If you search best stay at home moms business ideas, you can get a ton of unrealistic ideas. A lot of them require a specific skill, certification or just God-given talent. The good news is I’ve narrowed down the options and sorted them into the best business ideas.
Whether you’re wanting to start your own lucrative business or just earn a little extra money, you’ll find several different ways to make an extra income from the comfort of your home!
In order to make our list of stay at home mom business ideas, each idea had to:
- allow you to set your own hours or give you a flexible schedule,
- have no or low startup costs,
- and offer the opportunity to make good money.
Each of these ideas are great for a stay at home parent because most of them don’t even require a college degree!
Before Your Start a New Business
Before starting anything new, we recommend evaluating your skills, schedule, finances, and any other impacting factors on your schedule before starting your own business.
All of the online business ideas for women I’ll share are broken down by what you like because any online business is going to be hard work. Even if you think your idea may be a profitable business, you will have days you want to quit, and it can be slow growing. So it’s important you’re passionate about why you’re doing it versus just making money.
Benefits of These Business Opportunities
While it will take work, owning your own online business can have several benefits including:
- setting your own schedule
- ability to travel
- offers a creative outlet
- allows you to be home with your children
- possibly the chance to replace a full-time job income while being at home.
The Best Stay At Home Business Opportunities
We’ll start by looking at Social Media Type Jobs.
Social media can be helpful in growing any online business idea, but it can be pretty vital if you’re getting into sales or influencer-type work.
One training I love that helps you build an online brand, monetize it, and build a following is Marketing Impact Academy. It could apply to any of these ideas.
Network Marketing
My mom & I actually started in network marketing in 2011. We fell in love with a brand of at-home workouts and supplements, and we signed up after having 2 or 3 friends buy a program without us getting commission.
Network marketing, also called multi-level marketing (MLM), has some major pros and cons. For us, we didn’t want to treat our family and friends as potential customers – hounding them to buy something or to host home parties.
The company we chose was in fitness, but there are network marketing companies in different fields including beauty products, cleaning products, clothing, and more. They offer marketing materials and training to help reps get started growing their product sales and recruiting more reps.
The day of home parties (luckily) seems to be over, but the same ick-factor can be found when someone constantly talks about a product or opportunity online. Just like any job – you have to set yourself apart and truly care about others.
Pros to MLM or Direct Sells
- Low start-up cost
- Some don’t require inventory on hand
- Residual income opportunity
- Training is offered a lot of the time
Cons
- High turnover of people signing up & quitting
- High competition
The other thing to know about direct sells is that you’re going to have to talk to people about what you do. This means you’re going to have to constantly talk to new people to grow your customer base! It’s a great opportunity with so much potential – but you have to be willing to believe it and share about it.
Start a Podcast or YouTube Show
If you have a specific thing you’re good at or passion about, a podcast or YouTube channel can be a great way to produce and monetize content. Stories also do really well on both platforms, and both are growing like crazy.
With that said, there are 3 main pieces to creating either show.
You’ll need to:
- Create high-quality content
- Publicize it (This is where social media comes in handy)
- Find ways to monetize it (ads, merchandise, events, etc)
We’d love for you to check out our podcast, The Kim and Kalee Show, as well! *wink wink*
Blogging
Another way to create and monetize web content is through a blog! While a blog is mostly writing, you’ll also be sharing pictures and even possibly videos as part of your content.
A few ways you can monetize a blog is through sponsored work, ads, affiliate marketing, and promoting your own products.
Bloggers also sometimes double as social media influencers as well. This is because they grow a large following of readers across popular platforms like Youtube, Instagram, Facebook and Tik Tok.
There isn’t any reason – besides time – that you couldn’t have a blog alongside another one of these online business ideas for women. You could just repurpose and dig in deeper on topics you’ve already created on other platforms.
Most of the monetization options can start as soon as you have a few hundred visitors to your site a day. We offer a step-by-step guide to start a blog you can monetize as well.
How to Start a Blog
Just like a podcast or Youtube show, you’ll need to create content, promote it, and find ways to monetize it.
If you’re considering blogging, you may also get a lot from our post, 17 Things We Wish We Knew Before Starting a Lifestyle Blog.
We shared How Bloggers Make Money (& How Much They Actually Earn!) recently as well!
Create an Online Course
An online course or membership site goes really well with a blog. You could share a little bit on your passion on your blog, and then offer more in-depth content and training with on online course.
Plus, you could always be promoting your course on the blog because the content is similar.
With that said, if the idea of producing and promoting content on a regular basis overwhelms you – you could just develop an online course and promote it online through social media and ads.
Your online course can be on anything!
Social media, marketing, saving money, making money, learning a language, how to train your dog, and even how to deep-clean your home are possible course topics.
Get creative!
Self Publish a Book
An online course will typically require videos, PDFs, and support. While you can charge a premium for such a course, a book may be a better option for you.
A book is also a great way to see if you want to develop a course around a topic since it’s not as in-depth.
You can self-publish on Amazon right now, and there are so many amazing free trainings out there on how to write a book!
Paid Online Membership Site
The other option in content creation is to offer a paid online membership site.
If you’re interested in providing great content and really working with people this could be a great fit. An online membership site offers content like articles, webinars, videos, how-to guides, and a place to talk as a community. You can also really customize it to be anything you want!
Bloggers and small businesses often need help managing all of their social media accounts. You could schedule pre-made content, or if you have experience as a graphic designer, you may even be able to create new content for people to use!
E-commerce sites and third-party companies like Etsy and eBay make it easier than ever to sell your art or crafts.
