When most people hear the phrase “online business,” their mind jumps straight to selling Canva templates, dropshipping gadgets from Amazon, or signing up as an affiliate for some random water bottle company.
I get it – that’s what the internet has trained people to think.
But after 16 years of teaching everyday people how to build profitable digital businesses, I can tell you with absolute certainty: that is not what a real online business looks like.
I recently sat down with one of our standout champions, Lucy Wood – a former lawyer who walked away from her corporate career to launch her own agency, Swell Website Design, and build a thriving online business with her partner – to break down exactly what an online business actually is. And the two proven pathways we teach inside the eBusiness Institute.
Whether you’re a looking to escape the 9-5 or corporate grind, a tradesperson looking for leverage, or someone with zero tech background just curious about getting started with this whole earn income online thing, these 2 pathways have helped hundreds of our students make a couple thousand extra a month to running a 7-figure online business. Watch the full interview below.
Forget the Hype: What an Online Business Actually Looks Like
Here’s the truth most “gurus” won’t tell you. A real online business isn’t about chasing the next shiny object. It’s about owning a digital asset that generates income – often while you sleep, travel, or work on other things. It’s not nine-to-five. You’re not chained to a desk. And critically, you don’t need a tech background to start.
What you do need is drive and a willingness to learn. That’s it.
Lucy summed it up perfectly during our chat:
“With no prior tech knowledge – we’re not tech savvy – and AI would have overwhelmed me, but it’s these little steps and these foundations that you just build upon.”
Lucy Wood
At the eBusiness Institute, we teach two clear, proven pathways for building an online business. Both work. Both are accessible to total beginners. The right one for you simply depends on how much time and money you have to invest.
If you want to skip ahead and see exactly how we teach this step-by-step, you can explore our Digital Investors Program here – it’s the same program Lucy, John, and hundreds of others have used to completely turn their lives around.
Pathway #1: The Digital Advisor Strategy (The Fastest Path to Cashflow)
If you’re currently stuck in a job and need to start replacing your income fast, this is the pathway I recommend. It’s how we’ve helped dozens of corporate escapees go from corporate to entrepreneur in under 12 months.
How It Works
You learn the foundational skill that underpins every successful digital business: how websites work, and how to rank them in Google. Then you put that skill to use by building simple, well-optimised websites for local businesses – plumbers, electricians, hairdressers, solar installers, you name it.
Here’s how I usually tell beginners to start:
- Build your first website for free – for a family member, a friend, a local charity, or that young sparky who’s just come out to fix your power point.
- Get it ranking in Google – local sites rank fast, often within weeks.
- Use that result to attract paying clients – typically charging $2,000–$3,000 per site to start.
- Stack those wins until you’re earning $5,000, $10,000, even $20,000 per month.
This is exactly what John, a 26-year-old vet from Ireland and one of our newest champions, did. Six months into the program, he’s already hitting $20,000 months and on track for $30,000 months. In our recent 10-day website build challenge, John didn’t just submit one practice site – he submitted three paid client jobs totalling $10,000 in real revenue. In ten days. As a complete beginner.
“That’s what I call learning while you’re earning. John now has options in life. He can either go back to being a vet – which he’s not going to, because there’s no money in it compared to this – or keep building. Once you start netting $30,000 a month, you’re sitting on a million-dollar asset.”
Matt Raad
Why I Love This Pathway for Beginners
- Low risk, low capital outlay – your subscriptions are around $50–$70 a month for AI tools and hosting.
- Cash flow comes quickly – most students see income within months, not years.
- You build a real skillset – one that’s in massive demand and only getting more valuable.
- You own every dollar you earn – unlike a job where you “rent” your income.
Pathway #2: The Portfolio Strategy (Buying and Selling Digital Assets)
This is the strategy Liz and I personally built our wealth on, and it’s still our absolute favourite. But I’ll be honest with you – it takes longer to learn, and it requires capital to get started. So it’s better suited to people who have some money to invest but limited time.
How It Works
You buy existing websites – usually advertising or affiliate-based sites – improve them, and either hold them for passive income or sell them for a profit. It’s the digital equivalent of the property “fixer-upper” model, except your returns are typically much higher and your overheads are virtually zero.
The main marketplace I send beginners to is Flippa.com, where at any given moment there are over 300 websites generating more than $10,000 per month listed for sale. There are also 24+ world-leading brokers we cover in our training, ranging from micro-brokers with 10-20 listings to larger platforms with hundreds.
The Critical Skill: Due Diligence
Here’s where most people go wrong. They get excited, find a website, and buy it before they actually know how to evaluate it. Due diligence on an online business is a skill in itself – and it’s the single most powerful skill you can develop as a digital investor.
My advice? Always learn on small sites first. Buy something under $5,000–$10,000 just to learn the ropes. Treat it like a paper trader learning the share market. Make your mistakes when the stakes are low.
Once you’ve mastered the skill, the opportunities are extraordinary. Right now, because of AI disruption, the market is full of underperforming sites and “diamonds in the rough” that nobody else is even looking at. Our champions like Ashleen and Ian have picked up incredible sites on Flippa that most investors completely overlooked.
The Hybrid Strategy: Where the Magic Happens
Here’s a secret I shared with Lucy on the podcast: the two pathways aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, the most powerful online businesses we see being built today combine elements of both.
