Top 7 Online Business Ideas for Stay at Home Mums & Dads

Are you looking for online business opportunities as Mom or Dad?

Having been a dad myself, I understand how difficult it is to hold down a full-time job and be a parent at the same time.

I know that one of us should stay home to take care of the child when they are born. This means that one of us should quit our day job. Which reduces your family income.

You don't have to worry since today I'll show you 7 different online business ideas that you can start from the comfort of your home. This is without sacrificing your loved ones or your career.

Starting a traditional home business can be difficult and overwhelming. However, you can easily start your own business from home using the internet & of course with very minimal startup cost.

Every time the internet gets cheaper and easier to access, more and more business opportunities open up. Nowadays, the internet is the goldmine for people looking to make millions from home.

Advantages of Online Business

The following points have been compiled for all moms and dads to help you understand why starting a business online is better:

Work Anywhere

Online businesses allow you to work from anywhere, you can start a business from home and roam around the world like a digital nomad as long as you have a laptop and internet access.

Low Investment

Online businesses often have very low or no startup costs, as opposed to traditional businesses. I myself have started several businesses online with virtually no budget.

Cost-effectiveness

It is very cost-effective to operate an online business since you don't need to maintain an office, hire employees, or spend on transportation.

Global Reach

A traditional business can be difficult to scale globally, while online businesses are very easy to scale. Online businesses can reach wider audiences very rapidly around the world. As a result, our business can grow easily.

Easy to Learn

It is not necessary to have a fancy degree or high education to start a business online. All that is needed is a skill that is specifically needed in that field, which can easily be learned from youtube or by taking a quick online course.

Targeting Audience

To sell an item, it is necessary to target the right audience. It is difficult for traditional businesses to know about a person's interests, age, education, what he/she is looking for, etc.

When you have an online business, you can easily target like-minded audiences and target your advertising only to them.

Analytics

Online business offers the advantage of real-time web analytics tracking, which evaluates the performance of digital marketing campaigns. Such data is useful in optimizing future business and fixing mistakes as they arise.

Do I need special skills to get started?

The skill needed may depend on what type of business you intend to start. Some basic skills you need to get started are the ability to use a computer and a basic understanding of the internet.

However, in today's age internet is filled with informational videos where you can upgrade skills anytime depending on your requirement.

If you have knowledge of these two things then you should be good to go. If you observe the successful people on the internet are mostly dropouts or people who do not hold fancy degrees.

But the only thing that you really need to get started is passion and a helping mindset to serve our community. If you are just doing something for the sake of money, then this business may not be as successful as you think.

Top 7 Online Business Ideas

Let's get straight to the point and discuss 7 top business ideas for moms and dads who want to start their own online business.

1. Web Designing Services

Web design is basically making a website for a company or brand. My own online business started with web design, so it's an idea I can recommend 100% to everyone. It's a type of freelancing service.

Web design services also include the following services in addition to creating websites. There are also upsells you can offer when creating a website for your clients.

Websites are usually created by new companies, and they need many other services including a website. So here are some services to sell:

  1. Website Designing & Development.

  2. Logo & Graphic Designing.

  3. SEO Services

  4. Business Emails & Email signature.

  5. Business Cards & Letterheads.

  6. Security Services (Ex: SSL).

  7. Website Page Contents.

Free Courses: Here I have linked my in-depth articles relevant to our topic  -

Drop Servicing: This is one of the easy & most efficient ways to deliver client projects, I use this exact same model to offer my services.

Drop servicing is a business model where you sell your services to clients, but you don't fulfill it by yourself; rather, you outsource it to others, mainly a freelancer.

Drop Servicing Business model can save you lots of time while you can focus purely on marketing and getting more clients.

Cons of this service:  Major problem I face with the service is that it's not passive, you exchange your time for money, even though you use the Drop Servicing model you still have to spend time to get clients.

Any questions please email me at hey[@]azfar.co

2. Selling Digital Products

This is one of my favorite & easy ways to build a passive income stream online. Here you invest your time to build a digital product once, then sell that same product to multiple people online.

Often, these products are downloadable files. The best part to focus on this business is selling repeatedly online without the need to replenish inventory.

The most challenging thing with an idea is in choosing the right product to sell & getting a like-minded audience to purchase your chosen product.

