If you’re looking for something different as a career option then 2021 has a whole host of opportunities.
Connectivity is better than ever before. There’s more access to information and the way that people are doing business has changed radically.
All of these mean that there are so many more opportunities to carve out a different and interesting career.
Here are five different ways of working that fit right into life in the 2020s.
Online trainer
Have you got a skill that you could teach other people?
It doesn’t matter whether it’s financial planning, calligraphy or pottery. If you’ve developed an expertise that you can share then you could have a new career just waiting to be uncovered.
One of the great things about fast broadband is that it gives us all the chance to learn using video.
Sites like Udemy or Thinkific help novice trainers develop, upload and monetize their courses. And as you would expect, both have great learning resources. They can show you exactly how to make the best of your expertise.
The great thing about this form of income is that once the course is written, produced and uploaded it sits there making you a passive income.
Many people spend their time just making online courses. And the more you have out there, the more you earn.
Webinar producer
One of the best ways of promoting your business is to deliver a webinar to potential customers. But how many companies have the in-house expertise to actually do this themselves?
Webinar software is relatively cheap if you use it all the time. But it’s admittedly expensive if you’re only doing the occasional event.
This means that there is a superb opportunity out there for people who can provide a full service for companies that want to get into this arena.
Producing webinars from a technical standpoint is pretty easy. After all, the hard content comes from the client company. All you are doing is providing the delivery medium.
Companies that provide webinar software have a vested interest in getting their users up to speed with their systems. There is a ton of great advice out there and once you have produced one webinar then you’ll realize how easy it is.
You can also charge for coaching the presenters, producing a script and providing other resources. These can include images and video clips, making this a very lucrative way of earning a crust.
Day trading
There has always been money in playing the stock market. And in 2021 there’s never been a better time to get involved.
There is so much information available to the savvy web user that researching target companies is easier than ever. And the massively competitive broker market means that commissions are small or non-existent.
For anyone who wants to try day trading for a living, the barriers to entry are low. All you need is a laptop and a float. You don’t even need your own internet connection, you can trade from your local coffee shop.
For people who are looking for something that requires a professional outlook and a good work ethic, day trading provides a superb opportunity.
Microstock photographer
Images make the web but not every writer has the time(or talent) to go and photograph the subject that they are discussing.
Microstock is a library of images that companies can download to illustrate their news reports, advertising or blog posts.
This is a superb way to make money if you are handy with a camera and just like online training, once it is produced it just sits there earning you money.
You will need to build up a good-sized portfolio and there is a fair learning curve to go through, but companies like Alamy have superb blogs that tell you all you need to know and they will even tell you the hottest subjects to shoot to make money.
In the past, photographers have needed a high-end DSLR to submit photos but with the advance of camera technology, many of the libraries have apps to allow phone pics to be uploaded directly.
And don’t forget video. If you have a good camera that can produce HD video then there’s a strong market for ‘B-roll’ video clips too.
Portfolio career
Once upon a time people left school, got a job and stayed there for the whole of their working life.
But in the 20’s that way of life is dead and gone.
Not only do people not stick around with the same employer, but more than ever people are operating portfolio careers
Why should you just confine yourself to being a microstock photographer when you could also produce an online photography course?
Why just be a day trader when you could also write a subscription trading newsletter?
Portfolio careers are pretty good for reducing risk because when one source of income dries up, you can choose to prioritize another that is doing well.
Having several strings to your bow is a great way to stop you getting jaded and burnt out.
Let’s face it, if you are making money and producing great results for your customers then having a portfolio career is a great way to keep fresh and enthusiastic.
Think different in 2021
There are so many opportunities out there for people to forge a different career path that we’ve had trouble restricting this post to only 5!
2021 is likely to produce more technological breakthroughs that will provide even more opportunities so the key is to think a bit differently.
Whenever a product or app comes on to the market ask yourself how you could use it to develop a new business.
We think that 2021 will deliver plenty of possibilities for forward-thinking entrepreneurs to develop exciting new careers.