The impact the pandemic has had on women is astounding. In September of 2020 the numbers shook me. Women were leaving the workforce at rates 4x greater than men. Then in December, women accounted for 100% of the 140,000 jobs lost while men gained (albeit a small gain). And in January, another 275,000 women left the workforce, making up almost 80% of total job losses for the month.
The reason for leaving varies from job loss to having to care for children during remote learning.
Studies have shown that after 8 months of being out of the workforce, it’s 50% harder to find work. These losses are going to have long-term effects on a demographic already well behind their male counterparts in pay and rank.
To make the climb back to the workforce even steeper, potential employers are now asking women illegal questions in job interviews related to their children and childcare.
I’m lucky to work predominantly with women, so this topic has been coming up more and more in my meetings and women’s groups. Through these conversations, the power of online businesses has risen to the surface as a way for women to use the skills they’ve gained in the workforce while having a flexible schedule and the opportunity to close the pay gap.
E-commerce is a great place to start if you’re considering an online business. Online shopping showed strong growth before the pandemic and will be even stronger once we’re able to move about the cabin freely again. You can start an e-commerce business fairly easily and with very little capital.
But starting a business is hard and starting a business in the middle of a pandemic is even harder with kids at home 100% of the time. So, where do you begin?
Find your Products
Do you make something special? Find someone to make it for you. Do you love certain types of products? Find out who makes them and buy them at wholesale prices.
Or you could start with a dropship business. Dropshipping allows you to launch an e-commerce store without any capital. Once you have steady revenue, you can use that to develop custom products or buy inventory of your best sellers.
Find your Platform
An e-commerce platform is your website or storefront. If you think of it like a brick and mortar store, your store has to be well designed, relevant, clean and inviting to get people to visit. Same thing is true online.
Your product and brand are very important but selecting the right platform is one of the most important things for an e-commerce business. You need a platform that fully supports your business so you’re brand and products aren’t lost to potential customers.
Find an online platform that supports the best customer service, highest sales and profit, phenomenal customer retention and great marketing.
Find your Process
Picture this, you built an incredible website and are selling amazing products but your customers still aren’t happy. Sounds like all your fears coming true, right? Orders are shipping to the wrong address, customers are receiving the wrong product. Orders are arriving late. You don’t have enough product to fill all the orders you’ve gotten and now you have to call 10 soon-to-be disappointed people.
That can be avoided with the right systems in place.
With the right systems in place for communication, logistics, payments, tracking, inventory, etc you’ll have customers jumping for joy instead of running away. And you’ll make your life easier at the same time.