Episode 1: The Best Online Business to Start in 2026 (Beginner Blueprint)

Looking for the links? 

📌 Free Training: Become a Booked Out Virtual Assistant 

🎯 Free Goal Planning Sheet

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Best Online Business to Start in 2026 (For Beginners)

Everyone online says starting an online business is easier than ever.

But easier to start doesn’t mean easier to succeed.

In this episode, Abbey Ashley breaks down why most online businesses in 2026 won’t make it past their first $1,000 - and reveals the one business model that’s actually working right now: digital services.

If you’ve been wondering what the best online business to start in 2026 is - especially as a beginner - this episode lays out a practical, profitable path forward.

Why Most Online Businesses Fail

Abbey shares her early entrepreneurial mistakes (including a textbook reselling hustle) and explains the three fatal flaws she sees over and over again:

• No recurring revenue
• Razor-thin margins
• Models that aren’t scalable - or enjoyable

From TikTok trends to dropshipping to one-off product sales, many popular “side hustles” simply aren’t built for long-term freedom.

The Business Model That’s Actually Working

Abbey explains why starting a virtual assistant or digital services business offers:

✔ Low startup costs
✔ High demand
✔ No audience requirement
✔ Recurring revenue potential
✔ AI-resistant positioning
✔ Scalable income options

You don’t need thousands of followers. You need a solid model.

Inside This Episode:

Abbey shares her 8-step blueprint for launching a profitable virtual assistant business in 2026 including:

• How to choose your services
• How to structure recurring revenue packages
• How to think about capacity and income
• What to set up before signing your first client
• And the marketing approach that’s actually working right now

If you’re serious about building an online business with real profit margins and long-term flexibility, this episode is your starting point.

📌 Free Training: Become a Booked Out Virtual Assistant 

🎯 Free Goal Planning Sheet

Subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode.

Transcript

 Hey, hey, you are tuned into Work From Anywhere with the Virtual Savvy, where you learn how to launch and grow your virtual assistant business because you deserve work that fits your life, not the other way around. All right, friend. Let's get started.

 Everyone online seems to be saying the same thing, that starting an online business is easier than ever. And sure, with AI templates and side hustle gurus everywhere giving you advice, it is easier to start. But easier to start doesn't mean easier to succeed. The harsh reality is that most online businesses launching in 2026 won't even make it past their first thousand dollars, and it's not because people aren't working hard, it's because they're chasing the wrong model.

I'm Abbey Ashley, and I've spent the last decade helping my community of 140,000 freelancers launch and grow their own businesses, many to six and seven figures. That means I know what's working right now. So here's a plan for today. . First, we're gonna take a look at why most businesses fail in 2026.

Then I'll reveal the one model that's actually working and show you my eight step blueprint. To starting a business that's profitable from day one. First, let's take a look at why most businesses fail and don't even make it past that first thousand dollars. I'll start with a story of my own journey.

When I first started a business, I had no idea what I was doing, and I had seen a blog saying that people could buy and resell textbooks online. So I scoured the internet and lo and behold, I found a textbook online that was $10 that I could buy, have shipped my house, and then sell it for $20 at a buyback online site.

Oh my goodness. Instant profit, right? So I did it. I had the book shipped to my house, and then I went, exchanged at the post office and I saw the $20 in my bank. At first. This was exciting. It was a rush. I had actually made money. But once the business started to pick up AKA, I found more books online that I could resell.

I started realizing a few things that were very flawed in this model. First, there was no reoccurring revenue model. Essentially. Every time I wanted to make money, I had to buy a book and resell it online, and I just had to keep doing that action every single time. And just making one sell at a time.

There wasn't anything where I make the sale once and keep making money. Later., I will share with you why reoccurring revenue is one of the most important parts of a business, but for now, just know this model did not have it. Additionally, my profits were razor thin when you took into consideration the expense of the book, the gas that I needed in order to go back and forth to the post office.

The shipping of shipping the books to these places, it really just didn't end up a whole lot of money at the end of the day. And because of those razor thin margins, it wasn't scalable. A scalable model means that I could have built the business beyond myself and maybe hired other people, so I'm not the one grinding in it day after day.

And it really just wasn't possible with that model. And the third reason it failed is because, frankly, I hated it. I was pregnant at the time and had a 2-year-old, and let me tell you, it is not fun hauling a hundred pounds of books on my shoulder every single day, rain, shine, or Snow with a two year-old in tow.

No thank you. And so many of the businesses that I see people touting of, here's how to make money quick. Have these same essential flaws. I can't tell you how many people have told me to start a TikTok shop because they made $2 selling a pair of jeans online, right? Again, not super scalable, not high profit margins, and I wouldn't enjoy doing that.

You look at starting a restaurant or a drop shipping business either, and the profit margins again are just so, so low. I have a lot of friends who sell things on Etsy, but very few of them are making. Awesome money because again, it's just one-time sales. There's no reoccurring revenue model. After 10 years of working with entrepreneurs, I can tell you the ones that are most successful aren't pursuing these fly by night TikTok trends. The reason I'm creating this is because I've been so frustrated seeing so many people give up on entrepreneurial dreams because they think they're a failure when in actuality they're just pursuing a bad business model. So let's talk about a business model that's creating a real income and real freedom for real people.

