10 Ways to Make Money as a Stay at Home Mom
Being a homemaker no longer means making no income. With most families operating on two incomes, many moms feel pressure to generate income while taking care of the children. If you’re on maternity leave for your first child, you might not want to go back to the office.
The best result is to replace your income while spending time working from home with the child you love. As a stay-at-home father, I can’t imagine working from an office again. I love being around my kids all day.
You don’t have to choose between taking care of your family and providing for them financially. In this article, we’ll cover ten business opportunities and side hustles for stay at home moms. These are jobs you can work while the older kids are at soccer practice or the new baby is finally down for a nap.
Despite what we sometimes here in the media, stay at home moms are the backbone of our society and I certainly appreciate that my mom was always at home for me when I Was growing up. It’s a lot of work to keep the house running, take care of the kids, prepare every meal and even host parties.
Juggling all these different responsibilities while earning extra income is not easy. Since it’s not always feasible for both parents to work a 9 to 5 outside the home, remote working is the best solution, as it allows you work your own hours.
With the advent of the Internet and high-speed international communication, it has become easier than ever to make money while staying home.
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If you’re visiting my site for the first time, you’re probably a stay at home mom yourself thinking about work from home opportunities. I’m really excited
Do You Need to Make Money as a Stay at Home Mom?
There are loads of reasons why you might need anything from an extra hundred dollars a month to enough money to retire your husband. Knowing how much money you need to earn will help you select the right digital career path. Each of us has a unique family situation with different hours available to work and different income needs.
You might just need a little buffer for emergencies. My family had to dip into ours a few weeks ago when our one-year-old daughter needed to go to the hospital and they would only take cash in an envelope. So I understand wanted to refill that buffer.
Life is full of surprises from minor house repairs to medical surprises to a friend needing a little help during a rough patch. I want you to be in a financial position to make these decisions without worry.
Life seems to get more expensive every day and it’s tough to make ends meet. You might just want to help the family by adding a second income stream or your husband might fall ill and suddenly be unable to work. It’s great that you want to be in a position to support the family when you’re needed.
If a single income is enough for the family’s expenses, the additional income can fund your family vacations or aid in extracurricular activities for the family.
There are a lot of ways to make money online and the challenge these days isn’t finding opportunities, it’s selecting the right one from a large list of options. There are business models that pay you by the hour, but the completed project and when you generate a sale. Take a look at each opportunity to see which is the right one for you.
More than a few times I’ve generated extra income working as a freelance writer. Freelance writers can easily break the $100 per hour barrier and I now charge $40,000 to ghostwrite a book. I’ve come a long way from charging $800 for the same sized project a decade ago.
Just How Much Money Can I Make?
Let’s keep it simple. The starting salary for a United States-based virtual assistant. is $20.25 according to Indeed. That’s just over $61,000 per year working full-time. And the beauty of this role is that you can work for multiple clients and work your own hours.
This is just a starting point as I personally know virtual assistants who have cracked six figures working from hom. This is just one of the side hustles for moms we’ll cover in this article. But if you’re making the same as most high school teachers is it still a side hustle?
Some of the jobs we’ll cover in this article start out lower and some start out a little higher. All of them have one thing in common; you control your income. As a tutor, you can tell clients the price and they will either pay it or not. I’ve been paid over $100 per hour as a tutor, when the client was a Fortune 500 company.
Once you start building your online business, it’s simply a matter of how much work you want to put in and what income you want. These are all flexible jobs, which allow you to choose when and how often you work. You’re in control of your financial destiny.
What To Expect Working from Home
The first and foremost thing is that you need to learn always to expect the unexpected. Even if you plan ahead of time, there will always be days when nothing will go according to plan. Your babysitter might call in sick, or the perfect day for a family outing will become dark and rainy.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been diverted from work because my kids need me. The more attention your kids need, the more flexibility you’ll need to build into your job. A few years ago I was doing live presentations all the time, but with my kids coming up with more surprises I pivoted into a business model with less real-time communication with my customers.
Here are a few steps that can help you to succeed and make more money from home.
Choose Your Working Location
I’me a huge believer in the power of consistency. I have setup my work computer in a very particular way that matches how I work. Everything on my desk has a purpose and it’s the one thing in the house the kids aren’t allowed to touch. Everything else is fair game, but the desk is for work only.
I don’t play games or use my desk for entertainment. Anything that I use for work is isolated from the other parts of my life to maintain a strict line between home and work. With a traditional job, the location is the barrier. You work when you’re at the office.
