EP 317 - Why 2026 Is Your Year To Start a Small Online Business (Women Over 50 Must Watch)
If you want to start a small online business in 2026, then you'll want to listen this episode where we show you why right now is the best time to start and what kind of business can change your life.
Maybe you are a woman over 50. Maybe you are worried about money. Maybe you just know there has to be more. This episode is for you.
In this episode, we cover:
Why you can not count on your job or social security to take care of you
The money gap so many women over 50 are facing right now
Real women in their 60s and 70s who started online businesses and won
Why a service business is the fastest way to make real money (no products, no shipping, no office)
Simple online business ideas you can start with just a laptop and WiFi
Why waiting is the biggest mistake you can make
You already have skills. You have spent years and years getting good at things. Those skills are worth money. One of the women we worked with lives in the UK. She is from Nigeria. She wanted to teach women how to sew so they could feed their kids and build a better life. She used the same simple roadmap we teach and it worked. If she can do it, so can you.
You do not need to go back to school. You do not need a big following. You just need a plan.
Ready to find out what this could look like for you?
Check out the Business Building Boutique: https://coaching.debbieshadid.com/business-building-boutique
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Transcript
Creating your own economy. I was like, okay, that is something that people are asking for. This is really critical, in 2026, and I'm not here to scare anyone. I don't wanna talk about politics, none of that. I'm just saying like the reality is. Four. Again, you heard I was 61. But even for, we have 30-year-old speakers, we have 40-year-old speakers. We have had 20 something. Everybody's thinking the same thing. Like how do I do this thing to create my own economy? So I'm gonna talk about starting a small online business. Yes, of course. I have a coaching business, but I've been in business since 2000, so this is not new to me. There is this financial gap, and I will speak to women over 50 because we are at that place where we're like, okay, how are we gonna make this happen? And it's not like you're sitting around with your girlfriends talking about like, I don't know how I'm gonna retire. it is not a comfortable conversation to have, but the deal is every single day that you don't do something about it, the gap grows bigger, which. I'm not here to scare you, I'm just here to speak some truth. Thais is right. Integrity is one of my number one values and I wanna make sure that you really hear this. So, I know that you're here because you're like, there's got to be more. and that's what the summit is all about, is to help enlighten people on what there is, what the more could look like for you. You may be worried about retirement because you are in that over 50 stage. you may be thinking like, I feel like I'm getting squeezed out. For our younger people here, in their twenties and thirties they're like, well, AI, I mean, you know it, even for that demographic, like retirement savings isn't even a thing. And we do have two wealth coaches. They're gonna be on talking and so they'll be much better versed at that. But so many people feel like they're made for more. And I just wanna say, I can tell you the more is much closer than you think. We can no longer count on corporate. And I'll add in what I just said, you can't count on, a 401k, right? I mean, it's unfortunate because there's, it's either you contributing and companies aren't matching. So there's layoffs, there's restructuring. And again, for my ladies over 50, there's hsm and this is a real issue and I hear it every single week from the women that I work with. The numbers don't lie. 55% of women over 50. Say they don't have enough saved for retirement. Women live longer. They earn less over a lifetime, and they take more career breaks. I mean, how many of you guys take guys taking care of kids? I'm taking care of grandkids. I've taken care of, my mother and my grandmother. Like, we're all doing that. The average social security check, it's not gonna cover basic expenses for most people. Waiting. I'll just tell you if you've got this inkling like I need to be doing something else, waiting is gonna be the most expensive decision you can make. So retirement doesn't look like it used to. Again, we're seeing that the math is not adding up. But here's what I discovered when I was on this sort of search for more information about starting a small online business. What does that look like in 2026? What I found out is most of the women who are thriving, they're looking to create additional income streams. They're not dependent on one paycheck or what they have in retirement accounts or even on social security. I have women who are in their seventies and beyond coming to start coaching businesses. Seriously, 73, 75, 76, 77. Launching coaching businesses. I can tell you for sure it's not too late, so, you don't need to go back to school. This is one thing I want, sometimes we feel like, oh, I'm not educated