If you’re a single parent, you don’t have eight free hours a day to build a business. You have nap time, lunch breaks, and whatever is left after the kids are asleep.
That’s enough. It just means you can’t waste any of it on the wrong things.
Here’s exactly how I’d start a business as a single parent, from picking the offer to running sales calls and handling the four objections.
Start where you are
With kids at home, you want a home based, online service business.
Pick a niche in health, wealth or relationships. Almost everyone wants more of those, and they pay for results.
No relevant skill yet? Learn one first. Alison.com is free. Then use DMs to reach your followers and start conversations.
Use the small gaps
Work during naps, lunch breaks and any short window you can find. It’s less efficient than a full focused day, but it adds up fast.
Look at your day on purpose and find those gaps. Then use them deliberately.
Schedule about 30 minutes a day for focused learning, and apply what you learn the same day. No aimless scrolling.
Sell a high leverage offer, and sell it first
Sell a high priced package to a few clients instead of a cheap product to many. With limited time, you need each sale to count.
One example: a single dad with several kids built a $3,000 fitness package. A couple of sales covered his rent.
Then pre sell before you build. Shark Tank is full of people who built unproven businesses, went into debt, and found no buyers.
When I started, I sold fitness programs before they existed. I told early buyers they’d get it within 72 hours, then built the nutrition and workout plans. Good enough beats waiting for perfect.
If sales don’t come, it’s either a skill issue or an offer issue. Both are fixable.
You don’t need a big following
I have about 454,000 followers, but I grew part of that with paid Instagram shoutouts, which brings in bots and fake accounts. My engagement isn’t great. Sales matter more.
Client results and testimonials build trust better than follower counts. Even 10 to 20 followers with real proof can get you clients.
How to run the sales call
- Intro and pre frame. Explain the purpose of the call and make it clear that not buying is fine. Get their agreement.
- Discovery. Ask about their goal, their struggle, what they’ve tried, past coaching and past ad spend.
- Summary. Restate their main problems and ask if they’d move forward if you could fix them. Collect yeses as you go.
- Three pillars. Give three core reasons to work with you, and contrast each with what most people do. Mine are the offer, lead generation (I call it the faucet system) and who to hire, judged on experience, specificity and attention.
- Program overview. Briefly list what’s included: coaching, office hours, reviews, group, portal, templates.
- Certainty check. Ask if it feels like a fit and if they want in. If certainty is low, don’t go to price yet.
- Close. State the price plainly. My example is $16,000 for four months.
On attention, I tell people they’ll work with my team. It’s like getting five hours with a top executive’s team instead of five minutes with the executive.
Handling the four objections
Price
Tie it down. Ask if anything besides price is stopping them, and if solving price means they’d move forward. Then ask about cash on hand today, not future income.
Set a private floor. On a $16,000 program, mine is $4,000. If they have enough, build a custom plan, like $4,000 now, $4,000 next month and the rest later. Get the commitment before you reveal any adjusted number.
This can take close rates from around 30% to 45 to 50%. It works best for service businesses, not product businesses with upfront costs.
Spouse
Ask what happens if the spouse says no. Isolate the real objection, which is usually price again. Reframe it: you’re asking for support, not permission. Would you support them in the same spot?
If they’re 51% in, offer a deposit that’s refundable within a set window if the spouse objects. Set a deadline. No answer means they’re out.
Time
“Decide” means to cut off. What future are they cutting off? Ask three questions: does working with you make the goal more likely, will you deliver, and do they have access to the funds? Three yeses means they have enough to decide. This objection mostly shows up when the sales process was weak.
Belief
Ask what the worst outcome is and what would make them comfortable. For services, use a performance guarantee with clear conditions. Frame it as pursuing the goal with low risk versus staying stuck.
The numbers to track
- DMs per day: up to 100, or as many as you can sustain.
- DM to call rate: aim for about 10%. Lower means a messaging problem.
- Close rate: at least 30%. I closed 50 to 60% when I sold fitness.
Ignore likes. For tools, a Google Doc or spreadsheet, Calendly or Acuity, and a processor like Stripe, Wave or EasyPayDirect is all you need.
The takeaway
The biggest thing holding most people back isn’t time. It’s ego and fear of looking dumb. Success means trying things that might look foolish, over and over, so you keep learning. Use the gaps, sell before you build, and send the messages.
Want to know what’s capping your business right now? Take my free 90 Day Ceiling Plan. Answer 18 questions and get a written plan, built on your own numbers, that names the one thing holding you back and what to fix first.
