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Being a mother, and more so, a stay-at-home mom is a vocation. It takes a lot of mettle and energy. However, we also understand that there are times when the routines involved can get tiring as well. During these times, we sometimes think about starting something new but still manageable, like an online business. Not to mention that it lessens the burden of the family budget as well. A definite win-win. The question is, how does one start? 

It all begins with an idea.

Every successful business started with a single inspired idea that the entrepreneur simply grew. While it’s always good to develop a unique idea of your own, you also need to realize that there are countless viable online ideas that you can use already. In fact, here are some of them:

• Pinterest Virtual Assistance. Make use of the endless hours you spend on Pinterest and make money online by offering your services as a Pinterest VA. It would be your task to work with your favorite influencers and mompreneurs by sorting through Pinterest boards, creating pins, and improving each pin’s visibility.
• Stock Photography. If there’s one thing that moms during the digital age love to do, it’s taking pictures of their little ones. The good news is, there’s an actual demand for that. Mommy bloggers, baby companies, and even health websites need stock photography that they can relate to parenting, motherhood, and childcare. You can also consider still life and take pictures of your baby gear by creating vignettes and flat lays if you’re not game with the idea of having your young one’s face out there. 
• Coaching. Finally, there’s a huge demand for parenting coaches right now, so if you feel confident with your experience and parenting skills, then know that there are new parents out there that are in desperate need of your help. You can even focus on the parenting niche that you specialize in, whether homeschooling, child behavior management, or child sports.

How to Start a Business

Now that you have an idea, it’s time to turn it into a reality and start your business. 

Test the Idea

The first thing one should do upon coming up with the idea is to test it. Is it viable? This is especially true if you’re thinking of developing a relatively new product and service, and you have no existing competition to perform a simple case study on. 

You don’t really have to develop the idea right away. Creating a prototype takes a lot of time and resources. What you can do is to pitch your idea to your target consumers. Most of the time, that would be your existing network (i.e., other moms). 

Hence, prepare a simple pitch for your next mommy group session and maybe prepare some baked goods in exchange for their opinion and feedback. You can do the same thing by offering a free coffee cup in your local cafe to anyone willing to listen to your presentation. Don’t be afraid to walk up to people and introduce yourself. Most people welcome the freebie in exchange for three to five minutes of their time.

Build Up Anticipation

Fine-tune your idea and create a well-researched business backed up with the data that you have just gathered. When you’re ready to go, the net step is to build anticipation on social media. The friends and family that you have pitched the idea to already know what to expect, but you can be sure that they’re excited to see if you’ve incorporated their ideas into your original plan.

We also want to remind budding entrepreneurs that you don’t need to wait for the business to start to launch your digital marketing campaign. Use it as leverage to get your brand name out there as you’re still developing your product or service. In this way, once your business does come along, you can minimize the downtime it takes as you wait for people to discover your business. 

Establish an Online Headquarters

While you can use your social media accounts as your business’s online home, we still recommend building a website dedicated to your business. This will vastly improve your online presence and reputation. 

Your website will serve as the catch-all for all the information that you put out there. It will also be the perfect spot for your clients or customers to contact you and purchase your product or service. 

Remember, creating a system for people to order your product or service through Instagram and Facebook can be counterproductive in the long run, as your focus is stretched too thin. Instead, use your social media accounts for marketing but direct your leads to your website so that all your orders are in one place. 

Reach Out and Expand Your Network

Don’t just settle to what your social media accounts can reach. There are still a lot of people out there who can stumble upon your website randomly, and even more of them who have already come across your brand but simply forgot about it amidst all the noise that the internet has to offer.

Thus, create a way for you to reach out to them personally. The best way is through email marketing. Its strength lies in the fact that it allows you to craft promotional messages in a strategy required for each specific client. 

The challenge, though, is how to get people to provide their personal email addresses. The answer is in the same tactic we have shared with you earlier on how you could pitch your ideas to people. Give them something in return. However, this digital freebie must be of value enough for people to trade their email for it. Here are some ideas:

• An eBook
• A Free Webinar
• Printable Worksheets

Starting an Online Business as a Mom

Gone are the days when only the husband is the sole provider of the family. There are a lot of profitable online business ideas floating within the ether of the internet. You can even develop a new one yourself.

Once you have a promising idea, test it. See how it will be received. In the meantime, give your target consumers something to look forward to by starting your digital marketing campaign online as they’re waiting for your new product or service to drop. 

Invest in an impressive yet user-friendly website that will establish your brand and increase your reach with the help of email marketing. 

In the end, the best way to succeed in your online business is to put something out there of value that people will be more than happy to enjoy in exchange for profit. Good luck!

Author’s Bio:

Jim Hughes is a content marketer who has significant experience covering technology, finance, economics, and business topics for about three years. At the moment, he works as a content manager at OpenCashAdvance.com.   Email: [email protected]

Featured Photo by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels