Think being a working stay-at-home mom is impossible or won’t allow you to make a real income?
Think again.
If you want to stay at home in some capacity, chances are you also wouldn’t mind making a few bucks. Well, it turns out you can do a lot more than make a few bucks. You can actually work from home and enjoy your job, do it on your own time and make a real salary. The key? You pick the right job and here is exactly how you do that.
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You want to be a stay-at-home mom and work from home
If this is your goal, you need to be smart about how you plan on making money. Unlike traditional jobs, your goal here is to be able to work around your mom life. Before even thinking about jobs, the biggest factor to understand is how you pick a job that fits you.
The work from home job can’t be boring
A quick google search will show you thousands of job options for the stay-at-home mom. Are they all good? Absolutely not. In fact, there are a lot of terrible options. Your first question when considering any job is does it sound boring? If the answer is yes, move on.
But what if it’s quick easy money? Nope, you will burn out so fast. Instead, invest your valuable time into a job that can really add value to your family’s finances and to your life.
Your motivation is key to success, so it simply can’t be boring. It will be a drain on you, and mom life can already be exhausting. Don’t set yourself up for failure from the beginning.
Your work from home job must fit you
To really find the job that is right for you, you need to know what you are looking for. Already you know you want a working stay-at-home job, but that job must also fit your abilities, passions, time and financial needs. So let’s set up some guidelines. I have a free printable for you to fill out with your own guidelines that you can get by subscribing.
1. Abilities, qualifications and previous experiences
When looking at options, determine what qualifications such as degrees, trainings or certifications are needed. If you already have these items for a particular job you interested in, then great.
If not, you should look at the time and money investment. Going back to school for years isn’t a great option and costs a lot of money. Money you might not even make back once you graduate.
Instead, look for trainings or certificates that are well priced and can easily be finished in a reasonable amount of time so you can start earning money now. Factor in how much you could make with the potential job when considering the price of the training.
For previous experience, a lot of fantastic options don’t require you to have any. If the job does, don’t rule it out yet, get creative. Find ways for your background to reflect some of those skills and highlight why your background makes you an excellent candidate. You can also always volunteer to do some free work, which is a common way to enter a field like photography.
2. Likes or passion
Working from home means you need to be self-disciplined. This can be insanely difficult if you picked your job based on salary alone. If you aren’t interested in it, don’t do it.
When you follow your likes and passions, you will not only be self-disciplined because you actually enjoy your job but you will also produce better work because you actually care.
3. Time constraints and schedule
Usually, the main goal of working from home as a stay-at-home mom is to bring in an income while being able to stay-at-home. Pretty self-explanatory but it means you shouldn’t pick a job that won’t work with your time constraints or schedule.
If you overcommit, you will be overwhelmed, stressed and your performance at your job and as a mom will really take a hit. Don’t set yourself up for failure. Alli wrote a post giving some great tips to find time to be a work at home mom.
4. Your income needs
Like most jobs, working stay-at-home jobs usually take some time before you are making your potential salary. I would put some time into seeing how well the average salary matches what your financial needs are. Just remember, time is money. You need time to make money.
Alli and I blog specifically about ways to streamline household productivity to gain more time to work from home. Take advantage of my free printables for your home binder by subscribing with the form above.
5. Start-up costs
If you are lacking in equipment or training needed for the job, be sure to realize the start-up cost associated with the job. The start-up cost will be well worth it if that job suits you well, which is why I stress picking something you want to do.
If you need a little more money in the bank before starting, check out the simplest way to budget effectively. I also have found that this style of meal prepping has been a life saver for saving me both time and money.
Let’s find you a work from home job you can love
Now that you have an idea of what you are looking for and how the job can best fit you, here are my favorite types of working stay-at-home jobs. They all require minimal time and money in order to start making a real income on your own time.
Be an online teacher
Teaching online is another great option to earn money from home. Specifically, teaching English online. There are a variety of platforms out there to teach with and most of them allow you to create your own schedule.
