Job and side business ideas for work-from-home-moms

As a caring mom, you would understandably want to stay at home with your kids. You’d like to stay at home and care for your kids yourself, instead of having to send them to a preschool or a babysitter who couldn’t possibly love them as much as you do. Be a work-from-home mom, and earn some money on the side at the same time. 

If you’ve been working previously in a skilled position, you might be able to carry on the same work as a freelancer on a part-time basis, but not every mom is in that position.

Here are some of our best work from home mom ideas for housewives who want a side hustle that boosts their spending money, without taking them away from looking after their families.

Here are the best work-from-home ideas for housewives.

Side business for stay at home moms

As a job for a housewife, your days might be full of mom work, but you’d be surprised to discover that it’s possible to earn money doing the exact same tasks you’re carrying out anyway for your family. 

1. Sell home-cooked meals

Loads of busy moms wish they could serve their families nutritious, home-cooked meals, but simply don’t have the time or the energy. Meanwhile, you’re cooking for your family anyway. It’s a match made in heaven; you double up the food you’re making, they get a healthy meal, and you get paid. 

That’s what happened for Annise Middleton. She sells home-cooked Sunday lunches through Facebook after she quit her full-time job to stay home with her four young kids. 

Need to know:

• Check your state’s food and safety regulations. You might need to take extra precautions like sterilizing your worktops and wearing plastic gloves.
• Use social media like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok to share photos or videos of your tempting food.
• Offer a range of options, like healthy dinners, school lunch preparation service, or Sunday brunches.

2. Offer quality laundry service

Don’t you do laundry on a weekly basis anyway? So why not make the most of it by simply just doing a few extra loads, and making money out of it. Some people hate laundry enough — or are short on time enough — to pay someone else to do it for them. You could make up to $500 a week doing someone else’s laundry at home.

Need to know:

• Your workflow will fluctuate, with some very quiet weeks and some really busy ones.
• You can charge more if you offer to pick up and drop off the laundry at the client.
• You can charge extra for ironing and for handwashing delicate items.

3. Run childcare from home

Busy working moms love knowing that their child is getting plenty of attention in a small group of just two or three kids, and you already have all the “mom work” skills you need. 

The amount you can charge depends on where you live, but around $30 per day is a reasonable guess. Some moms run drop-off, book-by-the-day childcare services.

Need to know:

• Add childcare insurance to your homeowner’s insurance.
• Check state regulations about how many children you can care for at home without a license.
• Take a first aid course, if you didn’t already.

4. Offer pet services

If you have a dog or cat of your own or you’re used to caring for them, pet walking, pet grooming, and pet sitting can be an excellent part-time jobs for a housewife. The average hourly wage for pet sitting is $14, and dog walkers can earn up to $40 per walk. 

Bryn Wied is just one mom who began dog-sitting through an app, grew her client base, and now runs her own dog-sitting business while caring for her toddler.

Need to know:

• Today, there are apps people use to find dog walkers and pet sitters. Sign up to Rover, Wag!, or Petsitter to start finding jobs.
• You’ll earn more if you run a private pet care business than through the apps.
• Think outside the box to offer extra services, like home-cooked doggie meals for people who love to spoil their pets.

Work from home ideas you can do online

For some of you, the thought of using a computer might seem intimidating but don’t worry, it’s really not that hard. It’s just sitting in front of a computer, you can stop for a while, and come back to it whenever you like. If the baby is crying go ahead and take a break, when the baby falls asleep again, you can get right back to it.

This can be a great opportunity for a part-time job for a housewife that has few hours in the day — or night — and enough concentration to sit at the computer and focus on work, try one of these part-time jobs for housewives.  

1. Proofreading/ Teacher 

You don’t need to complete any training or certification course; all you need is an eye for detail, a good knowledge of grammar and sentence structure, and a computer. You’ll earn more as you get more experience, with proofreaders making up to $4,000 per month.

For example, Linda swapped her out-the-home job as a teacher for proofreading from home so she could be a stay-at-home mom. She did a couple of proofreading courses, and quickly found all the work she needed. 

Need to know:

• Start by offering proofreading for friends and family, and ask them to recommend you to others, especially on social media sites, referring back to your business page.
• Use freelance work sites like Fiverr, Upwork, and Freelancer.com to find more jobs.
• Proofreaders with degrees and experience in certain industries can charge more.
• Familiarize yourself with project management software like Asana, Trello, or Basecamp so you can send and receive assignments

2. Check search engines

Believe it or not, Google pays humans to check its search ranking results and see if they seem reasonable. You can also earn money running specific search queries and checking that nothing irrelevant appears in the results. 

