If you’d told Steph Sewell two years ago that she’d own her own digital agency, she would have never believed you.
As a school teacher locked into the nine-to-five grind, the very idea of “starting a business” conjured up images of massive overheads, hiring staff, mountains of stress, and crippling debt.
That’s the picture most people carry around in their heads, especially millennials and Gen Z who’ve watched their parents struggle with traditional bricks-and-mortar enterprises.
But here’s the thing: Steph now owns a lifestyle freedom business, and she did it without a single dollar of debt, hiring a team, or any of the complexity she feared.
I recently sat down with Steph on the Digital Investors Podcast to dispel some of the biggest myths that hold talented, capable people back from ever getting started. What she shared is a masterclass in why the digital economy has completely rewritten the rules of business ownership. Watch the full interview below to hear Steph’s inspiring story in her own words.
The Myth That Keeps People Trapped in the Rat Race
Here’s something I honestly didn’t realise until Steph pointed it out: there are a lot of people out there who genuinely believe that starting a business automatically means taking on huge risk, complexity, and stress. And that belief alone is enough to keep them stuck on the treadmill, swapping time for money, year after year, with nothing to show for it at the end.
Steph put it perfectly:
“If I hadn’t found eBusiness Institute, I would have still been on that treadmill, still been in that rat race, still been swapping my time for money. And I can happily say that that is no longer how I live my life.”
Look, I’ll be straight with you. I’ve been an entrepreneur for over 30 years. I started out buying and selling bricks-and-mortar businesses — manufacturing companies, complex operations with real overheads. So I understand where that fear comes from. But what I also know, from decades of experience, is this: if you want to build real wealth in this day and age, you need a business. Look at every wealthy person you admire. They all own businesses. Businesses give you leverage that a salary simply never will.
The good news? In 2026, starting a business doesn’t have to look anything like what your parents did. It doesn’t require a shopfront, inventory, staff, or a business loan. It requires the right knowledge, a simple model, and the willingness to put in the work.
That’s exactly the approach we teach inside our Digital Investors Program, and it’s the path Steph followed to build her business from scratch. If you’re serious about learning the skills to quit corporate and start an online business — with a proven, low-risk framework — I’d encourage you to check it out.
Why Steph Chose the Digital Agency Pathway (And Why It’s Perfect for Beginners)
At eBusiness Institute, we teach two core pathways. The first is buying, renovating, and selling websites – essentially digital real estate investing. The second is what we call the digital advisory pathway, where you build websites and provide digital services for local businesses. Steph chose the second path, and it turned out to be the ideal entry point for someone starting their very first business.
Here’s why this model is so powerful for beginners:
- Zero capital outlay. Your “product” is knowledge and skill that lives in your head. You don’t need to buy inventory, lease a premises, or invest in equipment.
- Zero debt. Steph’s startup costs were literally registering a business name, buying a domain, and building her own website. That’s it.
- Zero risk. When you’re starting out, you can even do your first projects for free. If the client doesn’t like it, you delete the website, part as friends, and move on. There is no downside.
- Employee of one. You don’t need a team. You don’t need an office. You work from home, on your schedule, with your laptop.
Steph described her experience this way:
“The massive pro of starting the digital agency was that it really was just my time and the time to learn what I needed to learn. I didn’t have to have that sort of business that I had in my head around all the worry and all the stuff. I made sure that I listened to what Matt and Liz teach and became aligned with the clients that I wanted to work with.”
She also made an observation that I think is absolutely critical for anyone considering this path: building her own website was the perfect way to learn how to build websites for other people. You’re literally practising the skill on yourself first, so by the time you approach a client, you’ve already got runs on the board.
The AI Advantage To Starting an Online Busines in 2026
Now, here’s where things get really exciting. When Steph started her journey, AI was still in its early stages. Fast forward to now, and AI is a complete game-changer for anyone running a digital business.
I’m not exaggerating when I say that AI is allowing our community members to run significantly larger businesses with very few – or even zero – team members. The heavy lifting that used to require hiring writers, designers, and SEO specialists can now be handled with the right AI prompts and workflows.
Here’s what that looks like in practice for someone following our training:
- AI-powered SEO plans. You can prompt AI to generate a complete SEO strategy and ongoing content plan for any website – whether it’s a client’s local business site or a website you’ve purchased as an investment.
- Keyword research. AI handles the keyword research that used to take hours, giving you the exact terms you need to target to drive traffic and revenue.
- Full website renovation plans. AI can step you through exactly what needs to be fixed, improved, or added to a website, then write out the content for you.
- Content creation. From blog articles to service pages, AI dramatically accelerates the writing and design process.
But here’s the key insight, and Steph nailed this point:
“You can leverage AI, but you have to know how to leverage AI and you have to know the right things to say to AI or the right types of prompts to use. The education around the best way to do those things is very valuable.”
