Starting A Business From Home
Affiliate disclosure: I may receive a commission from links in this post at no cost to you. I will only share things that I have tried myself and 100% love.
So you’ve been working a full time job and you’re feeling burnt out or maybe you just graduated and you know that a 9-5 is not the life you want to live. Trust me, I feel you. I’ve been there.
When I had my first daughter, I knew right away that I wanted to be home with her.
I’ve always had an entrepreneur mindset but once I had her, it kicked into gear.
I tried everything from blogging (which failed the first time), web design, virtual assistant, and marketing manager.
Throughout my journey, I have learned what works and what does not work.
So let me share with you how I wish I would have went about starting my business!
I could go on and on about my story, but let’s get into how you can start your business!
If you have been thinking about starting a business from home, but are not exactly sure the steps to take, read this blog post. It will go over a summary of steps you can take to get started on your journey.
You’ll discover:
Brainstorming business ideas
Research
Figuring out your “why”
Creating a business plan
Building a brand
Mindset
Learn & expand your skills
Execute the plan
Staying consistent
Marketing your business
Brainstorming business ideas
The way I go about most things in life, is I start with a brain dump. I just write out on a piece of paper all of my ideas in my head. Everything I’m thinking. Literally everything. Get it on paper. Don’t worry, we’ll organize it when we’re done.
Some ideas to jot down might be:
What kind of business will you start? Why are you starting this business? What excites you most right now? What skills do you have that could be useful? What do you do in your spare time? What do you always feel drawn too? What do you see yourself doing 5 years from now? What does your vision board look like?
These are questions to ask yourself.
Everything starts with an idea right? Same thing with starting a business from home. It starts with an idea.
Maybe you already have an idea of what kind of business you’d like to start.
Incase you don’t, here are some ideas:
Service based businesses
Social media manager
Virtual Assistant
Business manager
Copywriter
Accountant
Marketing strategist
Coach
Video editor
Course Creator
Brand manager
Website Designer
Graphic Designer
Blogger
E-commerce businesses
Beauty brand
Custom shirts, cups, and more
Clothing brand
Journals
Etc
Content creator
Influencer
UGC creator
Youtuber
Podcaster
Live streamer
2. Research
Now that you have an idea of what type of business you may want to start, it’s time to start researching.
I am going to use virtual assistant as my example. So say you want to become a virtual assistant. You want to start researching what a virtual assistant is, what they do, how much they make, what their daily schedule looks like etc.
Youtube & Chat GPT are great for this. Research as much as you can and see if this sounds like something you want to do and something you want to do.
If you still aren’t sure which kind of business to start, try this:
Think about the skills you already have. What do you have a background in? Maybe you went to school for design, maybe you have a lot of experience with social media etc.
Think about how those skills you currently have can be used in starting a business. If you are really good at organization, you can focus your business on helping others organize their business.
What are you known for? Are you a very empathic person? Do all of your friends come to you for a certain thing? If you aren’t sure, ask your closest friends and family to describe your skills in 3 words. This may help you get insight on how others view you and what you are natural at.
What are your passions? What do you genuinely enjoy doing? Your business will be a lot easier for you if you are doing something you genuinely enjoy doing.
Why do you want to start this business?
3. Figuring out your “why”
Your “why” is what keeps you going. Why are you starting this business? What motivates you? Where did this business idea even come from?
This is very important as it is what will keep your business going. When things get hard in your business, you will always come back to your why to keep you going.
For me, my why is that I do not enjoy working a 9-5 and never want to go back. I want financial freedom and freedom in general. I enjoy waking up when I want, making my own schedule, and taking a break when I need it. This is why I keep pushing forward in my business. Even if today is hard, going back to a 9-5 would be even harder.
Really hone in on this and get clear on your why. Like I said, this is what will keep you going.
If your reasoning for starting your business is “making a lot of money”, that’s valid, but most likely not going to be enough to make your business successful.
If you are doing this to just make a lot of money, what are you going to do if you aren’t making the money you want in the first 3 months or 6 months of your business? Will you give up? Most likely you will because the only thing keeping you going is making money. Try to dig a bit deeper.
4. Creating a business plan
Now that we know what kind of business to start and we did our research, it’s time to make a plan.
You can start with a simple business plan or a full blown in depth plan.
In your business plan to start your business, you’ll want to include your goals (long term & short term), your why, your financial goals, your values, and how you will execute your goals.
Most businesses have a high upfront cost, but luckily with digital businesses, the upfront cost are pretty low. You don’t have to buy a bunch of products upfront or rent out a store etc.
So figure out how much your upfront cost will be, how long will it take for you to get your business up and running, do you want to hire people right away or wait awhile, etc.
In this step you’ll be figuring out what your business values and goals are and in the next step were going to go into building a brand.