An online shop is a great idea if you love:
- Sewing
- Quilting
- Crocheting or Knitting
- Creating decorative signs
- Designing jewelry
- Painting
- Making gift baskets
- Creating custom clothing
- T-shirt design
Social media can also help you promote your store and products without spending a ton on advertising.
A blog could also provide a way to connect with more people and lead them to your store.
For example, if you sell quilts, you could offer how-to quilt tutorials. While someone may want to learn – many will not follow through or will want a gorgeous quilt you make, as well as, their own.
We also have a guide to How to Start an Embroidery Business at Home.
Now we’re onto the next section of ideas!
Online Business Ideas for Women If You Don’t Like Social Media
Now, I’m not saying that you couldn’t use social media to help your brand with these ideas, or that you have to use it on the above ideas. I’m just saying it would really help with the ideas we’ve covered, and it’s not as important to the following ideas.
Website Management
If you love the idea of working on a website but dread constantly creating content – this is perfect for you!
A website manager usually works on ads, editing and scheduling content on the blog or by email, hiring freelancers, and scheduling and promoting social media posts. Each job may vary in its specific tasks, but this is a general idea of what you’d be doing.
When it comes to website management you can do everything from sell ads, edit and schedule content, hire writers, promote on social media, and more.
So this – may be pushing the “Online” part of online business ideas for women, BUT hear me out.
If you love cooking, meal prepping, or baking – there is a way to make that an online business.
You could put that passion to work on a YouTube show, blog, or course – but you could also create and sell:
- personalized meal plans
- recipes to bloggers
- how-to guides on cooking or baking
Freelance Work
Pretty much anything you can imagine can fall under freelancing. You may already have a skill like copywriting or proofreading that you can start charging for right away; other topics you’ll have to study.
You can get started by word-of-mouth or on a site like UpWork.com or Fiverr. Facebook groups are a great way to find potential jobs too!
23 Types of Freelance Work
- Writing Skills to Create Content
- Editing & Proofreading
- Photography
- Photo Editing
- Copywriting
- Social Media Management
- Social Media Scheduling
- Digital Marketing
- Graphic Design
- Interpreting
- Tutoring
- Legal Work
- Programming
- Virtual Assistant Tasks
- Accounting
- Online research
- Podcast Production
- Voice Over Work
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Ad Consulting
- House Cleaning
- Data Entry
- Party Planning
- Driving
The main thing to know about freelancing is that you don’t want to under charge. For as many 6-figure freelancers there are, there are also just as many working crazy long hours barely making a living.
It’s one thing to get started at a lower rate, but as you gain experience and expertise – don’t be afraid to charge for it!
If you love spending time with kids, a daycare service could be a good idea!
This one is pretty straight forward. You could offer your services on UpWork.com or Fiverr. Another option would be to find local clients and then use word-of-mouth marketing.
Photography
This idea was already mentioned under freelance work; however, I wanted to dig into a few more ideas.
While I picture traditional photographers making money taking pictures at a local event, there are tons of ways to make money online too!
If your passion is photography you could:
- sell stock photos online
- create presets on Lightroom and sell them
- find freelance work taking photos or editing them
You could even create a blog or course about how to take beautiful photos or monetize them!
Online Shop to Resell Items
If you love hitting yard sales, estate sales, flea markets, and/or bargain sites – you could make a pretty penny just reselling your finds.
Whether you’re known for classic toys or vintage bags, you could create an online shop to sell your items at a premium.
Sophia Amoruso, of the best selling book #GIRLBOSS, created a fashion empire that started from MySpace and eBay back in the day!
You could create your store on ebay, Poshmark, Etsy, or even on your own e-commerce site.
Start An Amazon FBA Business
If you have a product already, a great idea is an Amazon FBA business. FBA is short for “fullfilment by Amazon.”
Amazon will show your product and deliver it to your customer, as well as, offer customer service.
If this sounds like a good fit – check out this How To Start An Amazon FBA Business Guide.
Teach English Online
Did you know you can teach English to people all around the world? A lot of the time you can even pick hours that work around your children’s schedules as well! You can learn more about the companies you can go through here.
Tutor via Zoom
Similar to this idea, you could also tutor using video software like Skype or Zoom. You could start your own company or go through an online tutoring company.
Your own company would give you the ability to hire other tutors and name your price, but you would also have to build up your brand and reputation, as well as, know a little more about accounting, taxes, and liabilities possibly.
House or Dog Sit
People have a hard time finding someone trustworthy to watch their house or pets. You can pretty much set your price, and you are also likely to have repeat customers if you do a good job!
Rent a Room
Renting an extra room has never been easier using Airbnb or a similar company that connects people looking for rooms with people renting in a specific industry.
Look into hosting on Airbnb
Voice Over AudioBooks
If you have a great voice, you could put it to work by narrating audiobooks. ACX outlines the steps and how the industry works here.
To Summarize the Best Stay At Home Mom Business Ideas
We hope these 40+ best home business ideas helped get you inspired and motivated! Many of these could be done by a working mom or parent temporarily too to help bring in a little extra money part-time!
The last thing we wanted to mention is there is no one “best way”. You could even pick multiple ideas from the list! For example, you could make delicious cookies for bridal and baby showers and also freelance write for small businesses and bloggers!
We’d love to know what business opportunity you chose and how it’s going as well!
Need help marketing your brand or services?
We’ve got you covered with that too!
Grab our 15 Hacks to Building a Personal Brand!
These 15 tips will help you with any of the above online business opportunities, and you will likely need to brand yourself in order to be successful!
We also put together 13 tips to growing a following specifically on Instagram you might like as well!
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