Mompreneur: The ultimate guide to starting an online business as a mom

You’re a mom first, but you’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit.

Maybe a parent or a close relative you looked up to was an entrepreneur.

Whatever the reason, you’ve always loved the idea of running your own business and having the flexibility to be there for your kids.

Even though you have a job, you’ve always been passionate about fitness, writing, or helping others.

You’ve always wished there was a way for you to turn this passion into a career.

It wasn’t until recently when people began coming to you with questions or asking you for help that you started to seriously think about starting your own business.

You want to start a business, but you worry if you have enough time to balance being an entrepreneur with being a mom.

You have a burning desire to build your own empire, but you also have responsibilities.

Soccer practices, dinners, family holidays.

But the more you think about it, the more you want to be able to pursue your passion while being a role model for your kids!

You want to show your kids that they can do whatever they put their minds to!

You know being a mom and growing a business is not easy, but the benefits outweigh the problems.

In short, you want to be a Mompreneur, and we’re here to help!

In this article, you’re going to hear directly from Mompreneurs about what it’s like to start an online business as a mom.

You’ll learn about the challenges and joys of being a mom and an entrepreneur directly from women who have done it!

If you’re still not sure what kind of Mompreneur you want to be, we’ll also go through 15 at-home business ideas for moms.

Finally, we’ll talk to you about how to find the right support for yourself as a mom and an entrepreneur and how we at Kajabi can help.

Ready to get started?

Great!

To make it easier for you to navigate, we broke this post up into 6 sections.

You can read it all the way through or skip right to the section that you most need right now.

You can also view this article as a Slideshare here.

In section #1, we’ll take a look at what makes someone a Mompreneur, get into how marketers get it wrong when it comes to moms, and look at some statistics about mom-owned and operated businesses!

Section #2 is all about starting an online business as a mom. In this section, we’ll look at how to use your passion to figure out what to sell, find a niche, and figure out who your ideal customer is.

In section #3, you’ll learn 15 different at-home business ideas that are perfect for moms! No matter what level of work experience or education you have, there is sure to be an idea that is perfect for you!

Section #4 covers getting started as a Mompreneur. We will go over everything you need to do to start your business from picking a name to registering as a corporation.

In section #5, we will discuss making sure you get the right support for yourself both at work and at home!

Finally, in conclusion, we’ll review everything you learned, let you hear from some Kajabi Mompreneurs and give you the next step for making your dreams a reali

Section # 1: What is a Mompreneur?

"Moms are the best negotiators. They are empathetic, they value other people’s talents and time, and they are the toughest people on the planet. Show me one mom who hasn’t had her life changed after spending the first night awake with her feverish baby, or navigated the hurt feelings that her child comes home with from the playground. Moms are, in short, badass! But also they are the most comforting allies around. They are the perfect people to have in a business organization to get stuff done and keep other people happy." —Rachelle Hruska MacPherson, Founder of Lingua Franca

A Mompreneur is a relatively new word that is used to describe women who are balancing the roles of mom and entrepreneur.

Here at Kajabi, we work with a ton of Mompreneurs and wanted to create a guide for any mom considering starting her own business.

Let’s take a look at some stats about mom-owned and operated businesses!

There are over 85 million moms in the US alone!

Over the past few years, more and more moms are becoming Mompreneurs.

Women are the primary or sole breadwinner in 40% of households with children under 18!

From 2007-2018, women-owned businesses have increased by over 58%!

According to The State of Small Business Survey, the number of women-owned businesses rose by 17% in 2017 alone!

There are currently 10.6 million women-owned businesses in the United States, generating $2.5 trillion in annual revenue, according to the Center for Women's Business Research.

71% of all female-owned businesses report they were profitable!

Mompreneurs tend to be younger than their male counterparts.

52% of female small business owners are over 50, compared to 59% of men.

Women overtake men in the 40-49 segment at 29% to 24%.

Millennial women entrepreneurs even outpace their millennial male counterparts though it’s only by a few percentage points.

What kind of businesses are these Mompreneurs starting?

2019 saw a huge 55% increase in the amount of health, beauty and fitness businesses started by women.

19% of all health, beauty, and fitness small businesses are owned by women compared to just 6% owned by men.

