Online Marketing Tools

For many small and mid-sized art galleries in New York, the last three months of lockdown have been catastrophic—unable to pay rents, many have chosen to shut down permanently. Not the case for the Arcade Project Curatorial, a gallery without a permanent physical location run by the art critic and curator M. Charlene Stevens, who also is the editor-in-chief and founder of Arcade Project. “I’ve been thriving during this whole thing,” Stevens said. “It caused me to really re-evaluate my priorities, and tighten up my business.”

Small-business owners prefer getting money they’re due as fast as possible–who doesn’t? But not all modestly sized companies have the in-house tech staff or the budget to hire outside services to build payment platforms into their online sites. As a workaround, a growing number of those firms are using third-party systems to accelerate some transactions up to real-time speed, paying fees similar to those charged for credit card processing, about 2 to 3 percent of the purchase value.

Starting your own business doesn't mean buying retail real estate and hiring employees. Many of the best small businesses can be run right out of your home – some don't even require you to leave your computer chair. Many of the best online businesses can be accomplished full-time without tons of startup capital.