5 Practical Steps to Start your First Business (as a stay-at-home mom)
Ever thought launching your first business was impossible because of everything else on your plate?
Yeah… I’ve been there.
When I started my first online business, I was a mom of two toddlers, pregnant with my third, and planning a backpacking trip across Europe. (I know—what was I thinking?!)
But here’s the truth: If you wait for the “perfect” time, you’ll be waiting forever.
In this post, I’m sharing the real story of how I built my first successful digital product business—even in the middle of one of the busiest, messiest seasons of my life. I’ll walk you through the five exact steps I took to get from idea to income, so you can use them to start your own business too.
Let’s dive in.
Step 1: Choose a Profitable Idea That Fits Your Life
I knew I wanted a business that was flexible, creative, and fun.
That meant:
I could work from anywhere (like an Airbnb in Greece )
I wasn’t tied to a rigid schedule
The business could grow with me through all life’s stages
Balancing your biz and mom life? Melio makes payments one less thing to worry about.
So I chose to create a membership site—inspired by the idea of recurring, semi-passive income. The recurring revenue would give me stability, and the digital format would let me work from my laptop while my kids napped.
Your takeaway? Choose a business model that matches your goals and your lifestyle. Whether that’s a membership, a course, coaching, or a service—you want something you’re excited about and that customers are willing to pay well for.
Step 2: Validate the Idea Before You Build It
I didn’t want to waste time (or money) building something no one wanted. So instead of setting up a full platform, I started by hosting a few live workshops on Zoom.
Each one focused on a topic I planned to cover inside the membership—and they were low-cost ($27–$29), easy to promote, and helped me gauge interest.
It also gave me:
Proof of concept: Were people willing to pay?
Early content: These recordings became the first lessons in my membership site
Tip: You can do the same by preselling a course, hosting a beta group, or offering a one-time service. The key is to test before you build. Because this step is SO important, I actually built an entire course around testing and proving your business idea before going “all in” on it. VALIDATE will guide you to find a winning product idea, create a powerful sales message, and confidently complete your first launch so that your business can gain momentum from the start.
Step 3: Keep It Simple at First
Once I knew people were interested, I launched the simplest version of the product.
No fancy tech.
No huge course library.
Just a basic website + access to those recorded workshops.
The goal was getting it live—not making it perfect. (Spoiler: Perfect never happens anyway.)
That way, if only a few people signed up, I wouldn’t have wasted weeks creating content they didn’t even want.
Ask yourself: What’s the simplest version of your product or service that could help people right now? Start there.
Step 4: Start Selling (Even If You’re Scared)
This is the part where most people get stuck.
But I promise—you don’t need a giant audience or a 12-email funnel to start selling.
All I did was:
Email my small list (from blogging + YouTube)
Tell them what the product was and who it was for
Send 2–3 simple emails with a clear call-to-action
When I finally launched my membership, I had 300 people on the waitlist… and 300 people joined at $33/month.
That first launch generated $10,000/month in recurring revenue. 🎉
Your next step? Pick a launch date. Put it on the calendar. Start telling people. Yes, it’s scary. But the only way to move forward is to start.
Step 5: Build Systems So You Can Scale
After that first big launch, I quickly realized something…
Now that I had customers, I also had a lot more work.
Creating content, answering emails, managing tech—everything fell on me. Which was a lot, especially after my baby arrived a month later. (Yep—August baby, right after the July launch!)
So, I started hiring—first a video editor, then an operations manager, and eventually more support staff.
But here’s the key: I didn’t hire until the business was making money.
Once I had revenue, I could afford to get help, build systems, and finally take a real step toward working less while earning more.
💡 Pro Tip: Automate Tasks to Save Time
One of the best ways to free up your time as a business owner is to streamline and automate your backend operations. Things like managing payments, tracking invoices, and sending funds can eat up a surprising amount of your week—but they don’t have to.
That’s why I use Melio to handle business payments. With just a few clicks, I can pay vendors, contractors, or bills directly from my bank account, debit card, or even a credit card (yes, even if the recipient doesn’t accept cards!). Not only can I use the payment method I prefer, but each vendor can then choose how they prefer to receive the payment. I can schedule regular ACH payments or expedite them depending on the need, send international payments in local currencies with low fees, and sync everything with QuickBooks Online or Xero to stay organized.
Setting this up has saved me hours each month—and let me focus more on growing my business instead of pushing paperwork. And the best part?
You can get started totally free with Melio Go or choose a paid plan for more advanced capabilities. And if you do it now, you will get 90% discount for the first 3 months!
Melio has been a total game-changer for simplifying my systems, and it’s a great first step toward automating the "businessy" parts of your business.
Final Thoughts: You Can Do This!
Starting your first business doesn’t have to be overwhelming.
You don’t need a perfect plan. You just need to start—with a simple idea, a basic offer, and a willingness to keep learning as you go.
If I could do it while pregnant and managing two toddlers… you can absolutely do this.
And if you want a step-by-step roadmap? Be sure to check out my free mini course: Small Business 101. It covers everything you’ll need to get moving in the right direction.
Now go take that first step. You’ve got this.