5. Building A Brand
Building a brand is such a fun and important part of this journey. This is where you get to mix your creativity and who you are with your business.
Your brand is what sets you apart from every other business. This is what you’ll be known for. You don’t have to dig too deep into this right away, but it is good to have a base.
How & why are you different? Why should someone work with you?
6. Mindset
I’ve said this soooo many times throughout my years of being an entrepreneur, that this is one of the most important things and one of the most looked over things!
I 1000% believe that if you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to get into the mindset of an entrepreneur. You will experience doubt, you will have to push yourself, there will be times you want to give up.
Creating healthy habits and working on your mindset will help you keep going and believing in yourself throughout your journey. If you don’t believe in yourself, your audience won’t either. Say it again!!! So so important.
Again, this is why your “why” is so important. It will keep you going on days that your brain tries to say “I can’t do this”. You’ll have your “why” in the back of your head to tell your brain otherwise!!
And every one goes through this. It’s about being able to push through and not give up. (Which i’ve done plenty of time
I believe mindset and growth are something that you will continue to work on throughout your career to be successful. Mindset will literally make or break your business so do not skip over this one! :)
7. Learn & Expand Your Skills
Depending on the type of business you decide on, you’ll want to expand your skills.
This can even be watching Youtube videos or taking a course. The stronger your skillset, the more confident you’ll be.
If you are starting brand new to an industry and have no previous experience or skills, start learning them.
Watch youtube videos, find a mentor, start to think like this entrepreneur you want to become.
Instead of keeping up with celebrities, follow people who are successful entrepreneurs. Find out what their day to day looks like
You’d be surprised how much your mindset can change just by being around people with similar entrepreneurial mindsets.
Once I started listening to podcasts, joining facebook groups and building a community of like minded individuals, it completely changed my perspective on business.
If you are around people who constantly are ok with bare minimum, they don't strive for more, it's going to be hard to grow around them, you need to surround yourself with people who will better you.
Now if you are starting a business and do not have much of a background, that is okay!
I would suggest to start with something like a virtual assistant business. This is more entry level and you can learn as you go.
There are plenty of free resources out there, but if you want to dive deeper into a skill, I will share some of the courses I took below:
Affiliate disclosure: I may receive a commission from links in this post at no cost to you. I will only share things that I have tried myself and 100% love.
8. Execute The Plan
So you know what business you are starting, you're working on your mindset and growing your skills, now it's time to execute. You're finding your target audience, building your network, and diving into the business.
This part can be scary I know, but it’s like a thrilling scary. Like when you’re about to get on a rollercoaster.
You are going to learn so much about yourself in this stage and how you want to carry your business. You are not going to have all of the answers right away and that is okay!! You are in the process of figuring things out.
It’s time to take everything you learned, and share it with the world.
9. Staying Consistent
Now I know I said mindset was probably the biggest thing, but staying consistent is right there with it!
Let me let you in on a secret… As long as you keep trying, you are not failing. You WILL find success.
The only way to fail is to give up. (Always remember that)
Through out my years in this business, I notice something with people who are very successful, and people who are not.
The people who are successful all have something in common. They are consistent!
They show up everyday for their business, constantly marketing or talking about it.
I’m not saying you have to show up every day but being consistent and not giving up really does make a difference.
Even if you feel like you don’t know everything or not sure if you’re doing things right, just keep going.
You’ll figure it out along the way, as long as you keep going.
When I started my very first blog, I had no idea what I was doing. I researched as much as I could and I read people saying that you won’t make much money in your first year of blogging.
This discouraged me. At the time, I wanted to be able to stay home with my daughter and wanted to be able to make money as soon as I could. This led me to giving up on my blog.
This was about 7 years ago. If I would have kept that blog going, it would be extremely successful today.
So no matter where you are, if you know this is what you want, keep pushing and keep going. Continue growing and learning as you go. You can do this, you got this!!
10. Marketing Your Business
When it comes to marketing your business, there are a couple of different ways you can do this. You can use
Social media marketing
Ads
Search engines (Like Google)
Pinterent & blogging
Networking
Cold calling/messaging
To determine the best marketing strategy for your business, think about who your target audience is. Where do they hang out? Are they on social media? Writing blogs or running a website?
If your target audience is bloggers, a perfect place to market would be through pinterest or writing your own blog with content centered around their niche.
If your target audience is business coaches/ course creators, Social media platforms would be your best bet.
A lot of people in this niche use social media to market their own business so this is where they will be hanging out.
Also, think about what type of business you are starting. If you are a social media manager, you’ll definitely want to market through social media.
If you are a video editor, Youtube or short form videos might be your route.
I hope this has helped point you in the right direction to starting your business from home!
If you have any questions or want more information about starting your own business, feel free to email me or message me on Instagram: @sydneynicoleco
