Just about every Mom needs a side hustle for more income, peace of mind, an outlet from their home life, and to grow their skills and resources to help support their families.
When I was a new Mom, we needed extra cash, but I also needed more focus and purpose in my life to keep my balance. I adored taking care of my kids, but needed to exercise my creativity and passion for entrepreneurship. I was already dabbling in freelance writing and managed to slowly work my way into a lucrative business. Over the years, I’ve tried and researched a lot of everything and love writing about it. Check out these unique side hustles for Moms.
1) Craft Scrap Reseller
Business ideas for stay at home Moms don’t have to be expensive or time-consuming. Instead, you can create an entire business around stuff you already have around the house and enjoy sourcing. Selling craft scraps and supplies is a surprisingly booming business. Moms on Etsy, eBay, Facebook marketplace and beyond are packaging up their old fabrics, washing and ironing them, tying them up with a stunning bow, and listing them for sale. Buttons, mismatched sewing kits, old patterns, vintage crafts, and leftover ribbon can all be repackaged and sold.
You can do this business as a Mom side hustle or scale it for profit-earning potential. You can source out free product simply by offering to clean out someone’s crafting space. Charge a reasonable fee for the service and salvage what you find for reselling. This concept is called a side hustle stack or business stacking. You’re taking at least two ideas that rely on one another and charging for both services. For example, you may be able to charge a flat rate of $100 to clean-out a crafting room. Stipulate the maximum amount of hours you’ll clean so you’re not stuck in the home all day.
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Make sure to stay transparent with your customers. Give them a contract outlining the time you’ll spend cleaning, what to expect, and that part of the service includes tossing, donating, or reselling the items. I find that people could care less if you want to flip their items. They just want it out of their house!
You can also find people looking to get rid of their old crafting scraps by asking your social media network. Ask if they’re willing to bag up their excess supplies or fabric so you can pick them up to throw away, donate, or resell.
2) Yard Card Business
Have you ever driven by a home and seen oversized letters, superheroes, unicorns, princesses, champagne glasses and more celebrating someone’s birthday or a new baby? These yard cards rent for 24 to 48-hours for $100 or more. People pay you to set-up their yard and then come back and take it all down after a set period of time. You can also stack this idea by also selling balloons and party supplies to your customers.
Some Mom side hustles cost little to nothing to get started. However, you’ll need to invest in some inventory to get started on a yard card business. You can look on Amazon or Etsy to get started, but tread lightly. You want to make sure your yard cards and the stakes you use to put them into the ground are high-quality. However, you don’t want to spend a fortune getting set-up.
You’ll like need an alphabet pack of letter, some numbers, and choose two or three themes. For example, a blue, pink, or gold sparkle package of cupcakes, gifts, balloons, hearts, and other accessories will likely satisfy your needs as you get up and running on your business. Before you get started, call your insurance agent to ask about a general liability policy. As you’ll be going onto people’s property, a small insurance policy is necessary.
One of the upsides of yard card businesses is they’re fun, relatively easy to start, and generate buzz. Get started with your own network of friends and family and let the word spread about your business. Your kids can also get involved in the process and help set-up and break-down the cards.
3) Virtual Real Estate Assistant
Real estate agents always need extra help with marketing, paperwork, social media, taking appointments, running marketing events, and managing their business. You can also specialize in a specific area, like doing their branding and graphic design. As a virtual real estate assistant, you can work from home and complete the tasks for your agent. However, it’s important to set some clear boundaries with this idea. Real estate agents are always working! Set your hours to set times every day so they know when they can rely on your services.
Real estate agents are easy to find, they’re around every corner. Send out some cold emails or ask around your network. If you’re brand new, you can set your rates at about $20 or $25 an hour with the understanding you will raise your rates $10 after six-months. As you find new clients, keep raising your prices! It’s important not to undersell or undervalue your skills. Just because you haven’t done something before doesn’t mean you don’t offer a valuable service. Even saving someone hours of time and stress is a valuable service.
4) Microgreens Grower and Seller
If you love gardening and eating green, you’ll love these business ideas for a stay at home mom. Tiny micgoreens are among the most profitable crops you can grow, and you can do it inside your house or in your yard. Microgreens are vegetable greens harvested right after the cotyledon leaves have developed. They’re a powerful nutrition supplement and also offer a decorative flair for restaurants.
The start-up costs for a microgreen business is also low, with trays, seeds, and soil, costing a few dollars. Unlike home-grown tomatoes and other crops, you can harvest microgreens in just a few weeks. You can sell directly to chefs or organic-minded families and set-up it up as a weekly delivery for recurring revenue. It’s also possible to sell microgreens at farmer’s markets, your own pop-up produce stand, or small grocery stores.