Starting from day one, the model that's working now, our digital. Services. In fact, don't just take my word from it. A few years ago I heard Kevin O'Leary. Yes, the shark himself. Release this video, check it out. 

If I have to start a side hustle right now to make extra money, I would go into the online digital assistant business.

Whenever I saw this video, I thought, yes, somebody else gets it. See, I've been training people to start their own virtual assistant business since 2016. Now many of my VAs don't just stay VAs. They may become Pinterest managers or they may become YouTube editors, or they may run full-blown agencies that have a variety of services.

But most of them start off as general virtual assistants. So whether you start off as a general VA or you have a different freelancing niche that you have in mind, let me explain to you why these digital service businesses are the best ones to start in 2026. Reason number one is the low barrier to entry.

Literally, you can start a virtual assistant business. With internet and a reliable laptop, that means you don't have to have a certification. That means that you don't have to have thousands of dollars in startup inventory. You literally can start with the skills you already possess and you can start marketing to people you know who are small business owners.

Number two is that there is no audience required. In fact, at no point in running a digital services or virtual assistant business. Do you ever have to grow a massive following, and here's why. Most virtual assistants can replace their income with just four clients. You heard me four. That means you don't need tens or hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok or Instagram.

You don't need thousands of people coming to your Etsy store of your month. You need. Four people to say yes. Number three is because virtual assistant services are in high demand. Coaches, online course creators, small businesses, mom and pop stores, all are hiring virtual assistants to help them with their small business tasks.

Number four, I believe that virtual assistants is AI proof, and here is why people think, oh, AI is going to replace virtual assistants, and that is not true. We still need a human element. To so many parts of our business. It's not that AI is going to replace virtual assistants. It's that virtual assistants who are using AI in their business and to help their clients are going to replace the ones who are not.

And lastly, and probably my favorite reason is that it is such a scalable model. See, a virtual assistant business can run on very high profit margins. You don't have cost of goods. You literally are selling a service. So it may be. That you are selling that service and you are a solopreneur. It may be that you turn this into an agency and you're paying your subcontractors 20, 30, 40% of the money that comes in, but then you're left with the remaining, right?

And this is how so many of our virtual assistants have scaled their businesses to six and even seven figures if they choose to do so. And I emphasize that if they choose to do so, because I also wanna point out. That if you decide that, man, I'd love just to make a few thousand dollars as a side hustle while I homeschool my kids, that's great too.

That's one of the other things I love about this digital services or virtual assistant business, is that literally it can grow with you in your seasons of life. It can be as small as you want it to be or as big as you want it to be. This was Sadie's story. She joined my program in 2018. Was able to quit her job just three months later and started her own VA agency helping women entrepreneurs.

In that time, she was even able to take a three month paid maternity leave and her business kept running while she snuggled her newborn. Kaylee literally stumbled on the virtual savvy and had no idea this path even existed. A year later, she was running her own va. An online business manager agency working with dream clients and says she's living her best life.

Lynette left a 15 year corporate career to start her virtual assistant business, and within a year she was fully booked. Now she's expanded into operations and says that joining the program was the best first decision she ever made. So we know that the digital services industry is the industry to be in for 2026, but the way you go about it is vitally important.

'cause honestly, you could get this wrong. So let's go into my step-by-step blueprint of how I would start a digital services or virtual assistant. Business in 2026. If I was starting all over, get ready to take notes because this is my exact blueprint, what I am teaching my students right now because it is working.

There are eight steps to this plan, and step number one is to choose your services. Now, I mentioned that most of my virtual assistants start off with what we call general admin. Those are things like answering emails, data entry, scheduling social media posts, doing customer inquiries, or managing a group, maybe doing research or travel booking for a client.

All of these services are considered general admin services, and these are great to start out with because so many small business owners just need that load lifted off their plate. This is how I tell 90% of my VAs to start. It's to start with these general admin services, however. Maybe you're the 10% that is coming in with a really high value skill.

Maybe you know how to build Squarespace websites or you know how to build a sales funnel. By all means, you can come into your digital services agency with that high-end specialty or potentially with a niche, right? I tell most of my VAs to start out. Very general small business owners are your niche, but you may say, I have 20 years in the real estate industry.

Please start a real estate VA agency if that is the case. However, choosing your services doesn't have to be complicated. You can literally just start with those general admin skills. Step number two is to set your rates and your packages. I tell most of my beginner virtual assistants to start off with hourly packages now.

Why would I say that? The thing is, is that when you're first starting out, you don't know how long something is going to take you, right? So while I love seeing people eventually have a Pinterest management package that they charge $800 a month for, and as they get faster, they're not penalized because they are making the same amount of money, whether it takes them 10 hours or two hours, right?

