I'm passionate about exploring different ways to make money as a stay at home Mom.
Here are 5 different ways of earning money to get your mind rolling.
1. What is your hobby or passion?
This is a good place to start. Most people have something they enjoy or would be excited to learn more about. Turn that passion into profit by exploring ways that it can be used to make some income.
Do you enjoy photography? Hone in on this passion and take some courses to further learn the art of a great photo. Offer your skill to others. There are always people looking for a photographer for their next family portrait. my photography page
Are DIY projects your thing? Pick up free or cheap items (furniture, toys, antiques, etc.) and use your artistic touch to turn these items into beautiful masterpieces! Breathe life into old things and sell them on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist.
Maybe you enjoy sewing or crocheting? Start an Etsy shop. There are many great opportunities for seamstresses on the platform.
Let your imagination run. There are many opportunities to turn passion into profit.
2. Sign up with an MLM company you love.
Yes, multi-level marketing companies are a controversial topic, but this can be a great opportunity for a stay at home mom. There are many companies that do offer quality products and if you love the products and can stand behind them, you may want to consider joining a brand.
By promoting and selling a company's product, they in return pay you a commission which can add up nicely over time. Just don't be the annoying friend that tries to make everyone buy their product 24/7. Be strategic. A good product sells itself.
3. Sell products on Craigslist and Ebay
I have made a lot of extra cash by doing this, and I've only done it here and there. Many people make businesses out of this including moms like you and I. Just search youtube for the subject.
My strategy is keeping my eyes on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and even sometimes on Ebay for deals. Thrift stores and garage sales are also wonderful options. You buy the product, clean it up, take quality photos, then repost it on online.
My Tips.
Start with a niche you understand. For me, I love camera gear and equipment and I understand the market fairly well. When you are unsure of the value of a product, simply go to Ebay, search for the product, and then go under 'sold listings'. There you will get a good idea of the going price and how many are selling in a day or month. As time goes on, you can branch out and understand the value of various products in different niches. But start with one or two categories so as not to get overwhelmed.
When searching for deals online, you'll often find them in listings with terrible photos (or no photos at all) and bad descriptions. No one wants to buy products from a terrible listing. That's where you come in and get a deal, because no one is inquiring and often the seller is willing to sell at a discount. You buy that product, clean it up, take multiple photos of it, and list it with a detailed description. This simple change can make a listing originally going for $50 sell for $100 or more (depending on the product). It's so easy to do and it amazes me how people don't understand the power of a quality listing.
Take quality photos. This tip goes with #2 but is extremely important. Two listings can be side by side with the same product. If the one has a poor image, it will not sell as quickly as the one with a quality image... even if the quality listing is priced higher. Invest in a good camera like the Canon T7i This camera paired with the 18-135mm lens is a wonderful all around DSLR camera set up that will get you started taking better photos. Learn the basics of photography and beat all the other listings on Craigslist and Facebook.
Don't be afraid to barter. People do this all the time and some listings even encourage offers with OBO (or best offer). I've found many great deals this way. Make sure to be polite and courteous and they won't mind!
Buy on ebay; sell locally. This is backward to what everyone will tell you, but I have done this numerous times. Ebay allows you to make offers, and sometimes a seller just wants to be rid of a product and will sell under the market value. You get the product and then sell on your local marketplace at market value. People will often over price their items on the local market place. This makes your listing look like a great deal even if you've priced it at it's proper value. It has worked for me, it can work for you. Just make sure to understand the market and popularity of an item before buying.
Be patient. Finding items to flip isn't easy and takes time to find. But if you enjoy the hunt, then this might be a side hustle that will make you a nice amount of extra income.
4. Trading & Searching the Free Section.
I've grouped these two together because this is a great option if you have little money to buy something to resell.
You would be amazed at some of the things that show up in the free section on Craigslist. Some things are smaller items like bikes that you could sell for $20 and other things are like ovens that people don't want to bother selling and are giving away because they replaced it with a newer oven. These can sell for $100 to $200.
Sign up for the alerts on your local craigslist free section. Besides getting alerts, now and then do a manual search yourself. You need to be fast. When an listing comes up, message them and say you will be there pronto. Don't ask questions, because they are getting a lot of messages from other people wanting the free item. The seller is going to pick the easiest person to deal with. Don't ask questions, just say you're coming.
