Recently, for my book research, I posted a question on my pregnant mummies Facebook group. I asked them: What are their biggest worries?

I was surprised to hear that besides the general fear of labour pain and health related issues, many soon-to-be mothers expressed worries over finances. Many are planning to be a stay at home mum and wondering how they could be financially contributing to the family at the same time.

Interestingly, they are not alone. I’ve received multiple emails from mothers who are currently working full-time and want to ideally make money working from home, so they can enjoy their children’s growth.

Is it possible to have the best of both world?

Of course! You could be interested in making some money while the kids are at school, or whenever there is down time around the house. You want to have some pocket money so you don’t have to ask from your partner for every little purchase. You want to feel useful and not waste many years of formal education your own parents put you through. Whatever your reason is for wanting to earn an income from home, here are a list of ways to contribute or provide for your family as a Stay At Home Mom.

1. Sell things online

Setting up shops and selling things online couldn’t be easier these days. You can set up your own website or use platforms like Shopify or even sell on marketplace like Etsy. The hard part is figuring out what to sell and how to differentiate your offering from others. Elaine Ang-Giraud from Celebrate With Love, an online shop that specialises in bespoke gift sets spends about 40 to 50 hours a week on her business as well as her other social enterprise project which helps children from disadvantaged background. Each bespoke set is crafted from scratch, takes about 6 hours from conceptualisation, selection of baby goods, making it and photo shoot along the way (for marketing purpose). She gets about 10 orders per month.

2. Blogging

If you can attract a regular readership for your blog, there’s good money to be made from sponsorships and other digital product offerings. I’ve been blogging for 3 years now and I make between $3k to $5k per month. Decide on the message and direction of your blog early on and don’t blog for the sake of making money. Good content is what makes readers coming back for more. If you’re interested monetising your blog, here’s a free cheat sheet I’ve created. This is MY own step-by-step plan to bring the content and income generated from my blog to another level. Let’s do this together!

3. Baking

For those who love to bake, why not start a baking business? You can start off baking for friends and family and be sure to take lots of lovely photos. Marketing your biz couldn’t be simpler these days. I’ve purchased many cakes from mothers whom I found through Instagram and Facebook pages. Depending on your experience, you can start by doing something simple on the side like making rustic cookies before heading on to offer exquisite artisanal fare.

4. Tutoring

5. Hair styling

6. Freelance writing and content marketing

With growing startups, established brands, and even notable influencers needing to establish and grow their brands, professional writers who can serve up compelling content enjoy a huge demand for their services. And, since brands will always need high-quality content to bring in new customers to their businesses/websites, your skills will always remain an asset to invest in.

7. Graphic design

8. Become a social media manager

According to the Salesforce 2016 State of Marketing report, social media advertising is one of the top two priorities for marketers this year. In fact, 80% of marketers say they plan to increase spending in this area in 2016. So if you have an aptitude for writing short engaging copy, graphic design (especially useful on platforms like Instagram and Pinterest) and an understanding of how to utilise social ads to take advantage of online word-of- mouth marketing and to scale brands’ organic social media effects, this could be something you could do from home. From my research, freelancers on Upwork are charging between $15 to $60 per hour for this position.

9. Be a virtual assistant

10. Tailoring and Alterations

If you know how to mend clothes, then you have a growing market of budget-conscious and personalisation-obsessed customers readily available. Firstly, get your hands on a commercial-grade sewing machine. Next, offer to partner with your local dry-cleaning and laundry services in exchange for referral fees every time they send you a new customer. After that, all you have to do is do a good job and hopefully grow your at-home business via word of mouth!

11. Party decorator

If you love parties and have a good pair of hands at putting things together, being a party decorator could just be your thing. Jacqualine Chan from Hello Lobang does about 5 events on average per month, which brings in about SGD500. Being her own boss, she chooses to have a balanced work/home life over more events. So she keeps it to a comfortable number of jobs she can handle.

12. Social media marketing

25-year-old Liz Eswein for example, who charges a fee to brands for taking the photos she posts on her account @NewYorkCity, and an additional $1 per like on top of that. Not bad, considering most of her photos get between 10,000 to 20,000 likes.

13. Selling your craft

Adeline of Adeline’s Loft started making accessories for herself instead of getting them off the shelves. The interest had since spurred her to offer her handmade affordable bespoke lifestyle jewellery to many women online. While the business does not provide a regular side income for Adeline, she thrives on passion. On a good month, she earns a modest $400 to $500, which is good enough pocket money to treat her family to a nice meal. If you have a talent for crafting or creating handmade goods, you could also easily sell your handmade baby clothing, phone cases, hats and bags on Etsy – one of world’s biggest independent marketplace that’s perfect for anyone who is creative and willing to sell their handmade creations.

14. Network marketing

In the past, I have joined direct sales/network marketing companies and failed miserably. But with the internet and your ability to grow online audiences around a product or service that you truly believe in, direct sales could be a viable option.

15. Write an ebook

Access to self-publishing tools and marketplaces is so easy and affordable these days, anyone can publish their own book. While some ebooks never sell more than a dozen copies; when marketed correctly, you can earn a good recurring passive income from ebooks. Abby from A Girl and Her Blog makes a comfortable five figures income from 3 of her ebooks each month.

16. Teaching music lessons at home

17. Cosmetology

19. Trading

A former remisier, Jenn Lee now trades stocks, indices, commodities and invest in real estates. Her goal is to a have a fully paid-up shelter over her heads, to have at least one fully paid up property for rental so that she can safely retire, and to have one investment property set aside for her son. Over the last 7 years, her annual income and capital gain ranges from S$50,000 to $200,000 – not bad for a stay-at-home-mum. However, she does note that the income isn’t fixed as it all depends on economic and market situation. 

20. Provide online tech support from home

My book is out. Get your copy here!