3 Advantages of selling digital products over physical goods?

  1. Low investment costs

  2. High margin of Profit

  3. Automated Business

6 Best Digital Products To Sell Online

  1. Printables: Printables are the easiest digital product to sell online. People will buy your printable if it helps them solve a problem. For example, you can create a budget printable, meal planner, worksheets, health trackers, cleaning checklists, etc. You have a lot of options. These printables can be sold on your website or even on Etsy or other similar sites.

  2. Courses: For passive income, online courses are huge. An online course can take a month or more to create, but it can generate passive income for years. You can create a course on anything you have experience with or any skill you have mastered. You can teach the English language, sew patterns, decorate a kitchen, start a business, flip websites, etc.

  3. Templates: Everybody wants to do more work when they have limited time. This is where templates come in. Also, it's suitable for those who aren't familiar with designing or aren't skilled at graphic design. You can create templates for Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, blog posts, etc.

  4. Photos and videos: Sell your stock photos & videos online, demand for paid stock photos and videos has increased significantly in recent years as the result this is a great way to earn passive income by uploading it to a stock selling website to make a steady income.

  5. Memberships: Online memberships are subscription-based digital products, where users pay every month to access your membership services. This can be starting your own community for your audiences or building a SaaS product.

  6. Themes or Templates: All major CMS or website-blog backend needs templates to beautify websites. Creating website themes initially takes time, but it pays off handsomely in the long run. With these themes, content can be created once and then periodically updated to ensure that they work with any updates made to CMS. It is possible to offer bundles of themes, images, fonts, and other web elements that give the site a more cohesive look.

Designing Printables using Canva

Canva is a web-based graphic designing tool that lets you quickly design invitations, business cards, flyers, lesson plans, posters, and more using professionally designed templates.

You can even upload your own photos to Canva's templates and add them using a drag-and-drop interface.

It's like being able to use a basic version of Photoshop for free, without the need to know extensive photo editing knowledge.

How to make money selling printables

3. Blogging, Podcast, or Youtube

Content marketing includes blogging, podcasting, and YouTube video production. Marketing through content creation involves creating relevant, interesting content and distributing it across multiple channels to promote your brand.

The goal of content marketing is not to directly promote your brand or product. The idea is to provide your potential customers with engaging content that addresses a problem they are trying to solve. In doing so, you will reach out to your target audience and build trust.

By utilizing content marketing properly, you can increase website traffic, generate leads, and ultimately increase sales.

Blogging: A blog is a website that is dedicated to publishing writings, photos, and other media online.

  1. It's cheap and easy to start blogging for business. With platforms such as WordPress or Squarespace, anyone can start a marketing blog.

  2. Blogs can help improve SEO and boost traffic to a website.

  3. There are many types of content that can be included in a blog post, such as images and videos.

To learn more about blogging read my article here - How to start a Blog? Learn How to Turn Your Passion Into a Real Business

Podcasting: Podcasting refers to a collection or series of digital audio files available for download or streaming over the Internet.

  1. Millions of people listen to podcasts on popular apps. Your brand can reach a large audience and get more attention.

  2. The process of recording and editing audio for podcasts is simpler than video recording.

  3. The audience is completely focused on you. They are less likely to be distracted by advertisements or click off to another website.

YouTube: YouTube is a video-sharing website that allows you to watch videos online for free. In addition to watching videos, you can also upload videos that you can share with others.

  1. There is a large audience. Over 30 million people watch YouTube every day.

  2. Rather than telling, videos show. Therefore, if you use YouTube for marketing, you're more likely to make your message stick.

  3. You can promote your YouTube content on other channels, such as social media or your blog.

How to make money with Blogging, Podcast, or Youtube?

  1. Sponsorships

  2. Affiliate Marketing

  3. Advertisements

  4. Guest articles or invite on YouTube or Podcasts

  5. Selling Digital or Physical Products

  6. Selling Courses

  7. Consultations

Tips To Create All 3: Create a YouTube video first, remove the video you can post a podcast, and transcript the audio you can post as a blog.

Bonus: Additionally you can also start a Social Media channel on Instagram or TikTok and become a social media influencer. You can use all the above strategies to make money and build guidance.