Lucy and her partner Reefe are the perfect example. They came into the program wanting to take their solar trades business online. Within months, they had completely rebuilt their bricks-and-mortar business with a high-converting digital presence. Then they layered on the digital advisor model, helping other solar businesses across Australia rank their websites through their agency, Swell Website Design. Then they built a national directory site – a portfolio asset – that generates leads passively in the solar niche.
That’s three income streams from one core skillset.
“The pathways really are interchangeable. You can do the digital agency where you help other businesses, and you can use your own knowledge on a topic to create a portfolio site that generates an income too. No matter what your background is, if you’ve got passions or connections, it’s actually quite simple to find a way in.”
Lucy Wood
Corporate to Entrepreneur: Why This Beats Every Other Side Hustle
I’ve been in business my whole adult life, originally in bricks-and-mortar. Liz and I went into heavy debt 30 years ago to build traditional businesses, and frankly, it held us back for years. That experience is exactly why we’re so passionate about teaching the online model.
With a digital business, especially the digital advisor pathway:
- There’s virtually no financial risk. If you don’t like it after a year, you can walk away with nothing lost but time.
- You’re not buying inventory like you would with e-commerce or Amazon FBA.
- You’re not tied to a physical location. Lucy and Reefe have worked on websites while travelling the East Coast.
- You build optionality. Even if you never quit your job, the side income compounds into a real asset.
For anyone making the corporate to entrepreneur leap, this is the lowest-risk, highest-leverage path I know of.
The AI Advantage: Why Beginners Have Never Had It Better
I know AI can feel overwhelming. Every week there’s a new tool, a new model, a new headline about jobs being automated. But here’s what I want you to understand: AI is the single best thing that has ever happened to beginners wanting to build an online business.
A year ago, even our successful members still needed small teams – virtual assistants, content writers, designers. Today? Many of our top performers are running multi-six-figure operations as a team of one, leveraging Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini to handle the heavy lifting.
Coach Mark and Sylvia, who used to run a team of 10, now run their digital business with a team of one plus AI. Lucy went from outsourcing content writing on Upwork to working alongside just one techie and AI tools that cost her about $50 a month.
But Won’t AI Replace Web Designers?
This is the question I get all the time. The short answer is: no.
Yes, AI can technically build a basic website. But just like Google Ads and Facebook Ads were technically “easy” 15 years ago and are now hopelessly complex for the average business owner, the modern online presence is far too involved for most tradies and small business owners to manage themselves.
A business today doesn’t just need a website. They need:
- Google rankings
- Google Maps optimisation
- Review management
- Social media presence
- AI search visibility (ChatGPT, Perplexity, etc.)
- Paid ads
- Lead generation systems
No plumber, electrician, or solar installer is going to learn and manage all of that. They want to be on the tools doing what they do best. That’s why digital advisors are more valuable than ever – and AI is the leverage that lets one person deliver enterprise-level results.
Where to Start: My Advice for People With No Experience
If you’ve read this far and you’re wondering, “Okay Matt, but where do I actually begin?” – here’s what I’d do if I were starting over today as someone exploring online business for beginners:
- Learn the foundations first. Understand how a website works, how Google ranks pages, and how to use AI as your assistant (not your replacement).
- Build your first website for free. A family member’s business, a charity, a local sports club, a friend’s side hustle. Just get the reps in.
- Land your first paid client. Even $2,000 for a website build is a massive psychological win. Your confidence will explode.
- Stack to $5,000/month, then $10,000/month. Most of our champions hit this within 12 months.
- Then start exploring the portfolio strategy. Once you have cashflow and confidence, start practicing due diligence on small Flippa sites and build out your digital asset portfolio.
This is exactly the roadmap we teach inside the Digital Investors Program, and it’s the same path Lucy, John, Mark, Sylvia, Ashlene, Ian, and hundreds of other students have walked to escape the corporate grind and build digital income and 7-figure assets.
The Bottom Line: Optionality Is the Real Prize
Here’s what I want you to take away from this conversation. Building an online business isn’t really about the website. It’s not about the SEO. It’s not even about the money – although the money is fantastic.
It’s about optionality. The ability to choose how you spend your time, who you work with, where you live, and what you do each day. John, our 26-year-old vet, now has options he never had before. Lucy, who two years ago was a burnt-out lawyer, now travels the country helping other businesses while running her own digital empire. Mark and Sylvia replaced a team of ten with a team of one and reclaimed their lives.
The world has changed dramatically in the last 18 months. AI has made these skills more accessible than ever. Businesses are more desperate than ever for genuine digital expertise. And the barriers to entry – financial risk, technical knowledge, time investment – are at an all-time low.
You don’t need to be tech savvy. You don’t need a business degree. You don’t need capital to start the digital advisor pathway. You just need the foundational skills, a willingness to learn, and the courage to take that first step.
If you’re ready to see what’s possible, I’d genuinely encourage you to start by listening to our Digital Investors Podcast and check out our free masterclass on the website. And when you’re ready to commit to building something real, come and join us inside the Digital Investors Program – that’s where the real transformation happens with structured course, coaching and community.
This is the best time in history to start an online business. are you going to be the next case study we tell on this podcast?
