10 Ways To Make Money As A Stay At Home Mom
Are you a stay-at-home mom looking for ways to make money on the side? For many it’s a dream come true to be able to improve your family’s financial picture while taking care of your kids full-time. And it's definitely possible. But take it from me--a mom of two toddlers who runs two business from my own home--you'll be busy! Here are nine ways to make money as a work from home mom, including my two favorite ways I do:
1. Freelancing
No matter where your strength lies, you can always offer your services as a freelancer and work as much or as little as you’d like, during the day or even in the middle of the night. Most freelance gigs are remote, although it’s not impossible to find one that requires you to show up in an office occasionally, especially if your tasks support a team. If you choose this route, there are numerous freelancing websites like Upwork.com to help you find paying gigs. The most common freelance gigs tend to be proofreading, writing, editing, graphic design and software development, but you can offer almost anything as a freelance service.
2. Consulting/Coaching
Coaching and consulting gigs are rising in popularity, because, like freelancing, these types of work-from-home jobs allow you to take what you know (and hopefully love!) and teach it to others. Think of it as tutoring for adults. Common coaching gigs include helping startups learn how to attract investors, or offering online personal finance courses. Often, people in these types of roles choose to coach or consult in fields where they’ve been employed in the past, such as before they become a stay-at-home parent. If you’re interested in this type of work, it’s one of the best ways to make money on the side, as long as you’re willing to put in the time.
3. Direct Sales
Whether there’s a particular product you absolutely love, or you’re just in it to make some extra cash, there are direct sales job opportunities for just about anything you can dream up. Think Lu La Roe, Rodan + Fields or BeachBody. The catch is you have to be pretty outgoing and probably even willing to hit up your own network of friends in order to make sales. If the thought of this makes you cringe, you’re probably better off exploring some of the other work-from-home jobs on this list. If you're outgoing and assertive enough, however, this can be among a very lucrative way to make money on the side as a stay-at-home mom.
4. Tutoring
No matter what your professional background is, there’s always the possibility of tutoring. Not great at math? That’s fine! There are tons of other tutoring opportunities in subjects like foreign languages, ESL--even science. And now that many tutoring services are offering video tutoring, this work-from-home job is even more amenable to moms who are at home with kids.
5. Babysitting
If you’re a stay-at-home mom looking for ways to make money on the side, either occasional babysitting or regularly watching a child during working hours in your home are both great options. This allows you to keep your own child or children in your care while providing the same service for a working mother. You can make a profile on Care.com or get a babysitting phone app like Bambino .
6. Make/Sell Crafts
If you love making baby booties, leather earrings or anything in between, you can bring in some extra cash by selling your creations online via sites like Etsy. If you’ve ever browsed through Etsy, you’ll see that almost everything is handmade, and there’s some seriously random stuff on there. So feel free to get creative. If you can spend the time to set up a shop on Etsy or a similar site, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to find customers.
7. Rent Out Your Extra Space
Do you have some unused spaces that are just collecting dust? What if I told you it’s possible to turn them into a source of income? Through sites like Neighbor.com, you can list the availability of your garage, basement, closets, and spare rooms and rent them out to store other people’s belongings. It’s a great and easy way to earn some extra money without having to leave the house!
8. Writing
Ever dream of writing a book? This isn't the quickest way to make money, but it is how my mother, Brenda Novak--who is a New York Times Bestselling Author--earned a living to support her five children. Crazy thing is she never aspired to becoming an author until she caught our daycare provider drugging my sister and I with cough syrup and Tylenol to get us to sleep all day so she could watch soap operas. After she found the medicine in my younger sister's bottle, she could no longer trust anyone with our care and quit her job--and yet she needed to earn money to cover the bills. She was just trying to figure out what she could do from home when she ran across a book she really enjoyed and decided that maybe she could become a novelist. Although she had to teach herself the craft through example (reading), trial and error and attending various workshops, she was fortunate enough to sell her first book to HarperCollins and has now written more than sixty books!
My mom celebrating her latest release at Harlequin! So proud of her!
9. Dogsitting
What could be a better way to earn extra income than by hanging out with man’s best friend?
I love dogs! I have one of my own, an orange chow chow named Simba, who looks like a lion--hence his name. My husband and I were childless when we adopted him and were thrilled to add him to our family--so excited, in fact, that I’ll never forget the day I came across http://Rover.com at the end of 2014 and realized that I could watch other people’s furbabies and make extra money doing it. Rover sent me just one client the first month. But things quickly changed. Now, five years later, we also have our own website and often watch more than ten dogs at a time! My Simba & Friends dog business has grown every year with ZERO marketing dollars. It’s pulled us out of debt and provided enough income for me to stay at home once I started having babies. It also gave us the working capital we needed to be able to launch our new business, Little BaeBae, a baby accessories company.
The dog room in our home.
Our daughter, Ella, and one of our regulars Sophia❤️
10. Launch a Business
As I watched my baby crawl and saw her pacifier fall out of her mouth and drag on the ground (again and again!), I decided there has to be a better pacifier clip. If only it would only retract, I wouldn’t have to get up every five minutes, carry my baby over to the sink and wash her pacifier. With a retractable clip, the pacifier wouldn’t drag when she crawled and there would no longer be a loose cord near her neck. So I went online to buy one--and couldn’t find what I was looking for anywhere. To my surprise, it hadn’t been invented yet!
I soon found out why. Creating a retractable clip wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be when I first had the idea. Getting the tension right, so that it wouldn’t pull the pacifier out of baby’s mouth, was quite a challenge. At first, my prototype was too strong. Then it was too weak. It took me almost a year to get the tension right.
Then there was the business side of things. While I had some experience running a business, thanks to Simba & Friends, it proved only marginally helpful when launching Little BaeBae. So I started listening to podcast after podcast on everything from where and when to run ads to how to make the most of social media. I’ve learned so much over the past two years, but I’ve also had to face some formidable fears--the fear of using all of our savings on something that could fail, the fear that no one would be interested in my new product and the fear that I’m not being fully present with my kids because I’m also trying to run two businesses. But, when you feel like it's what you're meant to do--there's a peace that comes with the crazy emotional rollercoaster of starting a business.
VS 
2018 at our first expo show with our newborn son Caden vs our 2019 expo show! We've come along way since our first show but it's still just the beginning for Little BaeBae!
The one thing I would tell any stay-at-home mom looking for a way to make money on the side is that you have the capability to figure anything out. It just depends on how badly you want it. You won't start making a lot of money overnight and there will be some bumps in the road, but nothing worth having is easy, and the more you learn, the more confident you become. Of course, there are days when my house is a mess, laundry’s not done and we don’t sit down to a home-cooked meal. But it’s all about doing your best and constantly striving for balance. As long as you believe in yourself and you’re willing to work (super, duper) hard, you can do anything! After all, being a mom isn’t for sissies.
My motto: IF THERE'S A WILL, THERE'S A WAY!
Have any other ideas?! I would love to hear what you do to make money as a work- from-home mom. Leave us a comment below!
