5 Practical Steps to Start Your First Business as a Stay-at-Home Mom

[00:02] I run a very successful online business that brings in multiple six figures a year. But what I want to share with you today is kind of the origin story. Now, I've started over 12 businesses over these last 15 years, but I want to tell

[00:16] you about how I really got this online business off the ground and how I launched it successfully and how I did so even as a stay-at-home mom with a couple toddlers and while I was pregnant. So, this all started when I

[00:29] pregnant. So, this all started when I had recently had my second baby and I wanted to figure out how I could make money online. What? How do you even do that? I currently was running a local business, one of those different

[00:41] businesses that I had started, and it was essentially my day job, and it was going pretty well, but it was not giving me at all like freedom or flexibility or the music school, cuz that's what it was was a music school. I had showed up at

[00:55] the music school multiple times a week, pretty much every day really to teach music lessons. I was teaching piano and flute. And so this didn't really allow me to spend as much time with my kids as I wanted to or to have a social life

[01:08] the evening. So, what I wanted to do was I wanted to start an online business because I thought if I had an online business, then I could do it from living room because honestly that's normally where I like to work. And I

[01:22] also could do it on my own schedule. And it seemed like it'd be really nice to running a local business, not have to pay like rent on a building and that sort of thing, but instead just have like really low expenses. And like I

[01:37] there were people, you know, all over the world who could buy my products. So shortly after I had my second baby. And it took me a while to figure out how to different ideas. I tried creating different sorts of content like blogging

[01:52] and YouTube and stuff like that. And I just wasn't really making any money until when I was pregnant with my third. So at this point, it's been about like 18 months since I started working on this. and I decide that I what I really

[02:06] membership site. So, if you don't know what a membership site is, it's basically like Netflix. Your customers pay you a subscription every month to access the content. Netflix obviously is entertainment content, but I wanted to

[02:18] provide some sort of educational content to help people with something. So, I had this idea for Startup Society, which is a program that I run to this day. And I'd learned so far about like how to

[02:30] build a website online and how to get started on YouTube and how to blog and just like basic things like that. And the reason that I really liked this idea was because a membership site would create recurring revenue. The customers

[02:42] would keep paying me every month so I wouldn't have to work so hard to go and find new customers every month for the business to keep making money. And I be able to do very much on my own time

[02:54] really my first tip for you if you are a stay-at-home mom who wants to start your own business is to pick an idea that you both think there will be demand for, but also something that will fit the lifestyle that you want. Don't delude

[03:06] yourself and decide that you want to go start like some sort of empire, some sort of big agency or a service-based business if that's going to result in you working 40, 50 hours a week and take you away from your kids even more than a

[03:20] regular job would. So once I had this idea to create startup society, what I wanted to do was I wanted to test the idea, not just create the whole thing or a membership site can be a lot of work to build. There's all of the

[03:35] infrastructure of the software and the tech that you have to set up to be able to like manage the memberships and manage the content inside. But there's also the content itself. So the infrastructure that's like Netflix, you

[03:48] Netflix website. the content is the movies you watch on Netflix. So both of time to set up and I didn't even know if anybody was going to want to sign up for want to do that work ahead of time. So what I decided to do was to start

[04:03] creating that content and just basically selling it all a cart. So I would create doing them live. So, they're just like a live Zoom workshop and I would send a couple emails out to my little email list and tell them, hey, I'm going to do

[04:17] a workshop about such and such a topic and it's going to happen on this date. And then people could pay to sign up and I made them really affordable. I think they were either 27 or $29. And I just wanted to test some different ideas over

[04:30] about 6 months, but also I wanted to create the content that was going to be launched the program, there'd be a little library of like five or six of these courses already inside of it. So the new members would have something to

[04:43] content that was going to come out every month. And that is my second tip for you. Step number two is to validate your idea before you create it. Don't just go a whole membership site if you don't even know if people want it. Instead,

[04:57] figure out how you can pre-ell your idea. Whether that is planning out your course and then running it live or like I did with the membership site, maybe offering the content for the membership site just one month at a time at first.

