7 Legit Ways to Make Money as a Stay-At-Home Mom
A lot of mothers with young children face a difficult dilemma: they need income, but they want to spend as much time as possible with their kids during their formative years. Or the cost of daycare is too much to bear. Fortunately, we live in an age where it has never been easier for mothers to work from home. It just requires looking around and finding something that matches up with your skills. Note that these are not unrealistic “get rich quick” schemes that require no effort. You might not be able to make an entire career out of most of these jobs, but just a few extra hundred dollars goes a long way.
Here is a list of 7 jobs for stay-at-home mothers:
#1 Start a Blog
Writing a blog is more than just about making money. If you have a passion for writing, have a lot of knowledge about a topic, and want to share it with an audience, it can be very rewarding. However, it also requires some patience. It will take time to build an audience, which means you aren’t going to succeed overnight. You also need to be dedicated and deliver new content on a regular basis. But if you’re willing to give it a chance, it has the potential to be lucrative. Indeed, some of the most popular blogs generate tens of thousands of dollars a month. You get to be your own boss, set your own hours, and the fact that you only need a laptop means there are virtually no start-up costs.
#2 Start an Etsy Shop
Realistically, unless you are immensely talented at creating crafts, jewelry, or digital art, an Etsy shop probably won’t make you wealthy. After all, it’s a very competitive market. But even a few sales a month means you’re making passive income that you otherwise wouldn’t have. It’s important to inform yourself about how the system works, but once you do, you have a job that serves as a creative outlet, has flexible hours, and requires very little investment beyond the materials you use to create the items you sell. However, do note that Etsy does charge fees for using their services, just as any buying/selling platform would.
#3 Become a Freelancer
This is yet another option that allows you to unleash your creativity. Are you a talented writer? An accomplished photographer? Good at graphic design? People will pay you top dollar if you have the right skills. You can write articles for a publication, edit/proofread a person’s novel before they publish it, or even polish up a dissertation written by a student for whom English is a foreign language. Upwork is a great platform for finding such work. Simply fill out an application and wait to be hired. The payment is held in escrow, which means you’re guaranteed to receive it once the task is complete. The downside is that unless you have spent a great amount of time developing a sterling reputation and are good at marketing yourself, the work might not always be steady.
#4 Become a Virtual Assistant
What does this job entail? It’s pretty simple, actually. As a virtual assistant, you would offer support services to businesses from the comforts of your living room. For instance, you might manage a company’s blog, manage their website, or handle their social media marketing. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are lots of virtual assistant jobs that align with your skills. You can find Facebook groups that are dedicated to virtual assistants. It’s another job where you can set your own rates and working hours.
#5 Work as a Medical Transcriptionist
This isn’t a job you can simply jump right into. You need to spend a year to 18 months earning a certificate, which can be obtained from a community college. This is because it is important to be familiar with medical terms, anatomy, and physiology. That said, the average full-time medical transcriptionist makes around $37,000 a year, which isn’t bad for a job that requires attention but is relatively stress-free. The work requires you to listen to doctors’ recordings and type out medical notes based on what they say. There are also part-time options, and you can set your own hours, making the job very appealing if flexibility is what you’re looking for.
#6 Turn your home into a daycare center
Since you’re already at home with your kids anyway, why not take care of a few more? Whether you advertise your daycare services, know your clients personally, or opt for a third party to recruit clients, it’s a great way to make additional cash. You will need to obtain any necessary licenses and certifications, but otherwise, the only costs are the toys and equipment that you most likely already possess. As an added bonus, your children get a chance to socialize with kids their own age.
#7 Work as a teacher or design online courses
If you have a background as a TEFL teacher, play a musical instrument, or are a skilled painter, why not teach your abilities to others? There are plenty of people who are interested in learning how to play the piano. Of course, you don’t just have to invite people into your home to teach them something; you can develop your own online courses as well!
As you can see, there are all sorts of ways to make money from home while still being able to care for your children. So look around and find a job that suits you best!