How to Start A Digital Business: A Step-by-step Guide for Busy Home Moms in 2025

You can start a digital business and make money online, without being overwhelmed. But that’s possible, only when you know the EXACT, relevant steps to follow.

Starting a new digital business while juggling lots of other responsibilities is challenging. One major reason is that 95% of “start a digital business” guides out there are too GENERIC. They’re overloaded with too much information whereas you want a simple guide tailored for busy moms like you.

I started my digital entrepreneurship journey in 2018 as a nursing mom of a tender 3-month-old. For over 3 years, I stumbled around the internet, searching for a simplified process to follow. Though I succeeded after navigating through thousands of pieces of information, I lost valuable time, plus, I got drained.

You can start a digital business and work from home as a stay-at-home mom, but you don’t have to burn out before you even begin. Whether you want to:

• Contribute financially to your home while being more available for your kids
• Work at your pace and convenience (no work pressure)
• Have your own money to care for your basic needs
• Have time for continued Personal development as a woman

Discover how to start a digital business following these 9-Simple steps. They’ll help you get your digital business off the ground in less time and without stress if you act on them now.

Let’s get started…

Define The Nature of Your Digital Business

Before you start a digital business, the first step is to decide the type of business you want to venture into. Is it product-based or service-based?

Product-based digital business: Selling physical products like shoes, bags, food items…etc, online.

Service-based digital business: Offering services like — graphics design, software management, writing…etc to clients online. 

And that brings you to answering the big question, “What type of digital business do I truly fancy?’’ Your answer depends on your unique strengths and abilities. But for you to make a near-perfect decision, leverage on these 3 factors:

• Your passion
• Your interest
• Your expertise 

Think carefully about what you enjoy doing and can also manage alongside your mom duties. 

Brainstorm Your Business Idea

After you’ve decided on the type of digital business, the next step is to choose a profitable business idea. Every successful business you see today started as an ‘idea’. Well, it’s an age-long fact. no doubt.

Which brings us to this million-dollar question, “Who do you want to serve with your business?” 

• Do you love cooking or baking delicious snacks?
• Crafting unique jewelry?
• Crocheting fantastic clothes?
• How about your passion for teaching, writing, or creating beautiful graphic designs?

These are examples of businesses ‘with a buying audience’ that you can offer online. Remember that your business idea should revolve around what you know or what you love doing.

For instance, it was easier for me to pitch my tent in freelance writing because I have a passion for writing. When you’re passionate about something, it won’t feel like work, doing it over and over again as a business.

5 Perfect stay-at-home digital business ideas

There are lots of profitable online business ideas in the internet space today. But these five (5) are my top suggestions—that work really well for super busy and stay-at-home mums.

Affiliate Marketing: Imagine that you told your friend where you bought your cosmetics. She goes ahead and shops her cosmetics from the same seller. Now the seller goes ahead to reward her for referring a customer to her. That’s what Affiliate marketing is all about. Simply put, it’s earning commission for selling other people’s products or services.

E-commerce: If you love selling products; e-commerce could be the right business idea for you. In e-commerce, you sell physical products using digital platforms. The most common platforms are websites, online marketplaces, and social media. 

Social Media Management: This rave-of-the-moment business idea involves managing social media accounts for brands and businesses. If you’re active on social media, you can get paid to create and post content for others.

Administrative/Executive Virtual Assistant: Here, you’ll provide office administrative support and services to busy CEOs. A virtual assistant handles office duties like Scheduling appointments, Calendar management, Email management. Recent research has shown a high rise in the hiring of virtual assistants for remote work in 2024.

Online Tutoring: Do you love teaching or sharing knowledge? Online tutoring might be a perfect fit for you. You can teach learners about a specific subject or topic using virtual platforms.

Freelance Writing: If you have a flair for writing, then you won’t go wrong if you start freelancing. After all, businesses hire writers every single day to drive their online brand visibility. So you’ll enjoy more access to new job opportunities. Freelancing also lets you offer your services to clients worldwide while sitting on your bed. If you love “time freedom” and “convenience,” it’s your best pick.

Choose a Profitable Niche

One huge mistake you want to avoid when you want to start a digital business as a beginner is to be ‘nicheless’. That is, talking to everybody instead of talking to a particular group of people.

What is a niche?

A ‘niche’ is a distinct segment of a target market or audience who are most likely to buy a particular product or service.

Now imagine that you’re selling shoes. Your niche ideas could be: women’s shoes, men’s shoes, corporate shoes, shoes for casual wear…etc. This applies to every industry. The idea is to narrow down your market for effective reach. 

As a beginner, build authority in one niche first. Then, diversify with time. You’ll command more trust and money as a specialist in one niche than as a generalist. This is a major online business success secret.

Identify Your Target Audience 

At this point, you’re zeroing in on your potential buyer—the people with the specific problem that your product or service solves. What are their needs? These people usually have similar interests and behaviours. They should also have the willingness and financial capacity to buy from you. 

For example, if a local farmer who runs a fish farm is interested in purchasing equipment for his fish farm, he will not purchase poultry farm equipment. Likewise, a mom of a 2-year-old toddler is less likely to subscribe to a Maths class meant for 13-year-old teenagers. And the list goes on. 

Your products or services are the solution to the pains and desires of your target audience. Advertising to the wrong audience means no sales. So, invest quality time in audience research.

