Home Business for Stay at Home Moms

I get it. Big time. The appeal of staying home with our little ones while running a business is undeniable for many so moms.

When my son was four months old, I looked at his little face and decided that I would start a business, quit my career in environmental tech and be home with him while I do it!

Here’s a photo of us a few years later when I achieved my dream of being a stay at home work at home mom:

Starting a business as a work at home, stay at home mom is one of the smartest decisions I’ve ever made in my life!

Easy? No. Smart? Yes!

The home business ideas for stay at home moms are nearly endless. In this post what I’ll do is share some of the things I’ve tried and that have worked for me, or not. I’ll share the pros and cons of each and where I’ve landed now, some 22 years later!

This is gonna be fun…

Idea #1: Create or sell physical products

My first business was all about selling bath and body products that were created by myself and my dad, who became my business partner.

This was in 2002 when selling on the internet was BARELY a thing. I set up an ecommerce store and actually had random strangers on the internet buying my stuff!

These days, it’s so much easier to set up shop with websites like Etsy, Shopify and more.

Pros:

• You can sell locally and get started right away. Make a product and join a local vendor sale and you’re off and running.
• Online selling tools like Shopify make it pretty easy to get a shop up.
• There’s a great satisfaction to knowing someone is physically using your product to enhance their life in some way!

Cons:

• Depending on the product, it can be hard and/or costly to scale the business.
• Shipping can be a pain! Packing up and figuring out pricing.
• It’s a lot of work to make a product from scratch and often it’s hard to get great pay for the labor put into it.

Overall I moved away from this model because I discovered selling things digitally online. I have played with the idea of offering a physical product again but the work of creating the products, scaling the business and shipping them out didn’t seem worth it to me.

Obviously if everyone thought this there’d be a huge gap in the marketplace so if you have an amazing idea or product, maybe this is for you!

However, if this option just isn’t for you maybe services would be a better fit:

Idea #2: Offer a Service (Freelancing)

There is a huge need for services out there and so many directions you can go.

For me I offered all online (digital) services but off the top of my head there are services in: dog walking, housecleaning, painting, home decor, organizing that could sometimes be done on “off hours” while someone watches the kids for you. Of course that wouldn’t fully fit the idea of being home WITH your kids so that’s where digital comes back in.

One of the FIRST services I offered was Virtual Assistance. I quit my job in 2007 to be a Virtual Assistant and I never looked back! I don’t teach anything about this now as I’ve been clientless since 2012 but I highly recommend VA Networking for VA education – check out these 10+ free VA Resources on my friend Tawnya’s site!

Other services you can offer:

• Website Designer – Build websites for online business, local clients or even corporations once you really refine your skills. If you’ve never built a website you can learn how here.
• Affiliate Manager – Companies who run affiliate programs need someone to help them find affiliates, motivate them to make sales and create sales materials (or direct the team to create them). This can be a great service to offer! Learn about affiliate marketing here.
• Freelance Writer – Write blog posts, articles, content for business owners to help them grow.
• Graphics Designer – Create graphics for clients if you have a flare for design!
• Social Media Manager – Love social media and know how to get views and engagement? You might be a great Social Media Manager!
• Coaching – If you have skills that fit the bill to be a coach this is a great service you can offer. If you’re interested in being a business coach I have a course that’s perfect for getting clients without filling your calendar here.
• Other specialized skill sets – Maybe you’re a Lawyer, Bookkeeper, Accountant, Editor, etc. There are many ways you can transfer these skills to an online business with clients.

Pros:

• Find a client and you can be earning money almost right away.
• You’ll learn so much by working with people making money and getting a peek behind the curtain!
• If you price your offers right you won’t need to work with many clients to make a good income.

Cons:

• You are allowing people to buy your time which they can be very picky/controlling over. Be careful with solid boundaries!
• If you rely on your income from only a few people it can be unstable so always be marketing in case you need to fill a spot in your client base.
• It’s in many ways like a job. You have to show up, do the work you are told to do (within scope) and work with whoever you agreed to work with. They are counting on you and you’re not making the decisions on how that goes.

Personally I loved the services business for the pros listed but I also could not stand the idea of people owning my time for the long term.

These days I DO offer coaching as a service but not as a full business model. I take on just a small few coaching clients who take a small portion of my time. I’m going to be revising my coaching offers, too, so that I no longer work with a client for a year. It will be more like a quick project of a VIP week and done. And if ever I decide I don’t want to open them up, then I won’t have any client work on my agenda. 🙂

The major downside to services is that you trade your hours for dollars. Once they’ve gained experience and results many freelancers also shift to a digital product business:

Idea #3: Selling Digital Products

Unlike the last two ideas selling digital products needs less of your time over time and is infinitely scalable.

eBooks, Courses, Group Coaching and other such offers can be created for free and scale.

To get started selling digital products you want to look at yourself, first. What do YOU have to offer.

It could be a career you are currently in with a skillset you can teach to others (for example you might be a reporter who decides to teach courses on how to get media exposure). It could be something you’re really good at (for example you might be amazing at decorating for the holidays so you teach a course on that).

Once you determine what it is you can teach others you then want to do some research to see if there is a demand for that thing. You can use a keyword tool, such as Keysearch, to see what people are searching on Google.

You’re looking for topics that people are looking for so you can help fill that need.

Another way to decide if what you want to offer is worth jumping into is by seeing what else is out there. If there are other profitable sites on the topic then it’s a likely chance that you’ll be able to sell in that niche.

Now my favorite way to start selling digital products is to use email marketing at the same time. I’m building my email list at the same time as I’m building my digital products.

Using the email list I let my subscribers get to know me, my core values, my messaging and then even if I make a few pivots and shift directions over time, they stay with me and continue to be long-term loyal customers.

Pros:

• Other than any costs to create the product initially, it’s FREE to deliver your product. Once you’ve paid any upfront costs (which are minimal if you’re not outsourcing yet) everything after that is PURE PROFIT!
• Very scalable business. You can sell to 10 people or 1000 people without having to change your business model.
• Can be VERY fast to implement. Depending on what kind of digital offer you create you could be selling TODAY. For example if you do a live workshop you can pre-sell that for three weeks from now, get the payments up front and then create it in plenty of time to deliver it live.

Cons:

• The industry moves fast and changes happen often. You need to keep up with trends and cycles. This is like any business, though.
• There is a ton of competition out there but that shouldn’t deter you – a lot of it is terrible so just create good stuff and you will stand out!
• Potential customers may struggle with the perceived value as it is not a physical product and they can’t “see” it. This is where your job to rely the information of the value it provides is essential.

I shifted through all of these business models. I started with the soap business in 2002 right after my son was born. That didn’t fully work out as hoped so I took a temporary factory job in 2005. I started in services in 2006 and quit my factory job in 2007 to be a Virtual Assistant. Then in 2008 I created my first digital course and by 2012 I stopped taking regular clients and focused on building my digital products business into a full time income!

Ultimately, my best advice is to not take too long to get going. Don’t overthink it! Just TRY SOMETHING. Pick the first thing you think looks good and go for it. This is because there is absolutely no “right” answer here – there’s just taking steps forward and improving as you go.

Wishing you all the very best as you build your stay at home business that’s just right for you. Remember that first step is the most important!