5) Wash and Fold Service
When I lived in Brooklyn, New York, wash and fold services were around every corner and in high demand. It was incredible to drop off your laundry and have it washed, dried, and folded by the time you got home from work. The price was worth it, especially since it was rare to have your own washer and dryer in your apartment. Instead of spending hours on a precious Saturday doing laundry, people would pay a premium to have it done for them.
Wash and fold services are still in demand, but aren’t widely advertised outside of cities. If you don’t mind doing other people’s laundry and enjoy the work, you can set up your own laundry business and advertise it to other families. Most people charge around $1.50 to $2.00 per pound with at least a $35 minimum. The cost usually includes pick-up and drop-off, although you can set your rates depending on the scope of the services you want to offer.
You can also upsell your Mom side hustle by offering to iron and hang clothing. If you have trusted relationships with your customers, you can also charge to put away everything in their dressers and hang in their closets.
6) Virtual Assistant to a Mom Blogger
When you’re trying to figure out why moms need a side hustle, remember they should also be fun. If you love the idea of blogging for income, but don’t want to work diligently for years before seeing a return, outsource your services to the pros. Established mom bloggers need help with everything from inbox taming to posting to social media and uploading blog posts. There’s always an endless to-do list for bloggers that they can’t get on top of themselves. Virtual Assistants can offer generalized services or specialize in a particular area like content creation. There’s no right or wrong way to focus your services, so pick something you think you would enjoy.
One of the best parts about working with a Mom blogger is they “get it.” They are Moms, have their own blogging business, and likely figured it out while flying by the seat of their pants. They’re more willing to look past inexperience provided you have a great work ethic and are highly reliable. If you’re new to virtual assisting, set your beginning rates at $20/hr to start with the caveat you’ll be raising them after six months. Next, raise them to about $30 to $40 and continue finding new clients to grow your business.
7) Freelance Writer
By now you’ve probably been saturated with articles and content about becoming a Mom blogger, which can be one of the best side hustles for Mom. But it’s a long-game. It takes time to identify a profitable niche, set-up your site, and see results. I certainly don’t discourage blogging as a side hustle, after all, I’m blogging right now (hi!). However, you can start earning money immediately as a freelance writer and will face far less competition.
You can absolutely earn a side income or a full-time wage from writing even if you have NO experience! I’ve always had a flair for writing, but never majored in English, got an MFA, or took a bunch of copywriting classes. Instead, you start with what you know. Here are some ideas to position your expertise and turn it into a Mom side hustle:
- Budget meal planning
- Homeschooling special need kids
- Organizing a toy closet
- Simple landscaping
- Growing a garden from an apartment with no outdoor space
- Decluttering tips for working Moms
There are tons of topics you’re probably a wiz at that people come to you for advice about all the time. You can market yourself accordingly and reach out to blogs, newspapers, magazines, and more. It may take a little time to get up and running, but it’s a faster and more immediate way to earn over blogging. I suggest getting started with the help of The Writer’s Den. I was already dabbling in freelance writing and couldn’t quite figure out how to scale my income. I got tons of expertise, insights, and help from experts that helped revolutionize my career and skyrocket my income.
Learn more about freelance writing and The Writer’s Den here.
8) Animal Farm Party Business
I recently met someone who ran animal farm party businesses, and didn’t even use his own animals! At least not all of them. He did bring along adorable guinea pigs, rabbits, a hedgehog, sugar gliders, silky chickens, and a giant turtle. When asking about his business, he said he often rents out ponies, pigs, and sheep from a farmer up the sheep for the day.
Intrigued, I asked about how many parties he usually ran during a week. He said he did a few during the week, but Saturday was his biggest day and ran three parties. He brings everything to the guest’s home, sets up small, make-shift ‘pins’ with a gate that kids can go into, and cleans it all up. His rate? $250 to $275 for a one hour party! I was floored at that, but I did see that he spent a lot of time simply organizing the animals and then getting them back into their cages and crates to take them to the next party. He also hires someone else to run an additional three parties with other animals.
Of course, not everyone is comfortable with this idea. Although the animals seemed happy sitting out in the sunshine and being petted, it’s not the right Mom side hustle for everyone. However, the kids did learn a ton during the party and the business owner patiently answered questions about what they ate, where they came from, how they live in the wild, and what their likes and dislikes were.