4. Courses & Webinar Classes

Webinars: This is a type of online seminar that is broadcast to a select group of individuals Live over the Internet by individuals or an organisation. This uses popular apps like zoom or teams.

Webinars can be free or paid. You can make money hosting free webinars by selling digital products, affiliate products, or premium courses. Webinars can have one live session or be spread over more than 5 days.

If you want to host a webinar, you should make sure that you are an influencer and well known on social media at least, and deliver real value to your audience with the topic you select.

Courses: It is a booming market worldwide to create and sell online courses. By 2025, the eLearning market is expected to surpass $300 Billion, up from $107 Billion.

The creation of courses is only one part of the process. You can gain an edge by focusing on marketing and sales, including your personal brand.

In addition, you make passive income since the courses are built once, but they are resold multiple times on autopilot. Free webinars are another way to sell courses, sharing minimal information and selling courses at the end of the session.

Best platforms to sell courses:

  1. SkillShare

  2. Udemy

  3. Teachable

  4. Kijabi

  5. Thinkific

  6. LearnDash

  7. Podia

Note: Don't forget to teach your audience something valuable in exchange for money they're happy to pay.

How to create an online course

5. E-commerce

Electronic commerce, also known as e-commerce or online commerce, is the act of buying, selling, and trading goods via the internet through a computer, a smartphone, or a dedicated mobile app.

Amazon, Alibaba, Flipkart, etc are some examples of e-commerce stores. In today's world, anyone can start an e-commerce website without much worrying about website creation or payment integration, etc.

Websites like shopify can help you set up an e-commerce store in minutes.

4 Types of E-Commerce to start

  1. Business to business (B2B) - Sell to other businesses.

  2. Business to consumer (B2C) - Sell to only consumers.

  3. Consumer to consumer (C2C)- Allow consumers to sell to other consumers on your platform.

  4. Consumer to business (C2B) - Allow consumers to sell to other businesses.

4 Advantages of E-Commerce

  1. Comfort. Buying and selling products online is very convenient. Because you can access the internet 24 hours a day, you can make internet purchases at any time.

  2. Variety. E-commerce websites provide a wide range of products with more selection than many traditional retail stores. Consumers who are unable to find what they need in physical stores will often turn to online shops.

  3. Comparisons. Consumers can compare the prices of goods and services more easily and quickly with e-commerce platforms.

  4. Inexpensive. It is possible for small businesses and individuals to pick a domain name or hosting site to sell their products on the web. This is without spending thousands of dollars on a costly rental space, designed storefront, or warehouse. New businesses may find selling online particularly beneficial as their customer base grows-a website is typically easier to expand than a physical store.

9 Profitable Ecommerce Business Ideas

  1. Products for Beauty and Health

  2. Sell Secondhand Products

  3. Smartphones & Smartwatches

  4. Home Automation products

  5. Kids Toys and Games

  6. Apparels for men, women & kids

  7. Skateboards, skates, and hoverboards

  8. Kitchen and Dining Mats

  9. Electronic & Electrical items

Flipping e-commerce business: Using this strategy, you do not need to create a store, but you buy items from one store where its cheap and sell them on another for a profit.

Most popular e-commerce stores, including Amazon, allow Individuals to register asset items.

Note: Flipping items can also be sold on classified websites like craigslist or OLX.

Drop Shipping: Drop shipping is an order fulfillment method in which businesses do not keep the products they sell in stock. To fulfill orders, the seller instead purchases inventory from a third party, usually a wholesaler or manufacturer, and asks them to deliver it to the customer's address.

Amazon FBA: Fulfillment by Amazon, also known as FBA, helps Amazon sellers outsource shipping to Amazon. Using this fulfillment option, Amazon stores, picks, packs, ships, and delivers the products to customers. Amazon also handles customer service and returns.

6. Social Media Manager

If you enjoy tweeting, pinning, and sharing, starting a social media management business might be a good fit for you.

People are spending more and more time on social media every day. For businesses, this makes maintaining an active presence on social media a, however, the challenge is to stay consistent and it takes a lot of time.

As a result, businesses are now looking to hire a social media manager to handle all of their social media activities while the owners can concentrate solely on growing their business.

What do social media managers do?