Food-related businesses started by women also saw a big 45% increase.

By all measurements, Mompreneurs are kicking butt and taking names!

They’re also having a great time doing it!

Women entrepreneurs average an 8/10 when asked to report their happiness on a day-to-day basis with 33% of women entrepreneurs saying they are 10/10 happy every day.

Being a mom can also offer a big competitive advantage!

56% of moms in the United States feel like marketers don’t understand them.

While male marketers see moms as “saintly, perfect people with the hardest job in the world,” moms often feel “flawed and idiosyncratic.”

Mompreneurs face the same challenges that male entrepreneurs face like lack of capital, marketing, and time, but also take on a bigger role at home.

In addition to business owners, Mompreneurs are also friends, cheerleaders, nutritionists, drivers, therapists, and more for their family.

Mompreneurs know that being a mom is not a job but an emotionally complex role that changes on a day-to-day basis.

Kind of like running a business

Now that you know what a Mompreneur is and if it’s something that speaks to you at a deep level, let’s take a look at what goes into starting an online business as a mom!

Section # 2: Starting an Online Business As a Mom

"Starting a business is daunting because most people are accustomed to working in a structured environment, yet moms live in the wild west. There are no blanket "right" answers. The day you get pregnant, you start getting five different opinions on everything, mostly unsolicited. You're forced to get comfortable trusting your own opinions because you have to." —Laura Forman, Co-Founder, Tilden

For most aspiring Mompreneurs, starting is the hardest part.

One of the main reasons we recommend starting an online business as a mom is because it lets you work on your business after your kids have gone to bed or whenever you have some free time.

The first step to starting any business is deciding what type of business you are going to start and what products or services you are going to provide.

The best way to decide what your business is going to be is to start with what you already know or have already done professionally.

If you worked in PR, for example, you might become a PR coach or create a course on getting PR without hiring an agency.

To get started, ask yourself questions like:

What are you already an expert in?

What have you taught before?

What are some things you’re REALLY good at?

What do your friends and family always ask you for help with?

If you can’t think of anything you are already an expert in or have experience with the next question to ask yourself is:

What are you passionate about?

What do you really like talking about?

What would you like to learn more about?

What is there a need for?

What do you wish you had?

Once you have an idea for your business in mind, it’s time to find your niche or specific area within that business that you’re going to focus on.

Going back to our PR example, you started a PR business but your niche could be small food businesses. Maybe it's so niche focused it becomes a food PR company.

Once you know your niche, it’s time to figure out who your ideal customer is by creating an ideal customer persona.

An ideal customer persona is a fictitious character you make up to represent who you believe your ideal customer is.

Here’s how to create your customer persona:

The first step to creating a customer persona is to define your basic demographic information

The easiest way to find demographic information is to use social media to do some social listening to see what your ideal customers are talking about online.

First, find a few other people who have similar businesses on social media.

If you’re not sure what businesses are in your niche, Google keywords and phrases related to your business idea.

Go to Buzzsumo.com and type in your niche and keywords related to it.

Buzzsumo will show you the most popular and shared blog posts related to those keywords.

Go through the posts and look at who is commenting, liking, and sharing.

Click through to the profiles of the people commenting, asking questions, and sharing their posts.

Take note of their demographics.

How old are they?

Where do they live?

What do they do for a living?

You can do the same thing on question sites like Quora and Yahoo Answers.

Look up some questions related to your niche and then click through to the profile of the person asking.

Forums and blog comment sections are another goldmine for finding out the demographic information of your audience.

Once you have the basic demographics you’ll want to move on to the psychographics.

Psychographics are people’s attitudes, behaviors, and aspirations.

The best tool for finding out the psychographics of your audience is the Facebook Ads Manager.

With Facebook Ads Manager you’ll be able to see what people have liked on Facebook, what they’ve purchased in the last year and even recent life events like having a baby or getting married.

How cool is that?

Psychographics are important because they help you flesh out who your ideal customer is and what they are interested in.

Facebook groups are another great way to learn psychographic information.

Look for the Facebook groups related to your business, join them and go through the posts to see what is on the minds of your ideal customers.

After you know your demographics and your psychographics you want to find out where your audience hangs out online.

