Discover How To Start An Online Business In 7 Steps
Table of Contents
- Youโre Closer Than You Think
- Step 1: Get Clear On What Youโre Selling
- Step 2: Choose Your Business Model
- Step 3: Set Up Your Digital Home Base
- Step 4: Build Your Audience Before You Need Them
- Step 5: Create Your First Offer
- Step 6: Set Up Your Sales Funnel
- Step 7: Show Up, Sell Out, Repeat
- You Donโt Need Permission. You Need a Plan.
Youโre Closer Than You Think
Hunnnay, if youโve been Googling โdiscover how to start an online businessโ at 11 PM with your phone in one hand and a dream in the other โ this post was written specifically for you.
Not for the tech bros. Not for people with investor money. For you โ the woman who knows she has something valuable to offer the world and is done waiting for the right time, the right degree, or somebodyโs permission slip.
Hereโs the truth that nobody in a blazer on a stage is going to tell you: starting an online business in 2025 has never been more accessible. The tools are free or cheap, the audience is already on social media waiting to find you, and AI has removed every excuse that used to have people stuck.
What you do need is a clear-headed plan. And thatโs exactly what this is.
Letโs build. ๐
Step 1: Get Clear On What Youโre Selling
Before you buy a domain name, design a logo, or pick a color palette โ you need to answer one question:
What problem do you solve, and for whom?
This is where most people stay stuck the longest. They know they want to start an online business, but theyโre trying to serve โeveryoneโ โ which, Love, means youโre serving no one.
Specific is terrific. The more narrowly you can define your audience and their pain point, the faster your business grows.
Ask yourself:
- What do people already come to me for advice on?
- What have I overcome that others are still struggling with?
- What could I talk about for 3 hours without looking at my notes?
Your answer to those three questions? Thatโs your business idea.
Step 2: Choose Your Business Model
One of the biggest myths to discover how to start an online business is that you need a product ready on Day One. You donโt. You need to pick a model first.
Here are the most accessible online business models for beginners:
๐ Coaching & Consulting You sell your knowledge and time. High-ticket, low overhead, and you can start with zero tech stack beyond a booking link and a Zoom account.
๐ฆ Digital Products eBooks, templates, Canva kits, spreadsheets, guides โ you create it once and sell it forever. Hello, sleeping bags. ๐ค
๐ Affiliate Marketing You promote other peopleโs products and earn a commission. Perfect for beginners who want to earn while they learn.
๐ Online Courses & Memberships Package your expertise into a curriculum. A membership community (like the Smartersphere ๐) creates recurring monthly income.
๐ eCommerce / Print on Demand Physical or digital goods through platforms like Etsy, Shopify, or WooCommerce.
You donโt have to pick just one forever โ but pick one to start. Trying to do all five at once is how people end up overwhelmed and broke.
๐ AI Profit Masterclassโ is a resource on martathesmarter.com to help you profit with AI. Click here to grab it now โ AI Profit Masterclass
Step 3: Set Up Your Digital Home Base
When youโre serious about learning how to start an online business for real, you need a home that you own.
Social media is rented land. Platforms go down, algorithms change, accounts get banned. Your website is yours.
Hereโs a simple starter tech stack:
- Domain Name โ Get it from Namecheap or GoDaddy. Keep it simple, keep it brandable.
- WordPress + Hosting โ We recommend this combo every single time. Itโs flexible, scalable, and you own your data.
- Email Marketing Platform โ Start building your list from Day One. Tools like MailerLite or ConvertKit make it easy and affordable.
- Booking/Scheduling Tool โ If you sell services, a tool like Picktime lets clients book and pay without a single back-and-forth email.
Your website doesnโt need to be fancy. It needs to be functional. A homepage, an about page, a services or products page, and a contact page. Thatโs it. You can build from there.
๐ [INTERNAL LINK 2] Anchor text suggestion: โWordPress tech stackโ โ link to your March Madness workshop resources or a related blog post on martathesmarter.com
Step 4: Build Your Audience Before You Need Them
Hereโs the thing they donโt tell you in the โstart an online businessโ tutorials: your audience is your most valuable asset. More than your website. More than your product. More than your logo.
An engaged audience is the difference between a launch that crickets and one that converts.
So how do you build it?
Show up consistently on the platforms where your people already are. Live streaming is one of the fastest ways to build trust and community at scale โ itโs real-time, itโs raw, and it works. Platforms like BIGO Live, TikTok Live, and YouTube Live put you in front of warm audiences daily.
Pair that with:
- Short-form content (Reels, TikToks, YouTube Shorts) to attract new eyes
- Email list building through lead magnets to capture and keep your audience
- A community space (Facebook Group, Discord, or a self-hosted membership) to deepen loyalty
You donโt need 100,000 followers. You need 100 people who trust you enough to buy.
๐ Click here โ Read HubSpotโs guide on lead magnets
Step 5: Create Your First Offer
Now that you know your niche, your model, and your audience โ itโs time to create something to sell.
Your first offer does not need to be your best offer. It needs to be your most accessible offer. Think of it as the front door into your world.
For most beginners, this looks like:
- A $27โ$97 mini course or digital guide
- A $47โ$97 workshop replay or training bundle
- A low-ticket MRR (Master Resell Rights) product you can resell and keep 100% of the profit
- A free lead magnet that feeds into a paid tripwire
PLR (Private Label Rights) and MRR products are a gift, Love โ especially when youโre just starting. You can launch with a polished product before youโve built your own from scratch. Thatโs not cutting corners. Thatโs being smart with your resources.
Do what you have to do so you can do what you want to do.
Step 6: Set Up Your Sales Funnel
A sales funnel is just a fancy way of saying: a path you create for a stranger to become a buyer.
Hereโs the most basic funnel for someone who wants to discover how to start an online business and actually make money from it:
Freebie (Lead Magnet)
โ
Email Welcome Sequence
โ
Low-Ticket Offer ($27โ$97)
โ
Mid-Ticket Offer or Membership ($47โ$197/month)
โ
High-Ticket Coaching or Service ($500+)You donโt build all of this on Day One. You build it in order. Start with the freebie and the low-ticket offer. Let the money and momentum from those fund the rest.
The funnel doesnโt have to be complicated. It has to be consistent.
Step 7: Show Up, Sell Out, Repeat
Hereโs where most people fall off: they build the thing and then wait for people to find it. Thatโs not a strategy, thatโs a wish.
Marketing is your business when youโre just starting out. Until you have a team or automation doing the heavy lifting, you are the marketing department.
What does that look like practically?
- Daily content โ even 60 seconds of value on social media keeps you visible
- Weekly emails โ your list is your most valuable real estate
- Live streams โ consistent hosting builds the know-like-trust factor faster than anything else
- Storytelling โ people donโt buy products, they buy transformation. Tell your story. Tell theirs.
Tell a friend to tell a friend โ and then show them exactly where to go when theyโre ready.
You Donโt Need Permission. You Need a Plan.
Hereโs what I want you to walk away knowing: the path to discover how to start an online business is not the hard part. Starting is.
The messy middle is real. There will be tech frustrations, slow months, and moments where you want to shut the whole thing down. But the women who make it arenโt the ones who had it all figured out โ theyโre the ones who stayed in the game long enough to figure it out.
You have the knowledge. You have the access. You have the tools.
What are you waiting for?
๐ Ready to stop researching and start building? Join the Smartersphere and get access to monthly workshops, a community of like-minded women, and the accountability to finally make this thing happen.
Grand Rising to your next level, Love. Weโre building something real over here. ๐ฅ