Establish your online presence

This is where you discover where these people who want your service or products congregate the most. Which social media platform do they use most? Go there and establish a social media presence.

It’s more profitable to be on the platform with the highest concentration of your potential clients. Establish a strong presence by building either a personal or business brand identity.

Instagram and Facebook are great options for new businesses that sell physical products, while platforms with a more professional approach like LinkedIn and X are best for service providers to network. 

Ever wondered why most service providers are more active on LinkedIn? The reason is that they have more chances of landing high-paying gigs on LinkedIn than they’d get on Facebook. Every social platform has its uniqueness.

Also, ensure that you show up every day with relevant content related to your business. Your goal is to always be in the faces of a larger percentage of your potential clients. This is the quickest way to build brand visibility.

Marketing & Advertising Your Digital Business

This is the actual driver of you realistically making money online. Generally, for many digital businesses, Instagram and Facebook are popular choices for beginners. Because they’re free, easy to use, and a lot of your potential customers are already hanging out there. For a start, you can:

• Announce that you started your new business on your personal social media accounts. 
• Join online groups & marketplaces and promote your business using content marketing.
• Collaborate with other digital entrepreneurs for visibility (Influencer marketing)
• Use social media ads (paid advertising) to reach more of your potential customers. 

Of course, you’re welcome to start with any option that works for you.

But, I’d advise that you take your online presence establishment one step at a time. Master one social media platform first before moving on to another. Trying to establish a presence on all the social media platforms at the same time can be overwhelming. You’re better off not caught in it’s web at all.

Above all, learn Social Media Marketing. Contrary to what most online sellers practice today, social media marketing isn’t just about ‘selling’ to people all the time.

Focus on building quality relationships with your audience if you want to generate amazing results for your business.  And show them how you can solve their problems. People are looking for solutions to their products, not just products to buy. 

Planning Your Business

As a Mom, it’s advisable to plan your business with your family in mind because you have people who depend on you. Involve your family members in your plans early enough.

• Can your spouse assist with simple business tasks? 
• What about your older kids (if you have any)…can they help with house chores?

Your kids need to understand when Mummy is working, so they don’t feel neglected. This way, you carry family members along on your digital entrepreneurial journey.

Also, their support will boost your productivity and success as a Digital Mompreneur.

Balancing Business and Motherhood

Now, let’s talk about the elephant in the ‘working from home‘ room of most mompreneurs. To be realistic, managing your business while taking care of the home front comes with many challenges.

Here are some helpful tips that you can put in place to lighten the workload (from one busy mom to another):

Effective Time management

Time management skill helps you to find a balance between your mom duties and your personal life. Note that to achieve this balance, you must;

• Set realistic expectations.  You mustn’t finish all the tasks in one day. Rome wasn’t built in a day. So, don’t expect your business to grow overnight.  Be consistent and gradually work your way up.

• Set aside specific business time. This is one of the hardest balances to maintain. But then, you can adjust your daily schedule to create, even if it’s 1 hour every day, to work on your business. For instance, I adjusted my time to work at night, after the kids had gone to bed. That way I’ve got little to no distractions (on some nights) while I work.

• Stay organised with apps or planners.  Schedule your daily tasks with fantastic tools like ‘Google task’ and ‘Todoist’. This helps you to stay organised and make the most of your time. I prefer Google task because it’s simpler to use. Create a to-do list the night before every new day to help you can stay on track of your daily tasks. And, tick off the tasks in the app as you execute them.

• Embrace self-care. The biggest of them all! Yet, the most neglected by many mompreneurs. Practice self-care as often as possible. Shut down and rest when you need to.  According to Eleanor Brown, “Self-care is not selfish. You cannot serve from an empty vessel”. And I agree wholly with her, you can’t pour from an empty cup, Mama. A healthy you is a healthy business. Always keep this in mind.

FAQs

What is a digital business? 

It’s any business that has 100% of its business activities done online. It leverages the technology and the internet to carry out all transactions. Additionally, it generates income without both parties having physical interactions.

What is the best digital business to start as a Mom?

Every digital business is quite profitable if you put in the work but the major problem is starting a business that demands more time than you can handle. If you don’t dedicate enough time to build your business, it’ll suffer.

This is one major reason why many mompreneurs struggle. Of course, no business— whether online or offline, thrives without proper attention.

To be on the safe side, choose a flexible digital business. One that you can attend to and build with less stress while doing other things.

Can I start a digital business with no money?

Absolutely! 

Affiliate Marketing, Freelance Writing, Online tutoring, Virtual Assistance ..etc. These ones don’t require startup capital. All you need to do is to learn the skills that will help you to succeed in them. 

Also, you can start by watching beginner-friendly video tutorials on YouTube. Or, go to Udemy and other learning platforms and enroll in free beginner classes.

Final words

Going from a kitchen table to a new digital business success isn’t as complicated as you and I used to think. It  doesn’t matter if you’re:

• Starting from scratch with zero experience 
• Want to create an extra income stream

The goal is for you to start a digital business that fits into your lifestyle and not the other way around. So, get the type of business you want to do and your target audience right.

Your next focus should be on doing the specific activities that help you maximize your time and boost your productivity while building your business. It’s super okay for your business to grow slowly and then you adjust as you go along.

Okay! Now that you’ve read up to this point, I encourage you to ditch that fear, pump your courage, start a digital business and make money online from the comfort of your home.

I’m rooting for your success.