Home Business Ideas That Are Proven to Make Money
Moms (and lots of dads too), have to make special considerations when it comes to starting a home business. You’ll need to be able to work without punching a clock or having to be available at certain hours. Otherwise, you’d have to get a babysitter to get anything done.
If you’re home with the kiddos, creating a schedule, no matter how loosely you stick to it, will help. Keep the schedule as best you can; the more you repeat the process every day, the easier it becomes because you’ll develop a habit.
This post includes 12 home business ideas for moms that don’t require clock punching or answering to anyone but yourself.
Related post: Here’s What Working from Home is Really Like
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1. Stock Photographer
Stock photography is used on blogs, websites, and other social platforms. There’s a high demand for good quality and unique photographs to use for all sorts of reasons.
Most stock photography companies allow independent contractors to upload pictures for sale on their websites. You can also start your own site offering the images for use.
Styled Stock Society is a great example of a paid stock photography site.
2. Graphic Designer
Designers are definitely in high demand. If you’re good at (and enjoy!) using creative software to make webpages, ads, social media images, banners, book covers, and more, you can work for many companies while performing these services. You’ll typically have a deadline to meet, but you can still work at 3 am if you need to.
3. Freelance Writer
As a freelance writer, there are many different opportunities today based on your skill level. You can write for content mills, businesses looking for writers, or as a copywriter. Elna Cain is a freelance writing expert and she offers valuable tips for landing online writing jobs.
Or, you can write for yourself and publish your own books as PDFs or via platforms such as Kindle Direct Publishing.
4. Arts and Craft Seller
If you’re talented and like creating art projects, you can do more than just design. You can sell, and you can make bank.
Sites like Etsy.com, DeviantArt.com, and Art.com make it easy for you to upload pictures of your work for sale.
You’ll be responsible for shipping it on time, and give a percentage of sales to the website you list on. You could also start your own site if you want, but usually, you’ll make sales faster working through an established and trusted venue.
5. Amazon Seller
Fulfillment by Amazon has launched a trend in individuals selling both new and used merchandise through their service. Leaning how to sell on Amazon can take a little time but there are people who are making six figures or more doing it. You can too. And, this is something you can do on your own time, with your children in tow.
6. eBay Seller
Selling on eBay is a little harder than the other choices, but many people do it successfully as a full-time job. If you have access to the right products, you can do it too.
Again, this is something you can do on your own time. The only thing that might take a lot of work on your part is packing and shipping. Here are some tips from Making Sense of Cents.
7. Life Coach
You’ve likely seen a coach at a basketball game, but did you know that some people hire “life coaches” to help them with everyday life? Some people need help parenting, while others need help getting through a life challenge like divorce.
You can become a life coach with little or no experience. The hardest part is setting up your processes, marketing your business, and getting new clients. There are also courses that you can take to help like this one.
8. Lifestyle Blogger
Have you seen or heard of the hit movie, “Julie & Julia?” Well, Julie started as just another blogger, blogging about her adventures cooking from Julia Child’s cookbook. She became super popular, sold the rights to her story, and a movie was made. She made excellent money off the deal.
Today, people blog about all sorts of things and earn money through advertising, affiliate marketing, and product promotions. You can, too. Here’s how to start a blog if you’re interested.
9. Gardener
That’s right! I know a mother of six who grows just about all her food, from herbs to vegetables to fruit. Imagine the opportunities!
This work-at-home business does take a little time and work, but it’s healthy, the children can help, and you can make about 60K a year from your back yard if it’s allowed in your area.
You can sell at farmers’ markets, and you can also sell directly to restaurants if you plan and market right.
Find super-affordable training for life skills, including gardening, on bluprint
10. Online Teacher
If you have an education degree, you can teach at online K-12 schools right from home. You can also, if you have at least a master’s degree, teach college courses online. What’s great is most of the time you can sign on when you want to, from any place with an internet connection, to do your job, as long as you’re meeting minimum requirements.
Sites such as VIPKID is a popular online teaching platforms.
11. Proofreader
Grammar nerds rejoice – you can get paid to review and correct many types of written content. Just think; there’re a ton of bloggers and small business owners out there who still want to write for themselves but don’t have the time or, frankly, the ability to create error-free content. A lot of business owners are happy to pay someone else to ensure that the written work they produce is grammatically correct and free of typos.
If your first inclination when you read a social media or blog post is to point out why the author should have used “their” instead of “there”, proofreading may be the job for you!
You can find a boatload of proofreading opportunities in this post.
12. Virtual Assistant
I couldn’t complete this list without talking about becoming a VA. It’s what I do! This is one of the easiest businesses to begin, but you have to be a self-starter to succeed. You can use the work background you already have to provide outstanding service to clients who need your help.
For instance, if you have experience in finance or bookkeeping, you could become a virtual assistant who offers bookkeeping services or tax filing assistance. Or, if you worked in real estate, you could become a real estate VA.
Working from home is a dream job for many parents. You can be more available for your kids, work your own schedule, and still earn enough money to live an abundant life. What could be better?