That barrier is gone now, so we need to find another way to recreate it.
Having a location you only use for work, will help you flip your mind into “work mode” when you sit down.
Create a Start of Work Ritual
Every time you start working, there should be a process that you go through to get into the working state of mind. I only check my email at the start of my work session and then I close my email until tomorrow.
I have a little notecard that I use to write down the tasks that I want to accomplish today. Each day I write a new card with a new list of tasks.
When I’m writing a book, I have a different and more involved process to get me into my writing flow. Your ritual can be as long or as short as you need to really activate the “I’m at work” mental state.
Focus on One Business Model
Whether you are looking to generate a little side income working a few hours a week or you need a full time income, you need to only select one business mode from the list in this article.
The number one killer in this industry is indecisiveness. There are a lot of names for it, but trying ten ideas in ten days never works. You need to find the one business model that resonates with you and stick with it until it works.
The challenge is that most online business models work so they opportunity and sales materials are always so appealing. Choose your path and stick with it.
Bad Stuff Happens
Busy moms are busy for a reason. One of my kids comes into my office at least five times a day crying. It doesn’t matter what I’m working on or if I’m recording a live video interview streaming to thousand of people, my kids don’t care. If they want attention, they will blast in here.
By accepting this, I can adapt. I have a special program on my computer that blocks the sounds of my children from creeping into the audio. It only transmits my voice when I’m working, so that if my kids come in here with an emergency my customers don’t get distracted.
Last week I had to stop working to bring cash to the hospital for my daughter.
Stuff is going to happen, so build that into your expectations. This will save you from getting frustrated down the line.
How can stay at home mums make money?
Before starting your new work-from-home career, we need to assess your current situation. Not every job is right for every person. You can make a lot of money in phone sales, but if phone calls are not an option that doesn’t matter. If you can’t work the hours when customers are awake, that career also won’t work.
How much time can you invest?
Are you able to work consistent hours or do you need a completely flexible schedule. If you need to work different hours every day, then we’ll need to find a job that allows that.
Some remote work or work-from-home jobs require you to be online for a set number of hours. If these hours aren’t flexible or suitable for your schedule, then they aren’t right for you. I like working my own schedule so I get where you are coming from.
How much money can you invest?
Some jobs will require you to go through training in order to get started. I normally encourage people to make money before investing in any courses. I cover multiple ways to make money before spending money in my bestseller Fire Your Boss, which you can get absolutely free.
There are some careers where this is not an option. If you want to be a real estate agent, you maybe have to take a course and pass a test in your state. For some jobs, you need particular equipment. Can’t work as a photographer without a camera.
What are your skills?
With each these jobs honestly assess your current skill level. If you’re already good at something, you can leverage that into more revenue faster. Native English speakers are paid more than non-native speakers in the writing space. As a native-speaker, you can make more money because you possess this skill.
What are your qualifications?
Some of these careers care about your qualifications. You might need a license to work in real estate where you live. Tutors with a PhD are paid more than tutors with an MA. So your qualifications may matter. Fortunately, qualifications matter very little when working from hom.
When you’re fresh out of college, you think having a bachelor’s degree is the most important thing in the world. I can honestly tell you I don’t know if a single of one my employees, past or present ever went to college. I’ve never asked.
When I hire someone online, I only care if they can do the job. If I help you find a great work-from-home job that lets you spend all the time you want with your kids, do you really care where I went to college?
10 best ways to make money as a stay at home mom
Become a Virtual Assistant
The virtual assistant market is currently booming and this is one of the easiest business models to launch. You can work full-time remotely for a company, or you can operate as an independent contractor with multiple clients.
As a virtual assistant, your duties will vary so it’s important to clarify with each client exactly what they need from you. You could be running the social media accounts for an entrepreneur or managing the travel schedule for a small sales team. Virtual assistants tend to get the jack-of-all-trades treatment and that means each employer has different expectations.
Some virtual assistants take phone calls just like an assistant in a real office and others never interact with anyone other than their boss. You might be handling customer support or running human resources for your client. The beauty of this business model is that you control your job description.
This is the perfect job if you want to control your own hours and don’t mind a little data entry work. This is one of the best flexible jobs because most employers and clients will assess your work by how many tasks were completed each week, rather than by which hours you completed them during.