enough to do this online thing, and I am talking about an online business. There's only a few skills that you need, and I would say with the right guidance, and that's it. I mean, the learning curve is small. So what if you could create your own career path? And everything that I have taught for over two decades is about marketing any kind of small business with free marketing. Okay? So knowing how to attract people, that's what you need to know how to do. So instead of waiting for somebody else to decide your future, I hope I'm inspiring you to decide how your future is going to unfold. Today what I wanna do is I wanna share a few stories to inspire you into action and really help you see yourself right there to see yourself and say, okay, maybe that is me that she's talking about. And then what I wanna do is I'm gonna share some various online business ideas so you can see what route might be best for you. I'll tell you, this isn't theory. This is what I do. Since 2000, when I started my business, I was supporting women with this wedding magazine that I had. They were just as passionate as all of you are. I can tell you that they had this passion for weddings as the publisher of the magazine. Somehow very quickly, I unofficially became named as every business strategist to these women. I was not just a strategist, I was a coach. I was a consultant because I knew how to get people, clients. I knew how to sell. I knew how to help them have the business that they had been trying. So many women have passion, but they can't figure out how to make the next step. And as Tais mentioned, like I love all things business. So in a very short amount of time, what happened was people were PA buying ads, but what they really wanted was consulting. I wanna share with you. Fast forward 16 years later, I was working with a coach and she said, look, you need to formalize this process because what you're doing, no matter what kind of business it was, it works. Many of the people that I work with, they went from zero to making hundreds of thousands of dollars, and I'm not saying this to brag, these people did this themselves, or they were generating millions every single year in very competitive markets. I mapped out the process and I took in 2016, my first group of testers. Through it, I applied. The same thing to my own business and I proved it. And I wanna tell you, this is an example of a woman Wego. she lives in the uk. She's from Nigeria. And I met her, in the worldwide web. I met her and she said, what I wanna do is work with you and I wanna teach women in Nigeria. Whose husbands have been abusive to them, who have families. I wanna teach 'em how to sew. And I was like, okay. She's like, can you help me formalize a business to teach these women how to sew so they can get outta the mess and feed their children? I'm like, yeah, okay. I can do that. She used the same roadmap, she got the same results. at that time then I was like, you know what? I'm selling my wedding magazine. I'm gonna go into this coaching full time. I did then eventually start coaching all women in business. And again, I use this word coaching. Remember if you were here in the beginning, what I shared was there's coaches who listen and I'm not one of those. There's coaches who tell, and that's me. I'm the strategist. So. in 2021, I made one final shift, and that's when I decided just for fun to go to the life coach school. When I went to the life coach school, what I realized was, wow, coaching, first of all is magical. Second of all, I was like, okay, this is something that's really needed and there is a big gap. For coaches trying to explain to the world what they do, and I knew how to do marketing and so I took a group of 14 women through the same process and it worked again, so super exciting. What I wanna ask you is, as we think about you being in your own business journey, maybe considering a side hustle. What do you love doing? This is the core of it. I teach women how to build a boutique style coaching business. Now, before that, I taught 'em how to build boutique style businesses, and it has nothing to do with a dress shop. It's about finding that thing that you love. The thing that honestly excites you. So many women are like, I don't wanna talk to my boss and tell him I need to take off. I want freedom. I want my work to matter. So if you didn't have to worry about what anyone said to you. If you didn't have to worry about anyone judging you, what would you love to do? This is really an important question for you to find the answer to. And then listen, we gotta get brave enough to do it. So the other piece is, what are you naturally good at? There are people in your life that are coming to you for things already. It could be spreadsheets, honestly. It could be how you do your spreadsheets at work. It could be how you do. Sewing. I mean, just like we go, right? She had a skill that she was able to teach people. What are your friends and your family and your coworkers ask you about? maybe you're the one that they all come to for that one thing. What is it? And I know something's coming up for you right now. What would people pay for? This is probably the most important question that I want you