[05:12] Or if you're selling like coaching or any sort of service package, this is like what the service package will include and then you start selling it. Then you create the graphic designs or the websites for the clients after they

[05:25] started building your business as a stay-at-home mom or you've been at this for a while and you are actively growing your team, it's important to have a smooth and stress-free way to manage your payments. And that's why I love

[05:39] Melio. And I'm excited to share that they are the sponsor of today's video. With Melio, you can pay all of your business's expenses, including contractors, freelancers, and vendors, with just a few clicks. They make it

[05:53] super easy. And I love how flexible it is, not just for you, but also for the make a payment, first of all, you don't have to get the bank details from the person you're paying. you can just use their email address and then they can

[06:08] enter their bank details if they want to receive the payment as an a deposit straight into their bank account. But like I said, when you're making the payment, you have options. You can decide if you want it to be taken out of

[06:20] your checking account with no fees or if there is a small fee, but you get the perks of course of using the credit card like the credit card points. But that's not the only side of the flexibility

[06:33] because the person who's receiving the payment also has options. They can decide, like I said, to enter their bank details and receive it into their bank account or they can elect to receive a paper check in the mail if they prefer

[06:46] that for some reason. Another way that Mio makes the payment process so easy is that you can choose how fast the payment is sent. You can either choose to have it sent standard time, which is normally 3 to five business days with no fees, or

[06:59] you can choose to pay a small fee to have it sent the same day. So, your payments can be as fast as you need them to be. Security-wise, Melio has you covered with built-in highle protections. And you can also use it to

[07:11] make international payments with really competitive exchange rates. So, if you contractors in other countries, no need to worry about that. And for those of you who love to stay organized, like I'm totally raising my hand here. I love,

[07:24] and I think you'll love too, that Mio syncs with Quickbooks and with Zero. payments synced. And Melio will even help you out with your W9 and 1099 forms as well. Now, why I love Mio is because it's so flexible and makes payments so

[07:40] easy. But maybe the best part about it is that you can get started with Mio Go for free. or if you want some of the more advanced features, you can upgrade to one of their paid plans. For me, Melio just makes the money side of

[07:54] growing my business that much easier, and I'm all for that. Now, once I had decided that I was going to do these live workshops every month, the next step was to actually make them happen. And for this, I tried to keep it as

[08:06] simple as possible. I didn't pre-record them, and I also didn't decide that they were going to be like weekendl long workshops or anything like that. They were literally just 90 minutes long each and the only tech that I used was my

[08:19] email marketing software, ConvertKit, and then Zoom. So, I didn't pay for a fancy funnel software. I didn't pay for like a course platform or anything like cuz I hadn't made any money with my business yet. So, I just paid the $15 a

[08:35] month for Zoom like so that I could have the longer meetings with more meeting attendees. and I was paying a very small amount for ConvertKit because my list was not very big yet at that point at all. And that is my third tip for you.

[08:47] Step number three is to keep your offer super simple. Okay? Don't blind out like a 12-month coaching package or a six-month course or something like that. Because if it turns out that there's not much demand for this idea, you don't

[09:01] want to be on the hook for 6 or 12 months delivering this idea to your customers. or you don't want to have promised them like a 20 module course or something like that that now you have to film the whole thing. No, you don't do

[09:14] that. So, keep the first version of your product super simple so that if it's not very popular, you can move on to the next idea pretty quickly. Now, with those basic things planned out, I went ahead and I launched this. Like I said,

[09:28] I kept it really simple. So launching it was just sending two or three emails a month telling my tiny email list about the workshop that I was going to be doing and giving them the opportunity to sign up. And even though I kept it super

[09:43] kept it super simple, I started to see some sales come in. With the very first of these little launches that I did in January of 2018, I made 20 sales for sound like a lot. And you also might think like, well, this was back in 2018.