  • Develop marketing strategies based on client needs

  • Setting up social media accounts

  • Post graphics, videos, and text on behalf of clients

  • Updating client's status and increasing social engagements.

  • Staying up to date on trends and new developments related to their businesses

  • Increasing the number of followers

  • Bringing the target market closer to the client

  • Providing customer service

  • Analysis of the market

What makes starting a business so easy?

This is an easy and fun business if you truly love using social media. Here are plus points to starting this business -

  1. No investment costs

  2. Easy to approach & get clients

  3. Outsource the editing & graphical work to save time

  4. Leverage based on monthly payments or no posts

  5. Hire a junior assistant to work remotely & help you.

Note: To convert your client to paying customer make sure you offer a 1-week free trial service to build trust before selling your services.

How to Start a Social Media Marketing Agency

7. Selling Ebooks

Ebooks are presented in a format that allows them to be read on electronic devices such as mobiles and laptops. The most common formats are PDFs and Kindles or Apple Books.

You can create an eBook for a ridiculously low cost and, often, for free, and sell that eBook for anything from $15 to almost nothing.

Your book can be sold at whatever price you like - and you can change the price to test different tactics - but the ideal price depends on the length and reviews of your book and the competition.

Popular ebooks tend to sell around 20-30 copies a day. But if you are already a strong influencer, then the rates are even higher.

Even if you don't have the cash to invest (or can crowdfund the cost), you can market your book to increase its chances of success for free, using social media, for example.

Tips to write and sell ebooks

  1. Consider a popular topic for your eBook

  2. Make sure topics interest you before you write

  3. Build authority in your domain before selling.

  4. Build a like-minded audience first before selling.

  5. Ask buyers to post reviews and comments.  

  6. Ensure your eBook is written to a high standard

  7. Choose the right publishing platform

  8. Create a marketing strategy for your eBook

  9. Participate in contests to promote your eBook

Tip: Before selling build an audience by building credibility & authority in your domain. To do this you can simply start a Podcast or YouTube channel and then sell it to your audiences.

Build a Perfect eco-system to combine the above ideas

In addition to the 7 popular ways to start an online business, let me explain how you can combine several ideas together to make a maximum income that will enable you to quote 9-5 jobs and look after your family.

Let's divide the above business into passive, services & physical

  1. Passive Business: Here, you only have to build a product once, while you can sell it to multiple audiences several times. Thus, your product will continue to make money while you sleep. Ex: Selling digital products or ebooks.

  2. Services Businesses: You offer services to clients here in exchange for your time. In this business, if you spend more time working, you will earn more. Ex: Web designing & social media manager.

  3. Physical Goods: Basically, this tells about e-commerce stores that require physical inventory to sell goods to customers.

Build Audience

While you can start with any of the above businesses I would highly recommend starting the business where you can build your audience. Besides making your income, it can also help you build an audience.

Starting with YouTube, podcasts, or blogging is a great way to build an audience. When you have an audience who trusts you, you can easily sell your stuff.

Build Email List

It is just one part of the game to build traffic to get like-minded audiences, the second part is to ask them to join them on the email list so you can nurture them with value-added emails, and when it comes time to sell stuff, they will always be there.

Taking the following actions will help you build your business right:

  1. Start a website for your business or a personal website or a blog. Check my free tutorial here.

  2. Start a YouTube channel, a podcast, a blog, or a social media account to build an audience and credibility in your niche market. Create all if possible for maximum results.  

  3. Redirect all your audiences to the website that you created earlier this is also called traffic by placing your website links.

  4. Once you have the right amount of traffic to your website start selling digital products or sell ebooks or promote your services.

  5. For income register for advertisements or get sponsorships to be placed on your YouTube, podcast, social media, or blogging platforms.

  6. Start building an email list by offering something valuable for free. Ex: Free ebook in exchange for their email.

  7. Once you have an email list again start selling digital products or sell ebooks or promote your services or even physical products from an e-commerce store.

In this way, you will create a perfect ecosystem to combine and sell all products for maximum income.

Conclusion

As a mom and dad, these are the 7 best ways to make a steady income online as I have researched and picked the most effective methods that will help you make a full-time income online.

I wish you good luck and if any queries email me at hey[@]azfar.co