So that is an awesome way to eventually go, but at the beginning, again, we don't know how long things will take, and so hourly packages are great. Your packages can be simple. They can look something like this. Package one, which is $300 a month. That means that the small business owner is gonna get 10 hours of virtual assistant services every month.

This is a rate of $30 an hour. Now this could easily also be 40 or $45 an hour. Your first package would simply be 400 or $450 a month. In this case, 20 hours of VA work is 600 a month, and 40 hours is 1200 a month. That means that someone choosing that $1,200 package is getting 10 hours per week of virtual assistant services from you, and that is the value you're giving to the small business owner.

And you'll note this is a reoccurring revenue model. One of the key important things that you need to have for a successful online business in 2026. Step number three is to determine your working hours. How much do you actually want to work per week? Now this can give you a clue to what your packages should look like as well.

If you have a 10 hour per week package, but you can only work 20 hours per week, you know that you can sell two of your largest package. So this is really going to help you know what your financial capacity is if you stay a solopreneur. And of course, if you wanna make more money than that capacity, you can niche down and you could have a higher end service where you could charge more.

Or you can consider building a team like an agency. Step number four is to choose your business name. And guys, so many of us complicate this process. So my biggest piece of advice here is to choose action over perfection. I was able to build a six figure agency from my basement apartment with the name Ashley Assistance.

Yes, it's just my last name with the word assistance attached to it. It really doesn't matter in the long run as much as you think it does. You can always change it down the line. Don't go and print 10,000 business cards or anything like that. Just go ahead, say By this Friday, end of day, whatever I come up with.

That's gonna be my business name and keep moving forward. Now, you will wanna make sure that that name is not trademarked, that you do have a domain that you can buy pretty inexpensively because again, we're looking for low, low startup fees for this type of business. So make sure that you have those T's crossed and i's dotted, but after that, choose that name and keep moving forward.

Number five is to set up your onboarding system.

What is an onboarding system? Well. Before you go out and start selling your packages, you need to know what's gonna happen. When a client says, yes, I wanna hire you. Right? How are they going to pay you? Are they going to need to sign a contract? Spoiler? Yes, please have them sign a contract. What does it look like to actually onboard the client?

Usually you'll start off with a kickoff call, which is a, this is how I work call, right? This is. Correspondence is gonna look like. Would you like them to text you or email you or Slack you with new projects? You maybe set up a project management software like Asana or Monday or Clickup or Trello. If all of this is gibberish, don't worry.

We will cover it in future . You're gonna get access to any passwords or software inside of that kickoff call that you'll need in order to do their tasks. This is vitally important that you know what this call is gonna look like before you start signing clients. Step number six is to get legal.

What is it gonna take to actually run a business from your home in the state, city, county that you live in? The best thing you can do here is to check out your local Chamber of commerce. Give them a call, see what is actually needed in your area. Are there any special licenses that you need to get? In addition, you wanna have their contract set up and you need to decide if you're gonna set up an LLC right away or not.

Step number seven is to set some goals. I love the quote, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. And that is the case here too, right? If you don't set goals, then you're just wondering aimlessly. In fact, I have a free goal sheet that you can just steal. You can go to the virtual savvy.com/goals. It's yours for free, no opt-in required.

That's how much I want you to create some goals, okay? And you may not know what your business is gonna look like 12 months from now. That's okay. Just go ahead and make some goals and start attempting, I promise. You will go further if you have goals than if you don't. All right, so it may look like I'm going to complete a course within my first month, and then by month two I'm gonna start marketing.

By month three, I'll get my first client. Month four, my second month, five, I'm gonna be ambitious and sign two more clients, right? I'm gonna get my first subcontractor in six months. Just go ahead and set those goals so you have some direction in your business of where you're headed. Alright? And then step number eight is to start marketing.

My very favorite step, here's the thing, guys, just like any business, you can't just sit passively buy and expect that clients are gonna come to you. The number one key to marketing your business is relationships. And that might sound scary. I mean, let's be honest. It's harder to make friends as an adult, right?

So there are some really, really great ways that you can go about doing this. There are templates that you can follow. There are methods that are working in the industry right now. And so I wanna do this for you. I have a free training. That tells you all the things you need to know about how to market your small business.

It's called Become a Booked Out Virtual Assistant, and you can access it with this link in the show notes below. I'm gonna share with you inside of it my three favorite ways to find clients. These are the methods that are working in 2026. Make sure you check 'em out. You probably clicked on this wondering what the best business was to start in 2026 and hoping that there was some secret or shortcut.

But the reality is, is that the secret, the shortcut is just in a good. Business model, but now you know it's not about following trends or funnels or followers. It's about a good, solid business model, one with reoccurring revenue, one that is scalable and that you actually enjoy. If you enjoy this , make sure that you share it with a friend if it's something that they need to hear, guys. I am so passionate about this business because it really, really does help people, and I've seen the transformation that people have had in their lives when they simply step out and take a chance on themselves.

Alright, that's it for today. I'll see you in the next episode.