I asked on Instagram stories recently, for people to submit their best tried and true suggestions for making money from home. While I was specifically looking for ideas for things moms can do, the list below really can apply to anyone! (And if you have other tips for things you’ve done to earn money on the side, please leave a comment with the idea!)
1. Watch/walk pets
Many people are regularly in need of someone to either keep their pet at your house while they are out of town or to go over to their house once or twice a day to feed/care for their pet. I also know many people who would love to have someone regularly available to take their pet on a walk.
One of my followers on Instagram said, “I made $2500 in 2 1/2 months dog sitting as a side hustle on the occasional week or weekend that it worked for my schedule.” Another follower said, “This is such a great side hustle! I made 4K last year doing it very randomly when it fit into my schedule.”
You can find jobs for dog sitting on Rover.com.
2. Teach lessons
Years ago, I used to teach violin lessons. My sisters have taught other types of music lessons — harp, flute, and piano. I also taught creative writing lessons years ago when I was first married.
What are you good at? What skills do you have? Cooking, crafting, baking, music, writing… could you teach lessons? Advertise at the local music store or craft store or in a local paper or local Facebook groups.
This is something you can do from home during your kids’ nap times or at night or on the weekends while your spouse watches your kids.
3. Provide childcare
If you are already home with your kids, what about providing childcare for one or two other children? One of my followers said, “I have older kids so I keep a 2-year-old at my house 4 days a week.”
You could also take on a part-time nanny job or just occasional babysitting jobs if people were good with you bringing your kids with you (I know many people are!)
You can advertise your services on sites like Kingdom Care Sitters or Care.com.
4. Clean Airbnbs
Connect with people who own AirBnB’s and offer to provide cleaning any time they have guests leave. If you just have a few AirBnB’s you regularly clean, this could provide a steady stream of income. And you can usually bring your kids with you and the hours would be somewhat flexible.
You could also regularly clean houses for others or offices for small businesses.
5. Have a Farmstand
If you live where you could set up a farmstand in your driveway, this might be a fun option. You could sell veggies from your garden, baked goods (if that’s allowed in your area), flowers, eggs (if you have chickens), etc.
Or, you could have a stand at local farmer’s markets. I know many who have done this and sold baked goods and more and done very well!
You could also make baked goods and sell them to local coffee shops to sell or to sell to friends or others (again, if this is allowed in your area).
6. Sell on Etsy
If you are someone who is artistic, crafty, or can create digital products, definitely consider selling on Etsy. I know many who are making a part-time or full-time income from selling products on Etsy.
While this article is a little old, there is some really fantastic information in it to help you get started selling on Etsy.
7. Raise Puppies to Sell
One of my followers suggested that you get a registered AKC female dog and raise puppies to sell. I have heard of families doing this and making hundreds or even thousands of dollars each year!
8. Sell items Online
For years, my brothers have bought items at estate sales and thrift stores and resold them on eBay and made a really good income doing so. It’s taken them awhile to figure out what sells and what kinds of listings convert best, but they’ve learned with lots of trial and error and now have strong income streams doing this — and lots and lots of flexibility with the hours they choose to work.
You can also sell items on Poshmark or Facebook Marketplace!
9. Sub at a Local School
If your kids are school-aged, you can sign up to substitute teach at their school (or another local school). Many schools are in great need of good substitutes for when a teacher is out or sick. The great thing about this is that you’d only be working when your kids are in school. In addition, you can usually very much pick your days and hours and work as much or little as you’d like.
Another idea if you love teaching and have some experience: offer tutoring services! You could tutor individually on specific subjects or do things like ACT tutoring workshops for high schoolers.
10. Take professional photos
I know so many people who have taught themselves how to take great photos and edit them — and make hundreds or thousands of dollars each month by doing photo shoots for families, babies, weddings, events, and more. You could set it up so you only do a few evenings or one or two weekend events per month.
Another very needed area for photography is people to take pictures for businesses’ social media accounts or for social media influencers.
11. Become a Virtual Assistant
There are SO many online companies, small businesses, bloggers, and influencers who are needing good help with things like graphic design, editing, responding to emails and comments, data entry, customer service, social media, video editing, and podcast editing,
If you want to start doing virtual assistant work, I’d start by practicing, offering your services for free or very reduced rates for a bit to build you experience and portfolio, and then approaching people online that you love their work and who you might be able to help out with services you can provide. You can also find jobs at Upwork or RemoteTasks.
Another idea: Many small businesses need help with social media. They often don’t know how to run a social media account or want to mess with it, but they know that in this day and age it’s something needed. So consider offering services to run social media for businesses. You could offer a few different tiered packages to run social media for businesses and I think there would be huge interest in this!
12. Provide Alteration Services
Are you able to sew? Consider providing alteration services. We had a formal dress we needed to have hemmed not too long ago and all local alteration shops were quoting us crazy high prices. We ended up finding someone we knew who could do it and she charged us way less and did a fantastic job (we paid her twice what she asked because her work was so good and we thought she was undercharging compared to what the other places were!)
You could easily make $15-$20 or more per item hemming things or taking them in. And if this only takes you 10-15 minutes or less, that’s a great hourly wage!