Becoming a mom is an exciting time unless you're faced with leaving your child at daycare to go to a job. Many mothers look for a way to work-at-home, allowing them to have the best of both worlds; raising the children while also contributing to the family income. Unfortunately, finding work-at-home jobs, can be a challenge. Many are scams, but even when you find the legitimate jobs, getting hired is a long and frustrating process.
Plus, some aren't very flexible and still require daycare.
For that reason, many moms seek a freelance or home-based business opportunitythey can start ASAP. The challenges in starting a home-based business with children are many including, in order to be present for the children, you need a home-based career that offers a flexible schedule. Also, once you find that opportunity, a great deal of time and effort needs to be put into find clients and customers.
The good news is that with organization and planning, these home business ideas may provide you with an alternative to finding a work from home job.
While both men and women can and do take advantage of these home-based business opportunities, this collection of ten home business ideas is especially suitable for moms and moms-to-be who want to spend more time at home. If you don't see anything on this list that spurs your interest, check out the full collection of home business ideas listed here at The Balance.
NOTE: The businesses profiled are only intended to stimulate thinking and give readers ideas of possible businesses they might like to operate.
1. Licensed Day Care Center Operator
One of the easiest ways to incorporate motherhood into making money is by offering childcare. Not only can you care for your own children, but for other children as well.
While you don't necessarily need to be licensed, getting a license can increase your appeal to parents, which, in turn, can lead to your charging more. Further, some states have food programs whereby you can get additional funds to help feed the children in your care.
2. Pet Services Business
Along with children, pets are important members of the family. As such, there is a growing need for pet-related products and services, including pet sitting, doggy daycare, pet grooming, dog walking and other pet-related services. If your children are old enough, they can help you with many of the tasks involved in running a pet-related service, such as walking or feeding dogs.
3. Selling Homemade Baked Goods
If you're a mom with a culinary flair, why not get paid for it? You can focus on a specific type of baked goods, such as a cookie business, or offer a variety of baked yum yums. In line with that, you might also consider offering your services as a personal chef, as did Giada De Laurentiis of Food Network did before she became a TV sensation. Or you can become a home-based caterer. Don't want to bake? Consider starting a food blog to share your recipes and other food wisdom.
4. Tutor/Instructor
It used to be, you had to go to the schools or homes of students, or they had to come to your home for tutoring, however, with video conferencing, you can help students from anywhere around the world.
You can provide academic tutoring, or teach English to students from foreign countries. You can also provide other instruction such as music (i.e. piano instructor).
5. Direct Sales
Many moms avoid direct sales, also referred to as MLM or network marketing, out of fear of pyramid schemes or having to "sell." On the first point, while you need to research to find legitimate opportunities, direct sales is such a viable option, that you don't want the myths and misconceptions to keep you from considering it. Second, anything you do to make money requires "selling," whether it's selling yourself to an employer, getting someone to hire you as a freelancer, enticing customers to buy your products, etc. The key to success in direct sales is to choose a product or service you can get behind from a reputable company, and then do the work to make money.
6. Art/Crafts
If you're artistic, there are many opportunities to make money from home. At one time, you had to consign or go to craft fairs to sell your goods, but now with resources such as Etsy, you can build an online store to sell you items. The ideas in this category are endless and include making and selling jewelry, gift baskets, painting and more.
7. Blogging
You'd have to be living under a rock not to know about the success many moms have had in making money blogging. That's the good news. The bad news is that the market for any blog, mom-related or not, is crowded. Successful blogging requires picking a niche and focusing on reaching the target market for that topic. There are many ways to make money from blogging, including affiliate marketing, advertising (i.e. Adsense), creating a selling information products and more.
8. Freelance Writing
Although income from writing has decreased with the growth of the Internet, it is possible to make a living using words. Websites and online magazines need content, and many are willing to pay to get it. Of all the freelance writing options, copywriting is probably the most lucrative, but other types of writing include articles, resumes and more.
9. Web Designer
It's become easier and more affordable for DIYers to build and maintain their own websites, but that doesn't mean there isn't a need for web designers. To make yourself the most marketable, you should have an understanding of coding, but also, learn the major online platforms, such as WordPress, as well as programming so you can build sites that do what clients need (i.e. with shopping carts). While you don't need to know everything, you should know the major scripts and plugins that will help you build websites your clients need.
10. Microwork
Starting a virtual assistant business can be ideal for moms unless your clients demand a lot of time during specific hours. An alternative is microwork, in which provide many of the same services that VAs do, such as transcription, writing, research, etc, but your time is more flexible. In microwork, you take on time-limited projects, and when they're done, you're done. This allows you to get work when you want it, and not have to work when you'd rather be taking care of the kids.
Bonus: Side Hustles
Not all moms are looking for full-time income. The truth is, two working parents households are expensive to run, and often, having one parent stay home can save money and be the more affordable option. In these cases, many moms just want some extra income to fill in the gaps or for mad money. Fortunately, there are many great, flexible side hustle income ideas that moms can run. Many can involve freelancing to a former employer or turning a hobby into a home business.