Are they in the comment section of a certain blog? Are they on Twitter? Are they in a certain forum or Facebook group? Are they members of a paid community? Do they listen to a certain podcast? Follow certain gurus?

Make a list of the most ACTIVE blogs, forums, communities, podcasts and social media channels for discussing what your business does.

Spend time there studying and talking with the people that are active.

Once you know what the demographics and psychographics are and where your audience hangs out online, you’re going to move on to figuring out what their problems and goals are.

For finding your ideal customer’s problems, question sites like Quora, Yahoo Answers, and Reddit are going to be your first stop.

Look for the questions that people are asking over and over again.

A good rule is that if someone asks a question once, it’s probably not a problem that most of your audience has.

But if the same question gets asked 10 times, it’s definitely something you should add to your list.

Google Adwords’ keyword research tools can be super helpful for finding out what problems your ideal customer is searching for as well.

After you have a solid list of your audience’s problems, it’s time to figure out what their goals are.

Just like with the problems, you’re looking for 3-5 of the most common goals.

Former Google employee John Belcher likes to describe the audience’s problems as their hell and their goals as their heaven.

Ask yourself: What is your ideal customer’s heaven? What are they seeing in their heaven? What are they hearing in their heaven? What are they thinking in their heaven? What are they feeling?

What is your ideal customer’s hell? What are they seeing in their hell? What are they hearing in their hell? What are they thinking in their hell? What are they feeling?

Once you have some ideas, try to go one level deeper and think about what your ideal customer REALLY gets out of their goals.

For example, your ideal customer may talk about wanting to quit their job and be their own boss.

That’s what is called an “ends” value. Ends values are outcomes or goals.

But there is also a means value, which is the deeper meaning that achieving that goal or outcome would give your ideal customer.

What does being able to quit their job and be their own boss mean to your ideal customer? What emotions does it allow them to feel?

It might mean freedom, it might mean getting away from unpleasant experiences like long commutes and boring meetings. Or something else.

When you’re doing your customer research, look for both the ends values or goals your audience wants to achieve and the MEANS value so you understand what accomplishing their goals will allow them to feel.

Once you have gone through those steps and gathered all the information you need, it’s time to write it up into a fictional customer persona.

This is REALLY important because all the content and marketing you create for your business is going to be aimed at attracting this type of person.

Here’s an example of a customer avatar for the PR coaching business from our earlier example.

Allison is a 32-year-old personal trainer and studio owner who created her own workout program that delivers amazing results. She has 2 studios and has recently created an online and app version of her “Agent Orange” workout. Allison earns $150,000 from her two studios but her app barely breaks even. Allison is working a lot and would love to have more time to spend with friends and family. As soon as people hear about her workout or try it once they are hooked but she can’t seem to generate any attention outside of her personal Facebook page. She has joined a few entrepreneur groups online and follows a few Instagram gurus but she’s not really sure who she can trust. She looked into hiring a PR firm but can’t really afford it.

Make sense?

Your homework assignment for this section is to do some research on your niche and create your own customer avatar using the steps that were laid out for you above.

Or if you still don’t have any idea what kind of business you want to build, you can go to the next section and see 15 of the best at-home business ideas for moms based on our data here at Kajabi.

Section # 3: 15 At-Home Business Ideas For Moms

Here at Kajabi, we work with a lot of AMAZING Mompreneurs!

Which means that we also have a lot of data on what sort of businesses run by moms are working and which ones aren’t.

We want to share this formerly proprietary data with you so you can get inspired or find an idea!

Here is our list of the Top 15 At-Home Business Ideas For Moms:

There you have it, the top 15 at-home business ideas for moms based on our data here at Kajabi!

In addition, here is Lensa's list of work-from-home jobs for moms to be.

Now that you have an idea of what kind of business you want to start and who your ideal customer is, let’s talk about what you need to do to start your own business!

Section # 4: Getting Started As A Mompreneur

"Take imperfect action. While you’re trying to get it perfect, someone else is getting it started. Action makes the magic happen. Build your team and build your empire. You can’t do everything so surround yourself with a team (including a ‘virtual’ team) to support you." —Melissa Stewart, Founder, She Owns It

Getting started with your Mompreneur business can be confusing so we want to get rid of that confusion by showing you exactly what you need to get started!