to ask yourself and be really honest about. There is the passion. But it's only a passion unless there's profit, right? it, I'm sorry. Passion without profitability is a hobby. That's what I should say. So it's a hobby. Unless you can make money at it, it's not a business. So there's nothing wrong with hobbies. And I always tell some of the coaches that come to work with us, like, let's have an honest conversation. Do you love coaching? Because you like to learn and you wanna do it yourself, or do you wanna have a business? Like, those are two different things. So you do need to think about what's the threshold, where the passion becomes profit, and have that honest conversation with yourself. There is this sweet spot that I hope you find yourself in when you ask yourself these questions, which is, what do I love? What am I naturally good at? And what will people pay for? That's actually, I'll call it your zone of genius, where you want to be working. Real women. That you're talking and listening to today, they found their sweet spot, and I'm gonna share some examples of some other women. Again, just to help you expand what it is that you might see for yourself. Everybody that I talked to and the women that I'm gonna talk about today, they all started with the same question, including we go, that I just shared about. I wonder if I could, like, is there a way that I could create this sewing business and teach these people from the UK to Nigeria how to sew so they can get outta this mess? Well, the answer was yes. I want you to meet, I'm just gonna use their initials. She turned her culture into her calling. she had come to the US as an immigrant. She was very successful in her career working for companies that we could all recognize their names. She grew up in a value system that said, humility is everything. Don't brag, don't stand out, right? Don't call attention to yourself. But here's the problem in the us, if you don't speak up for yourself, you get overlooked. And she was in HR and she saw this happening over and over again in marginalized communities. And so she made it her mission. You know what? I'm gonna make sure that people don't get passed by. I have to help these people remain humble. And honor what they grew up with, but also get recognized at work. It's a beautiful example of stepping into something, making again, this her calling. Then I want you to meet this AA client. she turned her shame into strength. And this wasn't about AA alcohol. This was about being a binge eater. that's a really shameful secret for so many people. And she refused to live that way. She's like, I can't do it. She tried everything honestly, but nothing was working long term. She finally found a path that really worked for her. It was a combined path of combined modalities, and she found something that really stuck, that really work. She eventually conquered her binge eating and you guys for years, she's managed it and when you listen to her talk. She's actually one of these women who travels around the world and works from her laptop, but she's like, I couldn't even travel. I couldn't even go anywhere because this binge eating was such a big deal. So today she helps men and women go from being secret binge eaters to confident eaters. I mean, how beautiful is this jp? She turned her diagnosis. Many we're talking about diagnosis today. She turned it into her purpose. She was diagnosed with pre-diabetes. And that diagnosis hit home. She had watched family members in her community. This is cultural again, struggle, and some even died from diabetes complications. she knew she wanted more than a pill. No, no offense against modern medicine, but she's like, I need to figure out how to solve this. Once she did, she realized this is an overlooked market. Additionally in her community, it was an overlooked market. So she knew she had answers. And today she has a thriving coaching practice. She helps men and women prevent diabetes without giving up favorite foods and without going to the gym. So I'm gonna share again, other ways to work, but just to highlight these beautiful women again at the summit, they found their sweet spot. in addition to the featured speakers you're gonna hear about, they all serve with that same question. Like, geez, I wonder if I can make something out of this. The answer is yes, they did. So there's lots of ways to make money and I'm experimenting with these things myself. but what I want you to do, what I want you to know is. How you really do make money or what kind of money you really can make with them. The very top, right corners. Like to know. I just actually joined that like a couple weeks ago. I've made one post, I'm gonna be posting on, that's a site where you can follow people and, follow their fashion and whatnot. That I'm a fashion icon, but I'm testing this stuff. You can also be an Amazon affiliate. you can do eBooks and courses. All of those things are ways that you can do businesses online and network marketing is another one. We hear about transcription jobs. I mean, if you've been on YouTube, you've heard about all of them or online, they're touting all the ways that you can make money online. But I have to be honest and say, look at