Let’s just get right to it.
You want more.
You want more for yourself.
You want more money.
You want more freedom.
And there is nothing wrong with wanting those things. It’s great that you’re a Mom, but you’re not only a Mom.
You’re you. And you is pretty damn special.
It’s okay to want more because that is what life is all about. Living up to the potential that you know you have within yourself.
You might’ve read a dozen other stories about Moms that are making money from home but you aren’t sure what to do.
You might even be saying that if they can do it what is stopping you?
Nothing really except you just don’t know what to do. That’s what this post is going to help you with.
How to Start a Business as a Stay-at-Home Mom
I think it’s important that you understand what we do here at Pocket Business.
To sum it up, we help ANYONE build their own online business.
Not a pyramid scheme. Not any multi-level marketing.
A legit business that you will be proud of and actually have an impact on people.
Everything that you learn in this post can be used immediately to start your business and as you’ll find out you are definitely ready to start one.
That’s right, I don’t know you but I’m saying it right now.
You’re ready.
You have to believe me because I’m probably the smartest person on this page so what choice do you have?
With that out of the way, what type of business should you start?
The Best Business for Busy Moms
You might’ve come across a billion suggestions already, but I’m going to tell you right here and now that the best for you to start is what I call being an Experience Teacher.
What is that?
It’s where you take your life experiences, interests, or passions, bundle them up and offer them to people who would benefit from them.
You don’t get to tell me that you don’t have any type of experience or an interest or a passion.
Something is there so I’m not having it.
If you’re still going to argue with me that’s fine but I bet by the end of this post you’ll be convinced that this is the path for you.
How am I going to convince you?
Easy. I’m just going to show you why people buy things.
Why People Spend Money
You obviously can’t have a business without making money. A business making no money is just a hobby and you’re not here to start a hobby.
So why do people spend money? More specifically why do you spend money?
Improvement.
That’s it.
You buy things because you think they will improve your life in some way. Some of those improvements are small. Some of them are large.
Some of them might be silly like you truly need to buy something just to get it out of your head. That’s the problem I have.
But people only spend money when they think it’s going to improve their lives.
So that’s all you have to do as a business owner. Improve the lives of the people that want to buy from you.
That might sound like a huge task as you think of the big things people need to have a better life, but what if you taught someone how to meal plan or how to knit?
What if you showed someone activities they could do at home with their Toddler that involve two magnets, some salt, and a balloon?
The great thing about people is that they have a TON of things that they could use that would greatly improve their lives.
You just have to find your thing.
That thing is going to be your offer.
What’s that?
Your Offer
Your offer can be anything from a printable to a course to a live in-person event.
The actual way you deliver your offer doesn’t really matter until you figure out what your offer is.
The only thing that matters is that it provides an improvement or else people won’t come back.
Think about the things that you’ve bought that you were disappointed in. You were disappointed simply because they didn’t live up to what they said they’d do.
That’s it.
If everything did exactly as it promised that it would we would be fine. If it goes beyond that we are ecstatic and if it does less than that we feel ripped off.
You just have to create an offer that does exactly what it says it will do.
Once you have an offer you have to figure out the audience.
Your Audience
What do I mean when I say “figure out the audience”? Well, the biggest mistake people make when it comes to business is that they create something and come up with this fantasy that everyone in the world is going to want it.
That just doesn’t happen.
Ever.
We all wake up with a story playing in our head. This story dictates who we are.
We pay attention to the messages that enhance or take away from that story.
Did you know that you get 1000s of brand messages in your face every single day?
You don’t even notice most of them because they aren’t really speaking to you.
But there are some you do notice. Maybe you notice the image or the thumbnail or the headline.
In some way they speak to you and because they do you give them your attention.
If they’re doing a good job they’ll keep your attention but that only happens if they are delivering the right message and showing you some type of improvement.
If they don’t do those things then you’ll move on and find someone else (hopefully) that can help you.
When you have an offer your best bet is to always find the people that will benefit from it the most.
Those people who you know truly need this in their lives.
Why?
Because they are the ones that will listen. You never want to talk to an audience that doesn’t want to listen to you.
What’s the point?
What’s the point in try to sell to someone that doesn’t want to buy?
This is why you need to understand your Audience. We refer to them as your Hero because they are the Hero of their own story.
You’re simply a guide that enters their story and will lead them to a happy ending.
Once you figure out this Hero then you’ll know exactly what they want. You’ll know how to talk to them and you’ll know how to show them the best way you can help them.
