lifts and accommodation and now, justpark.com has a list of over 300 ways to borrow anything from textbooks to surfboards.

Add to this the current burgeoning trend for reusing and there are business opportunities aplenty to avoid reducing our spend and what we send to landfill. Kintsugi is the Japanese art of making something which is broken beautiful; the Swedish philosophy of ‘lagom’, meaning not too little and not too much; and not forgetting Marie Kondo and you have a wealth of areas to explore for your next opportunity.

2.   Is online the only way?

An interesting comment in the 2019 business ideas article reads as follows: “…in 2019 consumers will turn to the internet for traditionally face-to-face services they previously wouldn’t have considered accessing online.” Hmmm. I suspect the author didn’t think this would quite reach the scale it has given coronavirus and a worldwide lockdown. However, we are where we are, and online activity is certainly a necessity for many of us.

Pivoting your business – or launching yourself into the online market anew – definitely needs to be part of any new business plan being prepared for 2020 and beyond. There are also many new opportunities to be exploited in terms of the associated fallout of all this screen time. Meditation, digital detox and time management being just a few.

3.   Plastic alternatives

Think back to life pre-coronavirus, and remember the incredible progress that was made in the war against plastic. Sadly, some of this good will have been undone by our sudden and overwhelming need to access disposable PPE but, rest assured, the plastic issue isn’t going to go away forever. As our ‘new normal’ dawns, we’ll need ever more inventive ways of living without pollution.

So many great initiatives were started before lockdown, any budding product entrepreneurs out there should be capitalising on the lull in activity to develop their designs. Never before has the world had to entertain such a level of change to our everyday lives. Now must surely be the perfect time to stay on the crest of that wave and launch new and better products for the future health of our planet.

12 of the best post-corona business ideas – Part 3

by Streamlion Consulting | Aug 4, 2020 | Post-corona business ideas

Welcome to the third blog in this series, all about opportunities that have emerged from lockdown. Things have certainly been different during lockdown and it looks as though they will continue to change with lots of talk of the ‘new normal’.

I’ve used Startups.co.uk’s list of ‘best business ideas’ published over the past few years to take a look at which businesses might make the startup success list in 2021.

1.   Time is money

Apparently, we’ve all had extra time on our hands for the past few months and perhaps it is this which has led to an uptick in popularity of such crafts as macramé and such hobbies as keeping house plants.

In a blast back to the seventies, people are embracing both these retro trends. Houseplants have been enjoying a resurgence for several years now and macramé just happens to be a great way to display their lovely leaves. As the world gets busier, there are increasing numbers of people without access to a garden, so this trend is likely to keep growing….

2.   Cocktails and dreams

Make your business dream a reality by investigating the new fashion for cocktails and premium mixers. Lockdown has added another twist to this tale as we’ve seen people partaking in mixing and tasting sessions virtually, and the delivery of ready-mixed cocktails to the home.

The money, however, might well be in the mixers as this market has been extremely lucrative for large premium brands. There’s therefore still plenty of space for startups to introduce something innovative. Consumers love provenance, natural ingredients, and local producers so there are lots of differentiators to cash in on.

3.   Forget FinTech, FemTech is where it’s at

Finally, for Part 3 of this series, let’s take a look at women’s health. Clearly things like worldwide pandemics focus our minds on health and wellbeing more than ever and that’s certainly come at the right time for those interested in the women’s health tech space. Still crowded with topics that are a little taboo, women’s health is somewhat behind when it comes to technical innovation.

However, we sense that is about to change and we’re already seeing more airtime given to subjects including menopause, period tracking and contraception. Developing technology to help women navigate the ever-changing landscape of their health is certain to be a hot spot as big data, women embracing technology and a hunger to learn more about our bodies converge to create the perfect opportunity.

A great range of opportunities seem to be coming to the fore, post pandemic and we’ve still got a few to share. The fourth and final instalment in this blog series will look at living with less and the rise of the online business model.