the numbers. Etsy is one that we've heard a lot about. Nothing wrong with any of these, but if you're trying to replace income. Or create income for retirement. I mean thinking, this is interesting. The medium seller earns $574 and I can almost bet that's actually the seller that turned in the results. There's a lot of people on Etsy that make nothing, right. They set up their store and they never made a dime. But here's the deal. Most people have inventory costs. They have shipping, they have returns. I see 'em at the post office and so do you with all those packages they're shipping the like to know influencer with me in my one post commission, five to 25%, which sounds interesting. But look at what you have to do. You guys post six to nine times a day to earn very well, and payments are delayed three to six months. Amazon affiliate. I've been one of those for a long time and because of the like to know Influence program and be, I am now an Amazon influencer, but still you earn one to 4% commission. I've been sharing affiliate links from Amazon of books I love. I've never made a hundred dollars from Amazon. You have to sell a lot on a monthly basis to make something. Then there's service-based businesses. I'll talk about that a little bit more in just a moment. But as a service-based business, you have none of that stuff. No inventory, no nothing else. You gotta sell and you set your own rates, and it depends on the service. But imagine $500 a client. I mean, I like to start on the low side. I'm not here to blow up some crazy numbers. I'm here to be realistic. Five clients at $500 a month with no inventory, no fees, no middleman, and you keep what you earn. That's a different situation. There are so many more options. About earning online with a small online business. Again, I mentioned affiliate marketing. I mentioned network marketing, YouTube, TikTok shop, digital products, Facebook Marketplace. As I did this research, I mean, there's people that are resellers. there's people, yeah, all the things, ship it. DoorDash, every one of those are opportunities to make, money from a side hustle. Here's what no one really is telling you. Etsy and all the ones that I just told you about, you need thousands of eyes on your product to make money. If you are DoorDash, if you are ship it, you're driving your own car. And I heard people, I looked at people's information, they're like, you gotta balance out wearing out your car and doing the DoorDash. So with a service business, service-based business, you have fewer eyes. You need on you. You can have fewer sales and still make more income. Yeah, you only need a few of the right people to find you and pay you. The things that I was just talking about though, the other things are just icing on the cake. They're not the cake. The real money, the life changing replace your income fund, your retirement comes from service-based businesses. I really just showed you that. So. You can help people with something you already know how to do. That requires no inventory, no shipping, no warehouse. When you build a service-based business, you don't have to hope the product sells. You don't have to go to market and try to figure out what somebody wants. You don't have to deal with returns. Find a business where you don't have to leave your house. My commute is upstairs. That's it, right? I mean, I can run downstairs and see my grandkids and run outside and take my dogs out. It's a beautiful way to create this extra income stream. What I wanna do is caution you though on a lot of the ways that you could make. Money as a service-based business because there's lots of service-based businesses online. Some will require more skill accounting. There's bookkeeping and accounting. Thank God I have that. I have a bookkeeper. He's online. He has the skill. He, but he had to get a lot of eyes on his business. I mean, it's a pretty low monthly fee, but I'm so glad I have him. So that's a business, that's a service based business. He's doing online accounting for me. I've never even seen the guy. Okay. We just do it virtually. Tutoring. I talked to somebody the other day that was doing, English as a second language ghost writing. Of course. I put that on there and I was like, is that a thing now with ai? but ghost writing is another thing. Virtual assistant work. I could not tell you. How much I value virtual assistants, our team, that helps us put this together and that just keeps my business afloat. I couldn't do it without 'em, but there's a lot of skill. The ladies that work for me, they know far more than anybody that I know who knows anything about video editing, about posting on YouTube, about social media, about tech, about getting this summit set up. So there is skill. That you have to learn. So you might see like just become a virtual assistant and I would say become a virtual assistant. That's awesome. But you do have to have the skill to be able to do it. Knowledge is power. Knowledge is your product. That's what I'm gonna bet your experience is, your inventory. There's no out of pocket with those two things. You own what you know right here. Nobody can take it away. Nobody can duplicate it, including ai. And I know everybody's like