AI is only as good as the person directing it. That’s why having the right training matters so much. Knowing which prompts to use, which strategies to follow, and how to quality-check AI output is what separates people who get real results from people who just dabble.
If you’re new to AI, my strong advice is this: you would be very silly not to put aside time to learn how to use AI properly. It’s going to leverage up your life – and your business – in ways that were simply not possible even two years ago.
Business Ownership vs. the Nine-to-Five: A Realistic Comparison
One of the most important things Steph and I discussed was the real-world comparison between running a simple online business and working a traditional job. Because I know there are people listening who assume business ownership must be harder, more stressful, and more complicated than employment. Let me set the record straight.
When you run a simple, one-person digital business:
- Your schedule is yours. Steph can now take time out on a normal school day to be with her kids – something she could never do as a teacher stuck in a classroom.
- Your tax position improves dramatically. As Robert Kiyosaki taught years ago, in business you earn, you spend on legitimate business expenses, and then you pay tax on what’s left. In a job, you earn and get taxed first. This means you don’t need to earn as much in business to be in the same net financial position as you were in your job.
- You’re building an asset. Unlike a job where you work for decades and leave with nothing, a business is something you can sell. Your digital agency, your portfolio of websites – these are real, valuable assets that appreciate over time.
- Your worst-case scenario is everyone else’s best-case scenario. As Steph said so brilliantly: if it all goes wrong, she just goes back and gets another job. That’s it. The risk is almost non-existent.
“My worst-case scenario is people’s best-case scenario – and that’s that I just go back and get another job. Having these skills and having my business behind me… it’s just opened my eyes to such a different way of living my life.”
I recently heard a quote from the head of a major private equity and venture capital firm – a very big name in my industry – who said: “The worst thing you could do in this day and age is have a job.” That might sound provocative, but when you understand the leverage, tax advantages, and asset-building power of even a small online business, it starts to make a lot of sense.
Think of It Like Digital Real Estate
For those of you who are financially literate – and I suspect that’s most of our audience – think about it this way. Buying and selling simple online businesses is like a new version of real estate investing.
On the surface, buying and selling property seems complex too. But once you understand how it works – the due diligence, the renovation strategies, the valuation methods – it becomes a repeatable, learnable process. Digital business is exactly the same, with one enormous advantage that Steph was quick to point out:
“With the added bonus that I haven’t had to outlay a massive amount of money to get into real estate.”
You’re not tied to a mortgage. You’re not anchored to a physical location. You’re not carrying hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. Liz and I have always wanted a life of ease and grace, and having huge debt feels like an anchor around your neck. We’ve been there. We know what that feels like. That’s precisely why we’re so passionate about teaching people to start small, start simple, and start with models where there is genuinely no financial risk.
How to Get Started: The Simple First Steps
If you’re sitting there right now thinking, “Okay, I’m interested – but what do I actually do first?” – here’s the honest answer. It comes down to a few simple steps:
- Commit to learning the right skills. Not all digital businesses are created equal. Avoid e-commerce as a beginner (too much complexity with inventory and logistics). Focus on skill-based, service-based, or content-based online businesses.
- Start as an employee of one. Build your own website first. Learn the fundamentals of how websites work, how search engines rank content, and how businesses generate revenue online.
- Take small, zero-risk actions. Do your first project for free if you need to. Talk to local businesses. Offer value before you ask for money. Build confidence through competence.
- Learn to leverage AI. Start with one simple task – rewriting a page, drafting an article, designing a basic layout – and build from there.
- Back yourself for at least a year. This isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme. It takes work. But if you commit to the process, the upside is absolutely enormous.
The Bottom Line: It’s Never Been Easier to Quit Corporate and Start an Online Business
Steph’s story is one we see repeated over and over again inside our community. Someone who was convinced that business ownership wasn’t for them – that it was too complex, too risky, too expensive – discovers that with the right model, the right training, and the right community, it’s actually simpler than the job they left behind.
“If you’re someone who wants to continually grow and learn, this is the perfect business model and the perfect place to start. Now that my mindset has been changed around what having a business would be like, I tell everyone – I think they should all start an online business.”
Look, I know I might make it sound easy. And I’ll be the first to tell you – it’s not easy, but it is simple. There’s a difference. You do have to put in the work. You do have to invest in your education. But the barriers that used to exist – the debt, the risk, the complexity – they’re gone. Especially now with AI accelerating everything we do.
If Steph’s journey resonates with you, and you want to learn the exact skills and strategies to quit corporate, start an online business, and build real digital assets, I’d encourage you to take a serious look at our Digital Investors Program. It’s where Steph started, and it could be where your story begins too.
Back yourself. Have a crack at it. What’s the worst that can happen?