The first thing you want to do is register your business name. To find such a name, you can use the help of various online business name generator tools.

You want to do this for two reasons; first it’s the law, and second, it protects you from competitors using your business name.

The two most common ways to register your business are:

Once you’ve registered your business, you’ll want to go online and register the web address or URL for your business on a site like Godaddy or Bluehost.

Ideally, the exact name of your business is available, but if it’s not you might need to modify your business name by adding a location or prefix like ‘the.’

For example, if the URL www.Prcoach.com was taken, you could try www.theprcoach.com or www.NewYorkPRcoach.com

While you’re registering your business URL you should also register the URL for your full name in case you want to use that in your business as well.

Once you have registered your business URL and your name, you want to do the same thing with your social media accounts.

Even if you’re not going to use them, make sure to register accounts for the name of your business on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

You should also create a Facebook business page and company LinkedIn for your business.

Finally, you want to create a super short and simple 90-day business plan focused on two things: Sales and Marketing.

You don’t need to create a full marketing plan like you would if you were seeking a loan from a bank or investors.

Instead, you want to create a 90-day plan to get your first customers.

Here’s how:

Start with the amount of money you need your business to make 3 months from now.

For example, we’ll say $3,000.

Now you’re going to take your product or service idea and put an approximate price on it.

From our earlier PR services example, we can say we are going to charge $500 a month for coaching and $197 for our PR course.

That means to get to our $3,000 in 90 days, we need to sell either 6 coaching spots, 15 products or some combination of the two.

That means you need between 6 and 15 clients in the next 90 days.

Make sense? That’s the sales part of your business plan.

Now let’s talk about marketing.

For the first 90 days, you want to focus your marketing on building your email list of potential customers.

There are a limitless amount of ways to build your email list but for now, you want to focus on one of these 3:

3 Ways to Grow Your Email List

Now that you know what you need to get started, let’s get into what sort of support you need to run your business and how you can get it!

Section # 5: Finding The Right Support For Your Business

"Build a tribe of teammates, advisors, investors, who will inspire you, push you and support you daily. Learn to ask for help. Everyone thinks it’s brave to go out alone. I think it’s even braver to ask for help when you need it." —Julia Hartz, Co-Founder, Eventbrite

No mom is an island.

While it’s nice to think that you can do it all, the truth is successful Mompreneurs need help!

In this section, we’re going to look at what kind of help you’re going to need as you begin your journey into Mompreneurism.

Let’s start with the support you’re going to need from the people you know.

As a Mompreneur, you’re going to need help from your friends, family, and network.

Your family is going to need to help you by supporting you emotionally, with their time and if they can with financial support.

Your family is also going to need to understand when you can’t make it to a dinner or have to leave an event early because of work.

They are also going to have to get used to the hectic hours Mompreneurs work.

Your friends will have to help you by supporting you emotionally, listening to you talk about your business and if applicable buying your products or services.

Your professional network can support you by promoting your business, buying your products or services and introducing you to potential clients.

Most people think that they need to know someone really well in order to ask for a recommendation or introduction, but the truth is that most introductions and opportunities come from people you know you have weak ties with or know less well.

So don’t be afraid to ask for introductions or promotional help!

You also might want to hire a virtual assistant or VA.

A virtual assistant or VA is someone you hire usually from overseas for a few dollars an hour who will assist you with online tasks like checking email, setting up appointments, updating social media, etc.

You can find a VA on a variety of websites like Upwork and Guru.

If you have a bigger budget you can hire more experienced VAs to do everything from writing sales scripts to analytics.

VAs free up your time from menial tasks so you can focus on working on your business rather than working in your business!

Let’s move on to what you actually need to run your business online.

No matter what type of business you run, you’re going to need:

Plus if you want to sell online courses or membership sites you’ll need a place to create, and host those.

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could get all of that in one place for one price?

Now you can with what is called an all-in-one platform!

All-in-one platforms like Kajabi, allow you to do everything from creating your own mobile-friendly website to creating and hosting your online course.

In one place. For one price. Even if you don’t know the difference between HTML and PHP.

These all-in-one platforms are designed for Mompreneurs like you, who have a message to get out to the world but don’t have the time or desire to learn 5 different systems and duct-tape them together.