It’s not different than talking to your best friend. You know their quirks. You know their fears. You know their ambitions.
All of these things play a role in how you speak to them.
Your Hero is no different.
Okay, so you have an offer and you know your audience, what else is there to start a business?
To answer that, let’s look at a simple business formula.
The Business Formula
It’s easy to get caught up in the idea that business is really hard. That you need to sit down and plan out a ton of stuff.
But once you have your offer and you have your audience, you have your business.
It’s really that simple.
I say that because the formula for business is this:
Audience x Offer = Money
That’s it.
That’s your business.
No need for a business plan.
No need to worry about a million other things.
You don’t need to move any further until you have those things laid out.
From there you just have to close the gap and this is where people get tripped up in business.
The Gap
The Gap is what you have to help people cross to buy your offer. You can’t just walk up to someone and tell them to buy something.
They need to go through steps before they even consider your offer.
Don’t worry, these steps aren’t complicated. In fact, we’ve broken them down into a simple framework we call the Pocket Business Framework.
- Get them to notice you
- Get them to pay attention to you
- Get them to trust you
- Convert that trust into money
That’s what you have to do if you want people to buy your offers and make money.
I’ll go over each one briefly.
1. Get Them to Notice You
Before you can get someone to listen to you, you need to get them to notice you.
For this post, you might’ve seen the pin on Pinterest. We had to use the right title with the right image to get you to notice it in a sea of other pins.
Maybe there are keywords that we used that you were looking for.
There are many different tactics to use to get people to notice you.
Maybe you came from Google or YouTube.
Either way, none of this works unless we get you to notice us.
2. Get Them to Pay Attention to You
Once I get you to notice me (us), then I have to make sure the content keeps you drawn in.
If it doesn’t then I’ve lost your attention and nothing else matters.
This is where a lot of people slip up because they truly don’t do a good job of helping their Hero. If you’ve gotten this far in the post you can see the value in what I’m saying.
Things are making sense to you and because of that you’ll continue to read and keep your attention on what I’m saying.
Maybe you’ll sign up to receive emails from us that are packed with more value and because of that we keep your attention.
But there are plenty of people that will come to this post, read some words, not like them, and then leave. I’ve lost their attention and there is very little I can do to get it back.
3. Get Them to Trust You
If I keep your attention long enough and help you achieve some transformations (improvements) then I’ll start to gain your trust.
Maybe you read enough posts on this site to build a lot of trust. Maybe you catch me on YouTube or Instagram.
Maybe you hear someone else you wildly respect speak about me.
Maybe you love all of the emails that you receive from us.
Trust is best built when you show people that you want to help them. That’s what your business should be about.
How do I best serve my Hero every single day?
4. Convert Trust into Money
And this is where you have your offer.
You see how you can’t just go from knowing your Hero to selling them something?
You have to get them notice you, pay attention to you, and then trust you.
But once you get through those steps, you can get them to buy.
Not bad, right?
You might’ve noticed though that we haven’t talked about tactics or technology. Why is that?
Let me explain.
System vs Tactics
I think one of the biggest mistakes you can fall into when starting a business is to get caught up in tactics.
For example, you might see someone that says they make $5,000 a month with their blog and therefore you should start blogging.
So you sign up for a hosting account, install WordPress, and start blogging.
And nothing happens.
You don’t understand why.
So you find someone that says they get 100,000 page views a month from Pinterest and you should learn Pinterest. So you get Pinterest all set up and wait for the people to come.
But nothing happens.
You continue to go on like this for a couple of months bouncing from tactic to tactic without looking to see if your business is actually doing a good job of following the steps above.
The beautiful thing about the Pocket Business Framework is that you can see all of the different tactics that can be used at each step.
There is no ONE TRUE TACTIC that is going to make or break your business.
You just have to pick the tactics that are going to work best for you and your Hero.
I like to write so we have a blog. I also like to be in front of the camera so we have a YouTube Channel.
These are ways that we are able to go through the Framework.
If you decide to start a business and something isn’t working then you just need to refer back to the Framework and see where things are getting stopped.
Are you getting plenty of people to notice you but not pay attention?
Maybe they pay you some attention but you’re not earning their trust.
The concept of business isn’t hard, we just like to make it harder for ourselves by diving too deep into tactics and overthinking things.
Alright, so what now?
Well, now you should develop a gameplan or you can let me develop the gameplay for you. In fact, I already have.
You can find it right here.
But I want to show you something else. Here are two interviews that we’ve done with two of our students and you’ll see the amazing things that they’ve done for their audience.