If you don’t have your own animals, visit area hobby farms and ask if they’re interested in earning a side income while you run the business. It’s also a great time to figure out if you want to get set-up with a hobby farm of your own.
9) Nature Crafting Supply Business
Just like a craft scrap resell business, nature crafting supplies are in high demand and free to source. Take a look at Etsy and eBay and you’ll find hundreds of people selling pinecones, acorns, pine straw, twigs, rocks, and even tumbleweeds! You can source all of your inventory for free by walking outdoors or taking a hike. Make sure the area you’re in is okay with removing natural elements.
You can also stack this with other business ideas for a stay at home Mom side hustle. Advertise services to come and clean-up sticks, pinecones, and anything else from people’s yards. Look through your haul to sell what you can and recycle or compost the rest. As always, make sure you’re transparent with your customers and outline everything in the contract.
10) High-End Cotton Candy Vendor
Whenever there’s an event in our small town, a father and daughter duo come and sell the most amazing cotton candy. They sell basic flavors kids love, like “blue” and “pink,” but the grown-ups line up for fusion flavors with extras like sparkles. Other vendors sell exotic flavors like lemongrass coconut, saffron, chocolate mint, and Aztec chocolate.
This Mom side hustle also scales! You’ll earn more working at festivals, corporate parties, and farmer’s markets. If you don’t want to work an event in person, you can also make it at home and package it up in cute cotton candy cups with personalized labels. For example, try something like, “Ava’s Birthday is Too Sweet.” You can charge extra for the cups, printing, and delivery services.
11) At-Home Doggie Daycare
People love their fur babies and will spend a premium to keep them happy. Some dogs also need regular stimulation and exercise, or their family comes home to find their pups hyper-active and demanding endless attention. You may be wondering why they would bring their dogs to your house instead of an established doggie daycare. The answer? Individualized attention.
If you love dogs and your kids and other pets are flexible, taking in one or two other dogs is a win for your Mom side hustle. You’ll have a blast with the pups without even realizing you’re working. Beyond daycare, you can also offer to take dogs to their vet visits and pick-up pet supplies for an extra fee.
12) Playroom Organizer
If you love organizing, niche down and specialize in an area you probably know well as a Mom: the playroom. Tame their playroom and then create systems and processes for families to stay organized on their own. It’s a surprisingly lucrative business that brings peace and harmony to people’s homes. You can also upcharge for materials and periodic organizing.
Not sure how this Mom side hustle works? Listen to this podcast with Evelyn from the Toy Tamer who commands thousands of dollars for her work as a playroom organizer.
13) After School Jewelry Classes
When you love making jewelry, it can be frustrating when it’s not selling online. Taking time to sell in person at markets can take time, and isn’t always lucrative enough to make it work. Instead, you can use your skills and tap into your passions at the same time by offering after school jewelry classes. Pick out a theme, like friendship bracelets, and figure out the costs of your supplies. It’s also important to factor in the time it will take to get organized, drive to the class, set-up, and tear everything down. You should also consider the cost for gas. Once you have all of these numbers, you need to come up with a decent hourly rate that compensates for your time. You’ll be surprised how quickly you can make thousands a month by charging $20 or $25 per kid, per class.
One of the best parts about this idea for a stay at home Mom is it scales. You can teach several jewelry classes to different groups every week and earn recurring revenue. You can also sell at-home jewelry making kits with instructions that the families can buy to do on their own.
Can’t teach jewelry making in person? Teach it online with Outschool instead.
14) Sell Charcuterie Boards
Selling charcuterie boards commands thousands in sales and is easy to start from home. Create stunning boards for bridal parties, corporate meetings, birthday parties, anniversary celebrations, and more.
You can also create your own boards as a keepsake and earn more in the process. Boards By Mo got started by donation snack platters to essential platters and by growing her Instagram following. She moved into corporate sales and holding charcuterie workshops to teach others how to make these tasty and beautiful creations.
15) Baby Gear Rental
Moms already know what baby gear works, and what doesn’t, from trial and error or word of mouth. Put your expertise to good use by renting out baby gear. You can partner with Airbnbs and boutique hotels, or align with an established provider like BabyQuip. Providers sign-up, pay a small fee, and get set up with their own Baby Quip page and market. Travelers can log in to look for providers and book gear and toys from you. You can also charge extra for delivery services.
Do Moms Need a Side Hustle?
Moms need a side hustle to enjoy more income, peace of mind, and ability to grow their skills and resources for their families. Get started with your own business ideas for a stay at home Mom by brainstorming or checking out some of these best side hustles. Write anything and everything that pops into your head and start narrowing things down until you find a niche you want to explore.