The reason I recommend teaching English online specifically, is because of the time difference. Peak teaching hours for teaching English to students in Asia are early mornings and evenings here in the US. There are lots of platforms out there to teach online and they all have different requirements. With our help, you’ll be able to find the perfect one for you.
VIPKID
Alli teaches with VIPKID and makes over $1200 per month teaching 3 hours each weekday morning. You do need a college degree to teach with VIPKID, but you don’t have to have formal experience as a teacher. Create a free account to learn more about this opportunity today!
Magic Ears
Another awesome company to teach English online with is Magic Ears. The peak teaching hours are also in the early mornings and evenings, and this company does not require any degrees, certificates, or teaching experience.
They are looking for teachers who love kids, and speak English fluently. Why not create a free account today and see if it could be your ticket to staying home? Read Alli’s guide on getting hired with Magic Ears for more details.
Here Comes the Bride
Weddings are a fantastic field to get into. Not only are there a lot of fun jobs associated with weddings, but also can be done mostly on your time. Most people hope to only marry once and are willing to pay a lot to have that perfect day. Additionally, weddings usually occur on weekends and/or at night giving you even more flexibility to work if your partner works during the week.
Become a Live Wedding Painter/Live Event Painter
This is quite new in the world of weddings but is a fantastic idea for anyone who wants to capture their special night. Many brides are now hiring painters to attend the event and paint a scene from the wedding in the painter’s unique style. If you are artistic and enjoy painting, you can expect to make around $4K from each painting. While you do have to attend the wedding to do a live painting, weddings are usually on weekends making this desirable to stay at home moms. You of course pick and choose which dates and weddings you book. Expect to be busier during the spring and summer as that is when weddings happen.
Wedding Photography and/or Videography
Similar to a wedding painter, your job is to capture that magical day. Thankfully for those of us not good with paintbrushes, there is photography and videography. The time commitments are similar to a live wedding painter as your strict time commitment is attending the weddings. In this field, you can charge anywhere from $1000-5000 for each wedding. As you gain more skills and have more clients, you can change your price to reflect that.
Of course, photography outside of weddings is a great option too if you don’t want to commit to the time constraints of weddings. You can specialize in maternity, birth and newborn photography or family, kids and senior portraits.
For excellent courses on starting up as a photographer, check out Creative Live.
Wedding/Event planner
This job might have not been your first thought for a stay-at home job, but it is definitely an option. To make this job work as a stay-at-home mom, you could only do appointments when your kids are at school, work as a virtual wedding planner assistant, and/or only offer day-of services. You can earn anywhere from $75-200 an hour. Most wedding planners require a minimum of three-hours with each booking.
Most wedding planners have training and a certificate to give them credentials. I would look into a course because credentials will allow you to start earning a higher commission right away. It makes people feel assured you are qualified. Brides always want a pro.
One course that is reasonably priced is by QC Event Planning and takes around 40 hours to complete. Students swear by it. If you continue with this career path as your kids get older, your salary potential is high with top planners earning around $120K a year.
Wedding Makeup and/or Hair artist
I absolutely LOVED my makeup and hair for my wedding. I first went to a salon for a trial and it was the worst. Luckily, that was only the trial and I was able to find someone fantastic. In fact, she was actually a stay-at-home mom, who did make-up for special events.
I just went to over to her house one evening for a trial. It was super chill. I were able to chat informally through the whole process with her about what I liked and didn’t. If you have a knack for makeup and/or hair and always wanted an excuse to invest in an amazing makeup selection, here is your chance.
You simply schedule your trials around your schedule and of course must be able to do their makeup day of. Most also charge for trials too. Start by doing makeup on friends or for free and take photos to start your portfolio. To learn more about becoming a makeup artist, check out QC Makeup Academy.
What you absolutely need to succeed in the wedding business
To succeed with any of these wedding stay-at-home jobs, you need to be able to get clients. The best way is via the internet. Pair a Facebook page with a blog and you are seriously set. A Facebook page connects you with social media and your blog is your online portfolio.
Brides want to be able to see examples and ensure you are professional, both of which are accomplished via a blog. Not to mention, a blog is where they contact you formally instead of just a personal message on Facebook.
