Looking for ways to make money as a stay-at-home mom? Or wondering how you can get paid for being a stay-at-home mom? You’re not alone. 5 years ago I was working full time out of the house away from my young kids. I had three 4 and under and was struggling to balance, work, motherhood, and nursing my baby while being out of the home for 10 hours a day. It was so hard but we needed my income to get by.
Then I heard about how you can make money from home as a stay-at-home mom and I became obsessed. I tried multiple different routes to make money online so that I could quit my job and stay at home with my kids. After all, time is our most valuable asset, and I was tired of giving all of mine to someone else when I desperately wanted to give it to my kids and husband.
I tried many different ways to make money from home before I found the perfect one for me. For more on my story of how I left my job and started making $6k+ as a stay-at-home mom, check out my post here.
Whether you’re a mom who is sick of working her 9-5, a stay-at-home mom, a mom-to-be, or even a dad who is sick of giving up time with your family to make money, this post is for you. I’m sharing 10 proven ways to make real money from home while taking care of your kids.
Beware, I’m not going to give you any of the fluff you might find on other sites claiming to help you make money. I’m not going to recommend survey sites (insert eye roll emoji here). I am only talking about ways that are proven to work and help you make real money so you can quit your job and focus on your family or make money from home so you can still have an income as a SAHM. No B.S., I promise!
How can a stay-at-home mom still get income? Here are 10 ways to make real money as a stay-at-home mom or dad
Freelancing
I will always recommend freelancing first because it is the thing that made it possible for me. When I tell you that freelancing changed my life, I mean it!
Freelancing is when you work with businesses on a contract basis. You decide what service you will be offering and the amount you want to be paid for it. You advertise your services by networking on social media and in Facebook groups to find clients.
One of the best parts about freelancing is you have little to no start-up or recurring costs. You can run a very lean business where you keep almost all of the profits as a freelancer.
Here’s how it works:
- You find a service that you want to offer, you create a portfolio in Canva for free sharing who you are, what you do, and how much you charge for it. If you have any examples of your work or case studies, this is a great place to put it to demonstrate your skills.
- Once you have your portfolio, set up social media profiles for your new business (you can pick a fun business name or use your own name)
- Set up an account with Acuity so that people can book a free call with you to determine if they want to hire you. You also want to set up a business email account for work only.
- Start talking to your ideal client or customer online. You can do this on social media and in business networking groups on Facebook. I found a vast majority of my clients in the last five years using Facebook groups! So many businesses use it to find freelancers. You can also use LinkedIn to find clients.
- Once someone is interested in working with you, invite them to book a free call on Acuity with you so that you can discuss how you can help them in their business. On the call, remember that you are the business and in control, it’s not an interview! You are seeing if they are a right fit for you as well.
- Once you’re done, send them a proposal that you create for free in Canva. Include more information about you, examples of your work, testimonials or case studies, and the package and price you recommend for your services.
- Once they accept, send a contract (always use a contract!), and invoice them for their forest month. You can use WaveApps or Paypal Business to create invoices
- Serve your clients the best you can. Act as if their business is yours and give it your all. This will create happy clients who continue to pay you each month. They will also send their friends as referrals!
If you aren’t sure what services to offer, you can check out my post here for 10 ideas! There are so many online services you can offer, so find one that works for you and go with it. If you don’t think you have any skills, you can offer general virtual assistant services. Or you can learn a skill on YouTube or by investing in an online course. I am a huge fan of online courses because I have learned so much and earned back my money invested 10fold.
Etsy
I love love love Etsy! I don’t use it as my own primary income but I know many people do. I have an Etsy shop where I sell digital products and make a nice side income with it, but the sky is really the limit if you want to make it your primary income!
Etsy is an online marketplace where independent creators and small businesses sell handmade, vintage, and unique items. It’s a platform known for its wide variety of products, ranging from custom jewelry and art prints to home décor and craft supplies. Etsy empowers artisans and entrepreneurs to reach a global audience, offering a space where creativity and individuality are celebrated.
You can sell anything that you create on Etsy! Whether it’s crochet patterns, jewelry, print-on-demand t-shirts, candles, you name it! It can be sold on Etsy if you make it.
In this post, I made detailed instructions on how to create passive income on Etsy. These steps to setting up your Etsy shop apply whether you are using digital products like in the post or physical products.
You can use this link to get your first 40 listings for free.
Digital product business
Digital products are the hot thing to do right now in the world of making money online. Essentially, they are products you create and sell digitally. They cost little to no money to create and you can make money selling them repeatedly. Sounds like a dream right?
Here are some digital product ideas to get you started:
- Journals
- Planners
- Website templates
- Budgeting spreadsheets
- Guides
- Ebooks
- Online courses
- Invitations
- Kids activities
- Social media templates
- Coloring pages
- Wall art
And so much more! When it comes to digital products, you can sell them on Etsy or you can host your own website where your customers can shop. This means you don’t pay any Etsy seller fees and there’s less competition. This means you make more money!
Just make sure to market your products. Social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok are perfect for this as well as Pinterest!
