Do you desperately want to become a stay at home mom, but are afraid to give up your day job income? It can be a very scary thing, especially today when most parents work outside the home, but it absolutely can be possible to ditch your employee status and develop a different income as a stay at home mom. Just think, you’ll be able to be at home with your child, watch all their firsts, and be able to converse with people about topics other than spit-ups and pacifiers.
Before You Ditch the Job
When I list out the possibilities that you have as a stay at home mom, I know many of you will become excited and will want to quit your job today, but before you do that, you’ll need to take a few things into consideration:
- Income – While you will be able to earn an income as a stay at home mom, many times the income is less than what you would have earned at work. Understand that you’ll likely need to become more frugal than before if you truly want to be a stay at home mom.
- Benefits – If you’re thinking about quitting your job, be sure to consider the benefits of your spouse. Are they equal to or better than what you had at your job? Will your monthly costs swing at all if you’re depending solely on the one benefit plan?
- Savings – An emergency savings is essential for everyone, but if you choose to be a stay at home mom, your income might be sporadic and inconsistent. Plus, you have another human being that may need medical attention at any given moment. If you’re going to quit your job, beef up your emergency fund first.
How to Develop an Income as a Stay at Home Mom
If you desire to become a stay at home mom, you must first brainstorm your skills as a stay at home employee or business owner. In other words, do you desire to develop your own business, or would you rather work for another entity to earn a more consistent paycheck? If you were entrepreneurial in your childhood (ie. put up lemonade stands, sold golf balls, or mowed lawns) and would enjoy developing an income purely through your own efforts, then I would encourage you to think about what you could do to earn an business income. If, however, you have never had an interest in developing a business on your own, then I would suggest that you focus your efforts toward becoming employed at home.
How to Become Employed at Home
Since we now live in the Internet age, working from home is far more common than it was just 20 years ago. In fact, your employer might even offer this as an option for your future employment! Some employers are so diligent in keeping their employment base that they’ll allow you to work part-time and from a remote location. Look into this option at your place of employment. If you do most of your work from a computer, then this is certainly an option. Beyond this, consider the following suggestions:
Virtual Assistant – If you are good with computers and are savvy with social media, this might be just up your alley. Many bloggers and website owners need help keeping their pages active and interesting. To submit your interest, find a few different blogging networks and submit your interest there. You can also keep your eyes peeled on Indeed.com to work as a part-time VA. The hours are flexible, the work is interesting, and the pay is typically pretty decent.
Data Entry – To my surprise, one of the leading stay-at-home jobs is in data entry, but it actually makes complete sense. The job is easy to understand, it can be done solely with a computer and an Internet connection, and companies can save money by contracting out the work. For those that don’t mind a little monotony for a decent wage, take a look at the 12 different areas to look for data entry jobs.
Content Writer – As I stated before, blogs are big these days. The top bloggers often earn enough to stay at home and hire staff writers of their own. If you are interested in a particular topic and consider yourself to be a quality writer, then send out a few emails to the blogs that you read and offer your services. At first, you can offer free articles as a trial run – if they like your stuff they might even hire you to write as a part-time employee!
How to Earn Money with Your Own Business
If you are more interested in being employed, that’s fine, but the opportunity there is limited. Often, the pay is between $10-$15 an hour and doesn’t go much higher. My preference is in starting my own business because there is unlimited opportunity. There are plenty of real-life accounts of moms that tried to earn a side income to stay at home with their kids, and their businesses grew larger than they ever imagined! Here are a few ideas that can get you started in the entrepreneurial world.
Photography – Many stay at home moms dabble in photography because they can spend just a few hours away from their families (often in the evenings or on the weekends) to take the photos and then can make the edits on their computer while they’re at home. The pay is often quite good on a per-hour basis (typically $25 or more) and you can ramp it up or scale it back as you desire.
Pet Sitting – Do you enjoy animals? By watching just a few dogs and cats at a time (that can be in separate rooms as your children of course), one can earn nearly a thousand extra dollars a week! In addition to the fantastic pay of watching a few pets, you could also use this as an opportunity to teach your kids some responsibility. They could fill food dishes, water bowls, and if they’re old enough, maybe even take some dogs for a walk.
Real Estate – My wife and I are discussing the possibility of her staying at home when we have children. Since we are both 30 years old, we have had plenty of time to build up equity in our home and a large savings account, which means that real estate is certainly a possibility for us. Our plan is to purchase two single family homes with cash and rent them out before our first child is born. The income from this venture would likely be $20,000/year or more and would provide us some pretty good cushion for her to quit her job. With my income, it would be possible for us to continue purchasing real estate, which my wife would then manage. It isn’t for everyone, but it’s more of a passive business that can still be scaled up from year to year.
The ideas above are just that: ideas. If they don’t suit you, then I wouldn’t recommend pursuing them. However, there are many other ideas that could earn you an income than what I offered above. If there is someone out there that’s willing to pay for your product or service, then you have a worthwhile idea. Start it small, and scale it up to test out the market.
Are you ready to become a stay at home mom? What are your ideas to earn an income?
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