I will quickly share about one free item I was able to score on big time! An old arcade game (huge and heavy) popped up for free! I knew instinctively it had to be worth a lot.
That game sold for $800! And I found out later it was likely worth more than that, but I was into a quick sale. $800 for a few hours of my time and some gas money. That rarely happens, but every now and then you will get lucky!
I've also picked up a free camper at one point and parted it out, making somewhere between $300 to $500 I believe. (it had a new fridge in it which is why I got it) and someone wanted the camper for the frame.
If you aren't afraid to try some new things, you can make out well! (: But you don't need to do big items as mentioned above... there are many smaller items that work just as well. It's a fun side hustle, but you need to be fast and beat the others to the prize!
The other venture you can try is TRADING.
This is something I did a lot of before I had my son, and then I moved onto other things. The concept, you trade an item that you have for another item that is more valuable than yours. There's usually no money exchanged; just items.
You may ask, "Why would someone trade their more expensive item for one of lesser value?"
The answer is simple. They no longer need their product and do not want to be bothered selling it. Whatever you are offering them would add more value to their life because they need it. So they are willing trade their more valuable item for your lesser one...
You take this process and repeat until you've worked your way up a line of products that keep increasing with value. You either end up selling the last trade or keeping it for yourself.
My husband and I have done numerous trades, but I will only share our more interesting one.
I set out with a goal to trade from a small camera up to a four wheeler. The process took about 1.5 years, but we accomplished it! And along the journey we had a lot of fun things to play with before we traded on to the next item.
It started with a compact camera valued at about $30
We had lot's of fun with the three wheeler and kept that for awhile, but eventually we traded for a boat and that was also fun! Going boating on Raystown lake had some great memories! Our last trade in this series was for a Vespa Scooter which we sold for cash.
If my memory serves me correctly, it sold for over $2000. We used around 800 of that to buy a four wheeler for our use here on the farm. Yes, this wasn't super profitable given the fact that it took over a year, but it was a fun challenge, and we really enjoyed our trades!
There were multiple other trades we did that profited well in a shorter amount of a time, but we won't go into those.
Trading is time consuming and requires patience. It's a nice thing to do on the side to earn a little extra income.
Tips for trading...
List your item in the Barter section of Craigslist. Make sure to mention you are interested in trade offers for the item. You will get many offers for junk before you land a keeper. You can also list it in other categories but be sure to be clear that you are only open to trades.
Browse craigslist or marketplace and make trade offers to other people. This tactic is more time consuming as most people will say no, but doing this will bring in more trades as opposed to simply waiting for people to come to you.
5. Sell on Amazon FBA
Now this last strategy has the potential to generate a lot of income and also has a huge potential to be a failure. It is a high risk investment.
I have tried and was lucky to land a product that is doing well on Amazon, but from reports I have seen very few products are successful... so there is a big risk involved.
What is Amazon FBA?
Many people do not realize that products on Amazon are items from various companies. These companies send in their products to Amazon FBA (fullfilled by Amazon) and then Amazon stores the products, ships the products, and handles customer service for a fee to the company.
This is an incredible opportunity because it's a way to make 'passive income'.
A person can make what is known as a 'private label' product. He needs to do a TON OF RESEARCH to find a product in a niche that has the potential to rank to the first page of Amazon and beat its competitors.
Once he finds such a product, the next step is to find a supplier through a website such as Alibaba. Then comes the tedious part of perfecting the product to his liking and adding his own 'label' or 'brand' to that product. He will then order his first shipment.
There is a lot of work and tactics that goes into making the product listing on Amazon getting it to rank.
So after all the hard work of research, sourcing a product, dealing with international shipping and customs, and optimizing the Amazon listing, the product will begin to do well on it's own.
Now the hard work begins to pay off as you no longer need to do much work. Keeping an eye on inventory, ordering from the supplier when inventory runs low, then restocking the Amazon warehouse, is the main workload of your business.
Selling on Amazon is incredible if it works, but also a risky investment. It's very difficult to rank a product to the first page of your keyword search results... which is crucial if you want to sell.
If you are interested in leanring more, check out Just One Dime on Youtube. He has a lot of information and taught me most of what I know!
I hope you enjoyed this list! Let me know in the comments with ways you make money as a stay at home mom!