Coaching Business
Have a knack for helping people through problems but not sure how to make money for it? Coaching might be for you! There are many different types of coaches including business coaches, health coaches, parenting coaches, relationship coaches, financial coaches, and more.
There are so many people out there who need help with various problems and coaches are the perfect professional to turn to. You would be the person they work through problems with and you are the person who will teach them skills and processes to achieve their goals. You are there to help them succeed!
If you want to be a coach, start by researching to make sure there aren’t any additional certifications needed to be the type of coach you want to be. Make sure you are properly credentialed before you start bringing in clients.
To find clients, you can run ads, network with your ideal clients, get visible on social media, and become known for the topic you are coaching on. Coaching packages can range from $ 500 to multiple thousands depending on your expertise.
Start a YouTube channel
If you have the time, patience, and bandwidth, you can become a YouTuber. It’s well known that the big YouTubers with a large amount of subscribers can make hundreds of thousands of dollars, but it is not an overnight thing. Going this route takes time but if you are passionate about it, why not go for it?!
While it is nice to have a professional camera and ring lights, you can also use your phone camera to make your videos. Just make sure you have good lighting.
Research topics that you are passionate about and that you want to talk about and see what is popular or trending in your niche and use that as inspiration as you get going. Pay special attention to how videos are titled, and how the cover images are designed. Try to make yours as scroll-stopping as possible.
This is a great article that goes into how you can monetize your YouTube account and start making serious money while at home with your kids.
Become a Content Creator
Content creators are people who create entertaining or educational content for people to consume online. You can use any platform to share your content but Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are some very popular places to share content.
To get started, you want to find a niche you are passionate about and that you can talk about all the time. Then you want to start making content! Just make sure you have good lighting and a good-quality camera. Most smartphones are perfect for this.
Content creators make money in a few different ways. They can get paid by their platform, make affiliate income, earn commission (like on TikTok shop), do paid brand partnerships, and more.
The sky’s the limit when it comes to making money as a content creator. You create an audience and that is very valuable. Just follow your passion and stay consistent!
Consulting Business
Different from freelancing where you are providing a service for businesses, consultants are the ones that help create the strategy and give advice on what to do.
This is a great option for anyone who knows how to solve the problem of your clients but don’t want to be the one to actually implement it. It’s a higher-level service that you can offer to your clients and you can charge more for this as well. If you have a skill that you are an expert in, this is a great option for you.
You can specialize in your area of expertise. Ideas include marketing, financial, social media, SEO, and more!
Teach online classes
This is a great side hustle or business idea for anyone who either is a teacher or who has a skill that someone wants to learn. Essentially you will set up your classes and teach them all online on a video call.
One company that makes it easy is called VIPKid. This is where you can teach English lessons to kids in other countries. The great thing about this platform is they design the lessons, you just have to go through the slideshow with your students and help them complete the work! The pay ranges depending on different factors and you can learn all about it here. The downside of this platform is that if you are in the U.S. you are likely going to be working overnight since the other half of the world is in a different time zone.
Another platform is Outschool. This one is excellent for just about any class! You set your prices for your classes and you decide what you are teaching. You also create the curriculum so you have complete control on this platform. This is a great place to find music lessons, dance lessons, acting lessons, martial arts lessons, or lessons on just about any school subject for kids. You can check it out and learn more about how you can get started here.
Become a Reseller
A reseller is someone who purchases something at a discounted rate so that they can resell it on websites like Facebook Marketplace, eBay, Poshmark, Mercari, and more. Resellers spend time browsing thrift stores or discounted stores so that they can find goods that can be sold for a higher amount online.
This is great for anyone who loves shopping and has a little money to invest upfront. This takes time to build up and you’ll want to research the different platforms to find the one that works best for you, but you can make a lot of money with this side hustle or business if you put the time and effort into it.
If you want to learn more, here is an inexpensive course that will teach you how to do it.
Blogging
I love blogging! Before I started freelancing, I had a blog that I did on the side. It taught me so many skills that I later turned into a successful freelancing business.
A blogger creates blog posts about a certain topic that will interest readers, like this one here! Once a blog is established they can make money in multiple different ways. One of the main ways is by displaying ads on your blog. This means for every view of ads on your website, you get paid by the ad company. Therefore, you want to get as many views to your blog as possible. This is completely possible but it does take time. If you are wanting to make money fast, you may want to go with one of the other options in this post first.
To become a blogger, here are the steps you need to take:
- Create a self-hosted WordPress blog
- Set it up and install a theme
- Research keywords in your niche to develop blog post ideas
- Start writing blog posts in your niche- as many as you can
- Share your blog posts on Pinterest
- Focus on SEO
- Join an ad network
This is a very simplified breakdown of how to become a blogger. There’s a lot to it but this will give you an idea of what to expect.
There are other ways to make money blogging as well like selling digital courses and affiliate marketing. You can research other blogs in your niche and see what seems to be working for that niche to determine what method will work for you.
And there you have it! I hope you found something that will work for you and your family so that you can make real money as a stay-at-home mom or as a side hustle!
