When you’ve had a child, there’s always that difficult decision whether to return to work or become a stay-at-home mother. For some that decision is made for them due to financial reasons. But whether you need to work or just want some extra family income, there is a compromise that will let you make money and still spend time at home as a mother.
10 Online Business Ideas for Home Mothers
Mainly thanks to the internet, there are many opportunities to work from home. Your employer may even have a remote working policy. Here are 10 top business ideas for stay-at-home-mothers …
1. Child Care
A logical option for the natural mothers out there is to make money looking after other children alongside your own. This can be done informally among your friend circle, but if you want to run a proper day-care business, you will need to get a license and jump through a few hoops to make sure you are fit for the role.
However, you are still permitted to do it all from your own home and there are very few start-up costs.
2. Event Planning
Are you orderly and conscientious? Are you usually the one in charge when it comes to arranging and organizing things with family and friends? Then you might consider a career in event planning – which can be done from home.
Depending on your personal interests you could plan anything from weddings and birthdays to corporate and charity events.
Read: How to Start Event Management Business?
3. Blogging
While very few people make a full-time living blogging, it can become a nice side income for those that truly love writing and are dedicated to posting regularly. Blogs can be monetized in several ways, including displaying ads alongside the content, charging for guest advertorial posts, and getting paid to review products related to your niche.
4. Vlogging
Vlogging is the video version of blogging but is also a term that can refer to anyone that regularly creates any type of video content (on YouTube for example). Like blogging, the majority of people don’t become YouTube stars and earn a living, but with a bit of dedication you can certainly make some side money.
Video content can be monetized with ads, you can promote products directly within the videos themselves (including unboxings), and an increasingly popular method is to take donations via Patreon from loyal viewers.
5. Virtual Assistant
Just like a traditional assistant, a virtual assistant helps a professional with their day to day tasks but online. This might include answering Skype calls, logging and sending emails, basic data entry and record keeping, making online payments, publishing social media posts, customer support, and more.
6. Tutoring
If you have a degree in education or a subject that can allow you to pass on your wisdom to those on the lower rungs of the educational ladder, you might consider becoming a tutor based out of your home.
It’s not just helping school kids catch-up on their math – you could also teach foreign nationals English or pass on your guitar skills to budding musicians.
Tutoring suits those with good people skills and patience. You will also need to provide proof of your own educational background and meet some regulations, for example, to formally tutor high-school students in specific subject areas.
7. E-Commerce
E-commerce is the fancy way of saying ‘selling things online.’ Anyone can easily get started by selling their unwanted items on eBay and now groups on social media platforms like Facebook make this even easier on the local level.
If you take the next step and begin sourcing your own products, you can also list on them on Amazon or create your own online store, with platforms like Shopify.
This type of business is most successful if you have experience or passion for a certain type of product, so you have an understanding of the market already. It is common to use a small loan or credit card to buy initial stock if you do not have savings.
8. Affiliate Marketing
One of the oldest online money makers is affiliate marketing. An affiliate marketer is somebody that partners with a business and promotes their products, earning commission for the sales and leads they generate.
This might seem daunting on the face of it, but there are many large platforms that have streamlined this process and easily allow people to sign-up and find products and companies to work with.
9. Technical Businesses
This may be dependent on your previous work experience, but if you were involved in areas such as app and web development, social media and marketing, graphic design or video editing, or other skills based work that only really requires a computer – there’s no reason why you can’t set up your own business from home. You might even be able to bring your existing contacts and clients with you, but don’t poach directly from your former employer for obvious reasons.
10. Basic Freelancing
Rather than going to the lengths of setting up a full blown business, you can register as self-employed and begin doing some basic online freelance work at your own pace. This might be anything from blogging, writing and transcribing, to graphic design or coding. Formal skills and experience helps, but as long as you can deliver, anyone can find clients and earn money through freelancing platforms like UpWork and Fiverr.
Related: 25 Best Freelance Websites to Find Online Jobs
You won’t be able to command a high rate in the beginning, but if you consistently do a good job the feedback and ratings will speak for themselves.
If you’re a stay-at-home mother and looking to work from home, we hope our list of ideas has sparked your imagination. This could be the best decision you ever make for your family.
Author: Brian Loman