[09:59] It was so much easier back then. But that is not the case at all. And here's why I say that. Because all throughout 2017, I had been trying to launch different things. I had been recording online courses and then trying to do

[10:13] these big fancy launches for them and just absolute crickets. Like in all of 2017, I think I made two sales total. So, it was amazing to now have this launch that was so simple and stripped down and for a product I haven't even

[10:26] created yet and managed to make 20 sales in just about a week leading up to that first workshop. And it just kept growing from there. Each month I would do of them were more popular, some were less, but about 20 sales was about the

[10:41] for a couple of them, I got more like 40 or 50 sales, which was really cool. And I was just so excited to finally be making some money. Now, there were some complications that I ran into with this. Mostly um my schedule and logistics. So,

[10:57] basically right around this time and like I didn't plan this when I was first trying to start this business. But how things ended up working out, we decided to sell our house right around this time. It was a house we had bought as a

[11:11] fixer a couple years before. We'd fixed it up and the housing market had really gone up. So now we could sell it for a pretty good profit. So we decided to do that and we decided to take a trip to Europe for 2 months while we were

[11:26] opportunity where we can run away to Europe and kind of backpack around a out. Yes, we had two little kids, one of whom was only one and a half and so he could barely walk. um and I was pregnant, but still, you know, like this

[11:41] house, we packed up our bags, and we went off to Europe. And this was right in the middle of those 6 months where I was doing a workshop every month. Now, thankfully, this worked out really well. I was still able to do the two workshops

[11:56] during that time for the two months when we were gone. Um, you know, I just had my laptop and found a Wi-Fi connection, which honestly was really tricky in we were there, I was working less than five hours a week because I could only

[12:08] work when I could find a cafe with good Wi-Fi, which uh I don't know what was point. I don't know if it's improved, but it was horrible. The Wi-Fi was so slow everywhere and a lot of places didn't even have it. So, that definitely

[12:23] cool was that my income still continued to increase throughout those months just because the workshops were being more and more popular. So then the other logistic that ended up being a problem was that when I finally did launch

[12:37] Startup Society, it went really well, like way better than I was expecting. Obviously, that's not a problem. But what was kind of a problem was that I had planned to leave for VidCon. And this was the one and only time I went to

[12:49] but basically it was fun, but I didn't get that much out of it. So I was going for VidCon. And I thought, "This will be good. You know, it'll all be wrapped up." Well, in the month leading up to the Startup Society launch, I had 300

[13:04] people sign up for the wait list, which was way more than I was expecting considering how small my audience was at that time. And then I launched Startup Society and 300 people bought. Exactly 300 people, which is just crazy. That's

[13:17] crazy. Don't expect those results. I've never had that happen ever since. the people from the weight list sign up. But in this case, I had a a big fraction who weren't even on the wait list. So, 300 people signed up at $33 a month. And

[13:34] that meant that my business suddenly had a $10,000 stream of income, which was insane, life-changing, cuz before this, it had been earning nothing in 2017. And then in 2018, it had only been earning whenever I did one of those live

[13:48] workshops. So, just absolute bonkers. Completely changed my life. But then I launch is over, so this will be good." You know, I can run away now. But no, customers and they had tons of questions for me. And of course, there were little

[14:02] like snags and tech issues with the brand new membership platform. So, I spent every spare minute when I was at VidCon and even during some of the sessions, just constantly I was on my laptop answering people's questions,

[14:15] solving little problems like that. It was kind of a nightmare, but it all worked out and I'm super thankful for that experience. Even then, it was like, wow, this is amazing and also really hard. Now, the reason that I

[14:28] particularly wanted to share that part of the story was with you, is because sell and you figured out a simple version of it to sell and how you're going to validate this idea before you even create it, etc. Well, the next step

[14:42] is to sell it. And I know that a lot of the time this is where people get hung up because there's life circumstances, you know, like this isn't a good time because I'm about to have a baby or because I'm about to move or we have

[14:55] this trip coming up or I'm busy with my day job. But I just want you to know that you can make it happen. Even if you are traveling, even if you are pregnant, even if you know you have maybe a chronic health condition, whatever it

[15:08] is, I know you can make this happen. And it really will be for the best for you it really will be for the best for you to just push forward and do it ASAP because first of all you get to the success that much sooner, right? Like

[15:22] you can never have your business start making money until you do this. But also because your first launch might not be that great. You know, I keep in mind really successful launch. This was at least my sixth launch depending on how