This type of remote job is ideal for those who like working a desk job. If you have the time for a bit of unwinding, you can work on your computer.
If you have some experience in clerical work or know basic computer programs, it is a plus point. The only requirement is that you will need a particular set of hours free from any distractions and a workspace that will keep you productive throughout your working hours.
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Become a seller
Building a successful business selling things online is never going to disappear and it’s a great way to earn some extra money. You can start by selling off stuff around the house that nobody uses anymore, but the real business is in arbitrage. The simplest way to explain this is buying something from a thrift store and selling it for more on ebay.
There are a lot of places you can resell items now, including Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay and Amazon. Amazon now has an app you can use to scan barcodes to see if something is selling for more online.
If this business model interests you, I encourage you to check out this training from my friend look on how lucrative buying and selling used books can be.
You don’t have to spend all your time visiting thrift stores to find items to sell, but sometimes there are some serious treasures just waiting to be found.
Selling online covers more than just products you find at garage sales. You can sell artwork on Etsy and even create your own online courses. Most and more people are shopping online and the sky is the limit.
Become a storage host:
If you have a home with some empty you can utilize for storage, you can rent them out for those who need the space for storing items. First, survey your home and determine how much space you have that can be devoted to storage. This is a great way to earn some easy money while staying home. A plus point is that since you will be home most days, your clients will feel safe knowing that their things are under a watchful eye.
Clients will pay more money because you’re at home all day in your own home.
If you have an unused bedroom or extra basement space, you can clear out the rooms, perhaps even hold a garage sale for the things you find while cleaning out the home. You can quickly put up your storage space vacancy online and look for renters who might need the space to store their things.
Most people think they only way to make money from their home is to rent out living space or a spare bedroom to tenants, but you can rent out space to their stuff instead.
I’m actually in this situation right now. I have a bunch of surfboards that I want to keep closer to the beach. I have to walk down almost 500 meters of stairs to get to the beach from my house, so I’m looking for someone who I can pay to keep my surfboards in there garage.
Pictures speak a thousand words. So make sure that your storage space is clean, take a lot of pictures and share them across different online platforms. Typically, potential renters want the extra storage space to keep their rarely used unused items such as cars, furniture, home appliances or even bikes that are not in use at the moment. The more space you have, the more renters you’ll get.
Become a tutor:
If you have a knack for teaching, you can start a tutoring practice from home. The more experience you have the higher your starting salary, but if you’re good you will grow clients via word of mouth.
You can start your tutoring program and advertise them on local papers, or you can join a professional tutoring company where they will give you a tutoring schedule to practice. This option is much more convenient for those moms who don’t have the time to advertise and attract their customers.
If you have a spare room in your house, you can take physical tutoring classes or opt for an online tutoring program where the students will enroll for video-audio tutoring.
You would be amazed at how big this market actually is. I worked for many years tutoring on the side and most people would much rather work with a single person than an agency. While this isn’t passive income, it is reliable income.
Become a Blogger:
You don’t need to live an active and lavish life to become a blogger. As long as you have a story to tell or have a knack for writing and creating content, you can become a blogger. This is a job the requires minimal effort to get started. Just commit to writing one blog post a week to get started. (that’s how I started)
You can blog about basically anything under the sun. You can start a blog based on that if you are good at sewing. Perhaps you can share some tips or share your journey as a self-employed tailor. Likewise, if you are interested in cooking, you can blog about recipes and share your kitchen journey with your audience.
If you feel that you have nothing of the sort to offer, don’t worry, you can become a blogger by writing about being a stay at home mom. Yes, you can write about anything you want! This profession only requires a computer and some storytelling skills to keep your readers engaged in your work.
You can either blog for yourself or for clients and the pay can range from 1 penny to 1 dollar a word. Which means if someone else wrote this article for me they could have made almost $500 at the top end. If you have the ability to optimize an article for SEO, add images and format the post you can charge even more.
There are way more companies looking for content than there are writers right now, so this is a wide open market with room for more stay at home moms who want to be independent contractors.
If you don’t want to work under someone, you can start a blog on your own website from home and keep up the consistency until monetizing them. If you really like blogging, the best path is to make active money writing posts for clients while you build up passive revenue streams with your own blog.
Become a photographer:
All you really need to start is a good camera. There are a lot of ways to generate revenue from taking pictures of products to stores to weddings to items you’ll list on ebay. The limit here is mostly in your creativity.