The World of Blogging
I am sure you have come across blogging as an option to work from home as a mom. I must include it here as well because it’s how I am able to work from home. While I didn’t set out to be a blogger, it ended up really fitting me. I also really enjoy it and want to explain why it might also be for you.
Just a blog
If you want to blog and make money while doing so, you can. As you start, you will find there are endless ways to monetize a blog. Like most trades, the further you get, the more you learn and the more money you make.
Blogging is low risk, inexpensive, and can have big payout. Some mom bloggers make over $40K a month. I jumped into blogging because I love to write and I love to share in order to help others. I became especially eager to help other moms once I became a mom and found out just how hard being a mom can be.
My other requirements were a job that I could do completely from home and a job that was completely on my own time. Blogging fit the bill.
Blogging can seem overwhelming at first with the technical side but with a little help, it is simple. All you really need is decent computer skills. If you can use Microsoft word, you can blog. The major hurdle is getting your site up and running. Once you complete that, you just need to start writing.
Have a craft/skill
You have two options here: you can teach people your skill by blogging about it or you can sell your product via Etsy. This is obviously dependent on your craft/skill. You can actually do both and having both a blog and an Etsy shop will just help you get more traffic to both and diversify your income.
Creative Live has an awesome course to get you up and running on Etsy.
Be a virtual assistant, manager, reader, freelance writer, bookkeeper, etc.
The number of companies and people who have switched to virtual over traditional is astounding and will continue to grow. The fields that hire in this area are endless.
Examples of types of virtual assistants:
Proof readers
Blog Managers
Customer Service
Tech Support
Event Planning
Social Media Management
Graphic Designer
If communication, time management and organization are your thing, then you need to explore this option. You can earn anywhere from $12-60 an hour depending on the type of assistant and the type of service.
No formal education is required. To enter the field, many utilize a course to get started to establish credibility. Here is a popular resource to check out: 30 days to become a virtual assistant
There might be some time constraints based on type, but this is a virtual position, so you can expect to do most things on a flex schedule and online. Tasks could include email correspondence, data entry, scheduling and planning, writing, editing, marketing reading and organizing.
Virtual Bookkeeper: a specific type of virtual assistant
According to Entrepreneur Magazine, this is the #1 most profitable business. You must like math and be detail oriented as you will be doing tasks such as entering, managing and filing accounts. You’ll also do inventory counts, paying suppliers, overseeing payroll and project budgets, and monitoring purchase orders and small amounts of cash.
The potential income as a virtual bookkeeper is $80+ an hour. You actually don’t need a college degree or a CPA certification. A simple training will work here. Interested in this idea? Try out the first three classes for free at bookkeepers business launch.
Virtual Freelance Writer
Do you love to write? Being a virtual freelance writer for online blogs and sites is becoming more popular. To start, you need have a portfolio that clients can access, which you can do by having a blog. You can display your writing there. To get potential clients you can reach out to blogs, sites and companies.
That’s a lot of possible work from home jobs, where to start?
Already have an idea of which one you want to pursue. Great, start working on that now. Don’t be afraid to try one out. You will quickly know if it is a good fit. You might even surprise yourself by how much you love it.
In the beginning, I emphasized how important it is the job fits you. So, if you aren’t sure which job fits you, your first step is to determine your requirements (abilities, interests, time, and finances). To help you do this, we have made a printable worksheet so you can go through this process yourself.
After you have a clear idea on your requirements, you will be able to better analyze how well a job will fit you.
Didn’t find the work from home job you were looking for?
Don’t worry. The sky really is the limit when it comes to finding a great work from home job.
You can always check our Work Smart page as we fill it with options for you.
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Dr. Trina Fitzpatrick is a wife, mom, blogger, and a breastfeeding advocate. She is the co-author of the Week-by-Week Bump Smart Course, the Nesting Planner and the Breastfeeding Handbook. She attributes her success at breastfeeding her own children into toddlerhood with working with lactation consultants in the hospital in the early stages and on a weekly basis afterwards. By writing at MomSmartNotHard, she educates mamas-to-be on all things pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding. Read more about Trina.
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