How To Make Money As A Stay-At-Home Mom (Or Parent)

Whether it’s keeping up with inflation, bolstering savings or maintaining professional skills, there are multiple reasons to want to make money as a stay at home mom or parent. Furthermore, the rise of remote work means there is more opportunity to work from home. The user-friendliness of small business technology, such as email marketing software, web hosting and ecommerce carts, means entrepreneurial moms and parents don’t have to choose between their business dream and child-rearing.

Here are five steps to get started on making money as a stay at home mom (or parent):

1. Surround yourself with success stories

There are ups and downs in every career, so if you jump right in to land that next job or client – even if you’re initially excited – it’s easy to get discouraged. Instead, invest in a strong mental foundation by surrounding yourself with work-at-home success stories 

2. Consider both employment and entrepreneurship

If your primary goal is to make money right away, then you don’t need to decide now if you’re looking for an in-house job or if you’re a freelancer, consultant, or temp for hire. Down the road, you might focus your search efforts on employment v. entrepreneurship — or you might decide to toggle back and forth depending on opportunities available. 

3. Pursue flexible opportunities

Since your focus is specifically opportunities that will also allow you to stay at home, you need to find remote work, also known as location independent work. FlexJobs is one job board that lists remote work opportunities and recently released

4. Start with people you know

The easiest people to convince to hire you are people who already know, like and trust you. Make a list of friends, former colleagues, classmates, even previous employers who didn’t hire you in the past

5. Keep a list of short career tasks for nap time and other parenting breaks

There is a lot to do as you look for additional projects or a longer-term job. Juggling this with the demands of stay-at-home parenting is tricky, so keep a list of all the different, ongoing career tasks that you can do when your child is napping, you have babysitting coverage or any other time you find yourself with even five minutes. For example, keep a list of networking contacts to rekindle. Bookmark blogs and other articles with those success stories to keep you going – or news, trends and research you are following,

Saving money also adds to your bottom line

Figuring out how to earn more money in a job or with a business isn’t the only way to contribute money to your household bottom line. Saving money also adds to your bottom line – and the retirement account, college plan and emergency fund. Review credit card and bank statements for subscriptions you can cancel. For ongoing expenses you can’t cut, call and ask for a better deal. If you have a large purchase coming up (e.g., appliance to replace), research a better price, a more energy efficient model or a cheaper place to shop. There are limits to how much you can cut your budget, but if you love landing the best deal, starting with saving money might be the best first step. You can play to your strengths, get some quick wins, add that money to your dream fund and then focus on landing that job or launching a business.

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