If you enjoy seeing the world through a lens, this is a really fun business model. I know a few people who are taking wedding photos with drones and having a lot of fun while making the money they need.
You can start by practicing taking pictures from your phone and working your way up to a good-quality camera.
Just by setting up a website and posting across all your social channels you’ll start to get inquiries. You might have to start out at a lower rate, but once you build up your portfolio you can start doubling your prices with each new client.
A good photographer needs to have a good eye, so practice your skills and take pictures for your social media accounts. Post them on your pages so that people can see your work and perhaps even give you some constructive criticism. You can also take photography courses online to learn more tips and tricks about the profession.
Become a social media manager
This position is basically a specialized virtual assistant. It’s one of the easiest business models because you spend all day hanging out on social media and getting paid for it. As an employer, I can tell you that it’s really hard to find people who can handle this position.
You have to keep track of content via spreadsheets and project management software, so you need to be organized. You have to post at the right times for each channel and you have to come up with creative content. This is a bit of a full spectrum job, but notice that you never need to leave the house.
Most social content can be posted using scheduling apps and as long as the content goes out at the right times, you’re clients will never contact you. As you build up your skills, you can grow your own social channels and generate your own passive revenue streams.
Proofreading and editing content:
I’ve made more money freelance writing than doing anything else active. You don’t need any qualifications or experience. When you meet with a potential client, it’s always a yes-no decision. They will look at your price and read your sample article. These are the only two factors that go into making a hiring decision.
They don’t care if that’s the first article you’ve ever written. As a pretty expensive ghostwriter, I can tell you that most clients don’t even read your samples. They certainly never read mine.
There are some really easy ways to become a better writer while working less.
- Use a proofreading tool like Grammarly or ProWritingAid
- Use an AI generator to create rough drafts, such as Jasper (yes I use it)
- Optimize your articles for SEO using Surfer
I really use all three of these tools on all of my articles and writers who use them can charge at least a 20% premium for the exact same content. And it’s usually less work for them.
If you prefer a stricture to grammar over writing your own content, you can do well as an editor. There are different types of editors who specialize in fixing grammar, story issues, formatting or continuity. Find your specialty, setup a website and let people know.
You can use the same tools to edit the articles and books that come your way. I’ve seen a LOT of editors who charge more than writers.
If you’re a real stickler for grammar rules, then this could be your dream job. These jobs usually pay per word and per pass. So you get paid each time you re-edit the same book. For books, expect to get paid for at least two passes.
Start a baby gear rental service:
We have four kids and boy do I know that babies need a LOT of stuff. The strange part is that you buy all this stuff that becomes worthless a few months later. Unless, you see them as an asset. Instead of giving baby clothes to a neighbor, start your own baby gear rental service.
This is a pretty creative business model and you can really help new mom’s lower their stress levels buy providing a bundle of everything their going to need all in one place. You’ll save them a ton of money and they won’t have a house full of useless baby stuff when they no longer need it.
Rent your car:
If you have a spare vehicle that is just lying around in your garage and gathering dust, you can use this to earn some extra cash. You don’t need to site behind the wheel to make money from your car anymore. There are quite a few different platforms that will allow you to rent out your car on days taht you’re not using it.
Look for an online marketplace that meets your needs. I’ve heard very good things about Tura. Now you can make full time money without a full time job.
You will have to deal with any maintenance issues, such as flat tires, but most of the hassle is covered by the app. They handle the insurance, access to reputable mechanics and finding the customers for you.
The Sky is the Limit
I limited myself to just ten jobs to keep this article from turning into a book but there really are so many ways to work from home that I cover in many other blog posts. I tried to cover real business models that you can do for a long time, rather than side hustles that are little more than gigs. I know that you can make some money as a mystery shopper or filling our surveys, but I’m not so sure you will be able to make money doing them ten years from now.
You can be a customer service rep, start your own grocery delivery service or create an online course. Each of these is a great stay at home mom job. Making money is only as difficult as your imagination.
There are loads of job sites and some of them even have a mom jobs category. There are a lot of opportunities, but I’m a pretty big believer in being your own boss. That’s why I like to talk about your client rather than your employer. You can work from home and make good money with these stay at home mom jobs. You can balance between growing your revenue and free time.
You’re in control of your future and being a stay at home mom is not a limitation, it’s an opportunity.
Ready to make your first $1,000 online? You can do it in less than 30 days with my absolutely free guide "Make Your First 1K This Month" Click here to get the guide.