[15:36] you're counting. I did several launches in 2017 that were complete flops. Then I did these really small launches in the beginning of 2018 that were successful, but they didn't bring in huge amounts of money. And it was only then, you know,

[15:49] that I finally got to this launch in July of 2018 that was so successful and to hurry up and do the first launch because you can't get to the successful launch or the successful offer, the successful profitable business until you

[16:04] get through those flops because each one is going to teach you something and you're going to get closer and closer and closer to the one that finally succeeds. Also, you might as well just hurry up because if it is a flop, well,

[16:17] especially if you do what I said and you keep it really simple and you launch it before you build it. You can do this with a minimal time investment and then if nobody buys well then you don't have to deliver anything and so it probably

[16:31] won't take as much of your time as you think it will or it might be the finally be on the other side of this and you'll be making money with your business and wouldn't you rather get there sooner? So step number four is to

[16:45] just start selling even if it's scary even if it's the wrong time because honestly it's probably never going to be the right time. So that's basically how I started Startup Society and how I started this particular business that

[16:59] want to talk just a little bit more about what happened after that because that was not the end of the bumpy road. There was a really good part and a of this. And the good part was now my business was making a baseline of about

[17:16] $10,000 a month plus some YouTube ad revenue was starting to come in and anything that I did on top of Startup Society. So if I did launch a new course or a new workshop or something like that, that was bonus revenue. But my

[17:28] business now had a consistent baseline revenue, huge. But the challenging part was that my business now was a lot more complicated and time inensive to run. Before this, I was creating content, YouTube videos and blog posts and I was

[17:43] to create and launch these new products. But now I was doing all those things plus I now had customers that I needed to serve. So there was a lot more emails to answer. There was new material to create for startup society. There was

[17:58] like just tech management type of issues. Lots more work. So now I went issues. Lots more work. So now I went from working 5 to 20 hours a week to my business taking over 30 hours a week to run, which is not huge, but to somebody

[18:12] who has two little kids and is pregnant, it was kind of a lot. And then what a baby. And she actually was born a month early, which was of course surprising. And I thought I had more time to get ready for maternity leave,

[18:26] but I didn't. So I was in a little bit of a pickle. and I ended up hiring someone kind of right away to be able to help me out with that um and just help out with like serving the customers and whatnot while I took a little bit of

[18:39] time off, but also to lighten the load when I came back to work not too long later. But what was really good was that because I had these customers in the business now and I had the income in the business, I could afford to hire a team.

[18:52] And so that brings me to step five of how to start a profitable business, which is that once your business starts making money, then it is time to systematize your business. And this should be first of all creating systems.

[19:05] And then second of all, either automating your systems or hiring people to help you with your systems so that you don't have to work more and more and more as your business grows. You want to be able to keep your workload about the

[19:18] same or even decrease it as your business becomes more and more successful. So, let's end with just a little recap. Step number one is to pick a profitable idea and one that fits your lifestyle. Step number two is to

[19:30] validate that idea before you create it. Step number three is to keep it really simple when you are validating it. When you are launching it for the first time, you are launching it for the first time, keep it small. Step four is to just

[19:43] think you're ready yet, even if it's scary. And then step number five is to create systems to save you time. If you want more help with this process of starting an online business, check out that free course called Small Business

[19:57] 101. It's going to go way beyond the scope of this video, talking you through a lot of just like the practical steps like setting up your website and getting your business registered and business bookkeeping and things like that. uh but

[20:09] as you are starting a business. And right now it is free. So check the description below to sign up for Small Business 101. I hope that my story was inspiring to you today and also helped you to have some practical ideas about

[20:24] how to get a profitable business of your own off the ground, even if you are a stay-at-home mom, even if you have a day job or other life circumstances that you more videos like this in the future, then make sure you subscribe. And also,

[20:38] I would really appreciate if you give this video a like. And finally, if help figuring out what business to start, watch my video called The Easiest Online Businesses to Start in 2025. They're businesses that have

[20:54] require any experience. So, I think you'll find that really helpful.