After having kids I rethought my idea on work and wanted to spend as much time at home with my boys as possible. I wasn’t ready to put them in daycare and so I needed to look at options to supplement my income from home. Here I’ve listed some of the best options I’ve found for earning money from home. Some are short term (for some quick cash) and others longer term (for a more sustainable at home income). I hope you find them useful.
Earning Money from Home
Perhaps you’d like to fund a little getaway or pay off a big bill? Maybe just some extra money for a few treats or a new pair of shoes?! Alternatively, you may be looking at longer term ideas for earning money from home. These are some simple ideas for bringing in some extra cash.
Declutter and Sell
Go through your old clothes, furniture you don’t use, kids toys, kitchen appliances etc. Collect everything that has some value and list it on your local buy, sell, swap page or ebay/Gumtree. Alternatively find a local kids market or hold a garage sale. You’d be surprised at what you can rake in from selling your unwanted goods! I recently hired a stall with a friend at a baby and kids market and made about $200 selling just a small proportion of my kids outgrown clothes!
Can You Iron?
If the answer is yes (and you don’t hate it completely!) then offer your services on your local mums Facebook page or tell your friends and family to spread the word. Many mums will pay $20-40 a basket for ironing. I know mums who earn a pretty stable income through ironing.
Cash in with Cleaning!
Same as ironing, many people are looking for a good reliable cleaner to help them at home. In my area cleaners charge $20-30 an hour and are in constant demand. It may be the same in your area. Check out gumtree for local jobs.
Do You Have a Skill You Can Use From Home?
Perhaps you are a graphic designer, maybe you rock at writing articles? Are you a pro at promotion and marketing? Think about your skill set and see if any of them may appeal to businesses and that you could do from home.
Run Workshops or Classes
Do you have knowledge or a skill that others would be interested in learning? People love to learn and workshops and classes in anything from photography to first aid skills are options for people who have the skills and knowledge. You can hire out local community centres and rooms relatively inexpensively and use them to run your workshops or classes.
Start an Online Business
This is a bit harder than it seems initially. Often it involves a lot more time than you may have anticipated but if you have a great idea and think you can make it work then give it a shot! There are many amazing mums who are earning money from home through the online businesses they run.
Letterbox Drop
There are often businesses looking for people to do letterbox drops. It isn’t a big money spinner but it is pretty easy work and you can do it with the pram.
Participate in Market Research
This isn’t going to earn you a consistent income but $50 here and $100 there doesn’t go astray. Look for local options in your area and sign up to start giving your opinion.
Sell Your Products
Can you make something that would be saleable? Perhaps you can make gorgeous jewellery, creative cards, fabulous kids costumes, cute baby bibs? Think about your skills and consider if you could sell your stuff. You can combine this with building an online business or sell through sites such as etsy or ebay.
Beware of SCAMS and Multilevel Marketing
If it sounds too good to be true it probably is. Do some googling on the “opportunity” you are looking into. “Is xyz a scam” is often a good start. Multilevel marketing (avon, isagenix, tupperware etc) can work but they do generally require a lot of time to make any kind of significant income plus, at least to start, they depend on your selling to and recruiting friends and family. If this isn’t something you are keen on then it’s probably not for you.
Do you work from home? What other ideas do you have?
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