worried about ai. Look, AI is a gift that helps us, but AI doesn't replace us. You've spent your whole life building your unique knowledge base. The startup costs a laptop and wifi. Compare that to selling products or even renting an office somewhere, right? There's no long-term leases, no equipment, no shipping, no employees. It's a beautiful thing. find a service-based business where the path to profit is short. This is a key piece you guys. What would that actually look like as a service-based provider? I mentioned when I was doing the comparison, you could have five clients paying you $500 a month. Now we're talking about $2,500 a month. That's $30,000 a year for so many of the women I work with. And by the way, did you notice I didn't say a million? Did you notice I didn't say a hundred, 200, 300,000? I'm not blowing up numbers that aren't real. These are numbers that are attainable for people. You could double and work with 10 clients. you could raise your rates. This is real math. This isn't crazy things and you don't need a huge audience. You don't need a lot of contacts to be able to make something like that a reality. So I have some homework for you tomorrow. I'm gonna be talking about if you are interested in exploring this. I'm gonna be talking about. Being potentially somebody who educates, who, coaches, who consults. I'll talk to you about what that looks like. I'm kicking that off at 9:00 AM tomorrow morning. So make sure that you are here on time, because that's exactly what time we start, but before tomorrow, I think it would be great if you explore these things. Take a few minutes and oh my goodness, there's so much work to do here with all the talks that we've had. But just do a brain dump and ask yourself, get a piece of paper journal journaling. Give yourself plenty of time and space. Go through what do you love, and think about all areas like, in your home, in your extracurricular activities, in your current career, right? in your relationships. What are you good at? Go through all those things in your life. What did you love doing? And then really think about that honest thing of what will people pay you for. The next step is to gather evidence. Start looking around to see who is doing this. And I just wanna tell you what most of the time happens is women come to me and they're like, the market is saturated, it's flooded. I can't do what I thought I wanted to do. Let me tell you what my friend, I'll talk about coaching specifically. The market is so far from saturated. I always use the example, I don't know anyone down my street that works with a coach. Do you know anyone down your street? So whatever service-based business you're thinking about. I don't know anyone who works with a virtual assistant besides me. Like we could go down, I don't know anyone who has a virtual bookkeeper. I could go down all the list of things that I talked about. So the market is huge. When you go looking, you're putting your eyes out there looking for that thing. So it will feel like, huh? There are a lot of people. The good news is if you searched social media, if you Googled, if you asked chat sheeted about this and you found that there are women doing this, the good news is you could do it too. That's actually the reality of finding more people doing it. So. The third step is I want you to join me at 9:00 AM tomorrow, straight up. Don't be late. I'm gonna introduce you to what I think is one of the most underrated online businesses for women, especially women over 50. by the way, our next coach coming on who's gonna talk, she's 30. So this all applies to her, to any of you guys, if you want a side hustle, one of the things that I encourage women, if you are in a career, stay in your career. Don't leave your career. You can build any of these side hustles as you have your full-time career and do both for a little bit. Give yourself the time and space. don't walk away from your job and expect to replace it overnight. You are building a business and a foundation takes time. Okay? Give yourself the time in the space. You can do both. We have clients, honestly, in the coaching space, who work four hours a week. That's all they have on their side hustle, and they have built incredible careers. So make sure you join us for that. I do wanna tell you, you're not too old, you're also not too young, you're not too late and you're not behind. I wanna invite you to just believe that you're just on time. Tomorrow again, I'm gonna be talking about the service, that I think would be the best one for you to do. And then on Saturday, if you're considering coaching. Then I want to invite you to join myself and Tys. This is a session exclusively for coaches where we're gonna walk you through what it takes to become a coach who has a business. Like a lot of people can become coaches, but how do you actually have the business? I would encourage you to follow me on YouTube because now that I have. Really done the investigating on this online businesses. I am gonna be talking about some of these other businesses. of course my heart is with coaching. But anyone, I wanna thank you guys for being here, for bringing up this summit, for making this a magical experience for everyone.