Here at Kajabi, we know that as a Mompreneur you have enough to worry about!

Don’t let technology become another problem.

Don’t waste your nights stitching together websites or creating Paypal buttons when you can be spending time with your kids!

Get an all-in-one online platform like Kajabi today and get the technology and support you deserve!

As a Mompreneur, you’re going to need support from your family, friends, and network. And technology.

In this section, we talked about what kind of support to ask for from the people in your life as well as what support you will need from technology to run your business.

Now let’s wrap everything up so you can get started on your Mompreneur journey!

Section #6: Conclusion

"There are tons of resources for mompreneurs out there, but none will ever be as reliable as YOU. You started this journey, and you should always be working to navigate it according to your own rules. Be strong, be brave, be flexible, be present, and always remember why you started. The more emotionally connected you are to your founding purpose, the harder you’ll work towards achieving your goals." —Melissa Bolton, Founder, The Mogul Mom

In this article, you have learned a ton about what goes into becoming a Mompreneur.

In section #1 we took a look at what makes someone a Mompreneur, got into how marketers get it wrong when it comes to moms, and looked at some statistics about mom-owned and operated businesses!

Section #2 was all about starting an online business as a mom. In that section, we looked at how to use your passion to figure out what to sell, find a niche, and figure out who your ideal customer is.

In section #3 you learned 15 different at-home business ideas that are perfect for moms! Which were:

Section #4 covered getting started as a Mompreneur. We went over everything you need to do to start your business from picking a name to registering as a corporation.

In section #5 we discussed making sure you get the right support for yourself both at work and at home!

Now let’s hear from some of our own Mompreneurs who use Kajabi to run their businesses!

Anna Santos of Freelancetopia says:

"Mompreneur means LIFE to me! Being a mom and growing a business is not easy but the benefits outweigh the hardship. I always focus on the positive of being a Mompreneur and how it benefits my family and children… it's soooo worth it! Kajabi helps me find my tribe! While I help passionate thought leaders build & launch their programs using Kajabi, I’m starting to create my own program that helps other moms have other streams of income by providing Virtual Assistant services. As an all-in-one platform, it makes my life easier by not maintaining different web applications at once."

Amy Feierman of Mommy Income says:

"A Mompreneur is all about flexibility. I'm home for my kids if needed. I can make sure my kids get to activities and doctor appointments without worrying about using up my vacation days or taking unpaid leave. If they have a day off from school we can do something fun instead of sticking them in front of an iPad while I work. I can work after they go to bed or catch up on weekends when my husband is home. The last "9-5" I had (11 years ago) had me working 80 hours a week - so much for the 9-5. This was before kids. I can't imagine trying to be there for my kids, work that much and maintain my sanity. I got laid off when I was 6 months pregnant with my first son. What a HUGE blessing that has been in the long-term."

Allison Jackson of Allison Jackson Fitness says:

"Being a Mompreneur means being able to pursue my passion (health and fitness) while also being a role model for my kids. It's important for them to see that it's possible to work full-time, be a mom and also pursue a side business. I want them to feel like they can do whatever they put their mind to. I was hesitant about switching everything to one platform, but I knew at the end of the day it would make my life easier. I'm happy to say that while it was painful during the process (I hired help), it was so worth it. I love being able to see my website, email marketing, analytics, and everything else on one platform. I should've switched earlier!"

How Can Kajabi Help You Become A Mompreneur?

You need Kajabi - It’s a full-featured platform that allows professionals like you to create their own businesses from home.

Create online courses, establish membership sites, offer coaching programs, host a podcast, and sell other digital products. Plus, you'll get marketing tools like a website, CRM, email marketing, landing page templates, and helpful analytics to help you spread the word about your products and earn more revenue.

We have 60,000 Kajabi Heroes who have earned over $5 billion in revenue on our platform.

We'll provide you with tons of training resources with Kajabi University and round-the-clock support.

Fully explore what Kajabi has to offer and start building your business during a free trial. Start your free 14-day trial of Kajabi today!

Still researching? Check out Kajabi’s free downloadable ebook guides on launching and growing a knowledge commerce online business!

Read the 2022 State of the Creator Economy Report to get the latest data on industry trends and growth for knowledge content creators.