If youve struggled to remember that anything is possibleeven in the worst of circumstancesthis entrepreneur might change your mind.

Elizabeth Rider currently runs a multi-six figure business as a leading expert in nutrition and whole living. But she started her career in management consulting overwhelmed by a chronic illness, only getting a few hours of sleep per night and surviving on takeout dinners in a windowless audit room at a big-name accounting firm.

After following her passion, she was able to build a wellness empire that has officially succeeded in becoming recession-proof. Over this past summer, in the midst of the COVID crisis, Rider released a course on blogging that garnered more than 75K in salesin just one month. And shes just getting started with rollouts for 2020.

The biggest secret to her success has been her unfailing ability to shift the way that she makes money. I caught up with Rider to figure out exactly how she pivots with the poise of a ballerina on pointe no matter what the economic climateand you can too.

How One Entrepreneur Tripled Her Monthly Income Amidst The COVID-19 Crisis | Stephanie Burns

Stephanie Burns: Even though it seems unrelated, your first job had a big impact on the business you currently run. Tell us how it all started.

Elizabeth Rider: I graduated from college with a degree in mathematics, but quickly realized pursuing a PhD and becoming a professor would leave me broke for a long time. A friend told me about an opening at a Big 4 accounting firm, so I applied. They interviewed 15 of us at the exact same time and I somehow got the highly coveted joband the great paycheck that came with it.

Ive always known that money doesnt make people happy, but it can give you the freedom to make choices when you need a change. Unfortunately, after a few years at the firm, I was feeling trapped by the 12-hour work days, male-dominated environment and stifling dress code. One of my co-workers was sent home for wearing open-toed sandals one summer. In my time there, a chronic illness I had got worse and I really struggled to stay healthy. After I got food poisoning one day and my boss told me to feel better and have a report on his desk by 6pm, I knew I was in the wrong place.

Burns: How have you known when it was the right time to pivot in business?

Rider: Its usually tied to focusing on my passions. Even when I was at the accounting firm, people would say to me, Youre so focused! Sometimes I see you staring at your computer so intently. They thought I was working hard, but I was really thinking about being somewhere else. Being someone else. I was daydreaming about what my life should be like. A few years after joining the firm, I married my high school sweetheart but I wasnt spending a lot of time with him thanks to my 65-hour work weeks. So I knew it was time to make a change.

Burns: How were you able to transition out of your first career to running your own business?

Rider: Freelancing! At a dance class, I met a woman who was looking for a business manager for her marketing company. I knew I had the business strategy, management, and systems experience to help her. After a year, I had my feet under me and I started to understand what it would take to run my own business. I also took some courses on online business development and health coaching. They were just purely passions I wanted to pursue. But once I had my eyes opened to this emerging concept of making money in non-conventional wayslike off of a blog or network marketingI knew I was headed in the right direction. Since I was always a freelancer as a business manager, I simply took my hours down to 50% and later 25%to devote time to my blogbefore leaving to start my own business.

How One Entrepreneur Tripled Her Monthly Income Amidst the COVID-19 Crisis | Stephanie Burns

Burns: Your success really spiraled upwards from there but so many entrepreneurs struggle in the beginning stages. How did you keep upward momentum?

Rider: Ive always been willing to ask myself one key question and act on the answer: Whats the best revenue stream right now going forward? So many people will stay in one way of doing business for too long and sabotage themselves. For example, Kodak went bankrupt because they werent willing to pivot their revenue stream. They thought they were in the business of filmbut really they were in the business of capturing memories. (The medium doesnt matter). They passed on an opportunity to be a leader in the digital camera space because they were stuck in their own ways. As a new business owner, I was constantly moving forward in areas that I knew I had a passion for, that could solve a problem for other people and that would be profitable.

I quickly started seeing avid readership with the blog I started. People were clearly interested in learning how to remake recipes in a healthier way. When I posted links to it on Facebook, the interest was off the charts with thousands of shares. In the comments, readers would ask for specific recipes or ask me to cover certain topics. Not only was it easy for me to do this, but I saw this tangible thing helping people. I went on to use my blog to sell healthy lifestyle classes as well as nutritional products and my business started to blow up. Later, I began teaching teams of people how to run health and nutrition businesses in 13 different countries across the globe. From there, I saw how powerful teaching online could be and saw the industry of online classes emerging. Thats when I pivoted to sell online courses.

Burns: How have you been able to thrive as a business owner even during a recession and a pandemic?

Rider: Its not that people dont have money right now, its that the people with disposable income are being more mindful about how theyre spending it. Women, for example, arent looking to buy a little black dress with heels right now. Theyre looking to buy something for themselves that will have a return on investment in the future. Theyre looking for intellectual stimulation. They want to be entertained by something other than Netflix. I help them with all three of those things. When someone thinks about a blog, they think about being able to make money off of it in the future. They know it will allow them to take control over how they spend their time.

If youre an entrepreneur struggling to make sales right now, ask yourself what skillset you have that you could turn into an online course that will make customers feel like theyre securing their future. Youll also want to find the magic number of hours that your course should take to consume by thinking about your ideal customer. Mine is a busy, emerging or veteran entrepreneur who has been wasting time creating content that doesnt send them any free traffic. So, I made my course four hours long. Yes, it has a ten-hour bonus library. But you can get the nuts and bolts of blogging in an afternoon. I teach them that instead of creating more content, they just need to be smarter about the few pieces of content a month they do create.

How One Entrepreneur Tripled Her Monthly Income Amidst The COVID-19 Crisis | Stephanie Burns

Burns: What are some steps any entrepreneur can take right now to ensure the success of their business?

Rider: First off, youll want to have a consistent online presence on a platform that you own, such as your blog. People confuse consistency with perfection, though. Im not saying you have to show up at 10am every day for your audience. But you cant only blog or post twice a year because youll lose your audiences trust. We inherently trust people who are consistent because they feel stable. Limit yourself to your blog and one or two additional platforms to prevent overwhelm. You own your blog and no one can take that away from you. But Instagram could become the next MySpace.

Second, focus on giving your customers tangible skills. Thats important for your customers because they want to walk away knowing that they have gained something
specific from your knowledge. How can you create something thats a solution for people? What problem does your service solve?

Finally, always be willing to shift. You have to realize that the one thing giving you a paycheck right now shouldnt be your only income stream. My network marketing business selling nutritional products did really well because I had so much blog traffic. That was a great way at the time to make money but the company I was working with changed the compensation plan and the cost of the products went up. My blog traffic was growing but the people interested in the products weren't, which forced me to rethink how I was going to best monetize all of my blog traffic. I saw online courses becoming more popular so I pivoted to prioritize selling education over selling products.

Burns: A lot of entrepreneurs have been discounting prices. Do you believe thats the route to go in a recession?

Rider: I normally never discount anything but I recognized that this was a different time for everyone. As an olive branch, I offered a discountand I still ended up making more money. What helped me sell was less about the price drop and more about the fact that I acknowledged my potential customers financial pain. I believe that a rising tide lifts all boats. The more I can teach, the better it will be for everyone. The more women we have making good money, the better the world will be.

Amen, sister.

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How One Entrepreneur Tripled Her Monthly Income Amidst The COVID-19 Crisis - Forbes