Need to know:

• Search engine testing can be done on your own schedule.
• Earn $9-$11 per hour.
• Websites to use include Leap Force, Appen, and LionBridge.

3. Data entry specialist 

All you need to be a data entry specialist are fast typing skills, a computer with MS Office Suite, and an eye for detail. Data entry specialists often work checking invoices and databases. Median pay is around $35,000 yearly. 

Need to know:

• You’ll make more money if you have skills or experience in specific industries like finance, insurance, or medical.
• Data entry workers who are bilingual are in high demand

Work from home for uneducated housewives

It’s not always easy to find a job for a housewife with no training, experience, or specific skills. But don’t worry, there are still ways to work from home for uneducated housewives with zero experience. 

Need to know:

• Some survey sites won’t let you cash out your earnings until you have a minimum amount.
• You’ll need to create a profile and share personal information to use survey sites.
• Only use legit, trustworthy sites like SurveyJunkie, Vindale Research, InboxDollars, Swagbucks, VoxPopMe, Toluna, and Paid Viewpoint. 

2. Get paid to try new products

Yes, it’s actually possible to get paid just to use new stuff. Product review websites pay up to a few hundred dollars a time for people to try out new products or services and share their feedback. You could make a few hundred dollars within 6 months. 

Need to know:

• Sign up to a website like Product Report Card, Toluna Influencers, Project Payday, MySoapBox, or Opinion Outpost and share your basic information.
• Products arrive in the mail. You’ll try them out and then write a review to send to the website. 
• Some sites like Product Report Card and Toluna Influencers invite top reviewers to join their high-level focus groups, which pay more than $100 each time. 

3. Test apps and websites

If you’re always on your phone, you might as well get paid for it. Much like the previous option of testing new products, companies pay people to test out their apps and websites and help them improve them. You can earn around $10 per test, and you’ll need to go through the entire site or app to test drive it thoroughly.

Need to know:

• Each test takes around 10-20 minutes to complete.
• Some sites will ask you to watch a video, see an ad, or think about a concept as well as trying out the site/app.
• User Testing, Userlytics, User Test, TryMyUI, Userfeel, WhatUsersDo and TestingTime are just some of the sites that pay you to try out a website. 

Home business ideas for stay-at-home moms 

1. Narrate audiobooks

You’ve probably already spent hundreds of hours reading to your children, so why not use your read-aloud skills to earn some money? There’s plenty of demand for voiceover actors who can narrate audiobooks, or record voiceovers for business videos, video ads, or animated videos. Audiobook narration pays around $50-$350 per hour, while voiceovers can earn $100 to $500 per hour. 

Julie Eickhoff has been working as a voiceover artist from home for years, and now she’s expanded to offering audiobook narration training to other housewives who want to work as a work-from-home mom.

Need to know:

• You’ll need a clear voice and good enunciation.
• Look for voice recording jobs on Fiverr or Upwork; specialized sites like Voices.com or The Voice Realm; or work directly with authors who need narrators on ACX.
• You’ll need to be able to work in a quiet room, or when the house is quiet.

Work from home mom ideas for moms to share their experience

1. Health and fitness coach

If you invest time and energy in staying fit, why not share that knowledge with the world? You can work remotely as a health coach, encouraging clients to stick to their exercise regimens, helping them come up with healthy diets, and giving advice about wellness and fitness. The median pay is around $45,000. 

Lisa Catherine Kenny is a mom and holistic health coach for other moms. She shares the wisdom she gained overcoming her own eating disorder and learning to accept her own Mommy body.

Need to know:

• Certification isn’t required, but you can charge more if you do some online courses in nutrition and health.
• Consider specializing as a children’s health coach who helps parents plan nutritious and healthy menus for kids
• If you’ve helped care for your own elderly parents, you could work as a senior health coach to help older people stay strong and healthy late in life.

2. Parenting advisor

If you’re an experienced mom, there are new moms (and dads) out there who would love some of your help and advice. Many new parents feel completely confused, and their own parents aren’t always able to help them out. 

Prepare to address issues like sleep training, remedies for colic, and weaning strategies, as well as questions about sibling rivalry and how to say no to an angry toddler. 

Need to know:

• Most of your business will come through word of mouth.
• Use social media to share tips and advice to boost your reputation. 
• You’ll need plenty of empathy and listening skills to hear what parents really need help with.

3. Genealogy researcher job for housewife

If you love doing family history research and you’ve built your own family tree, you can make money helping others do the same. You might be asked to find out more about a mysterious ancestor, discover someone’s roots, or turn a mishmash of family history information into an organized family tree. 

Need to know:

• The Association of Professional Genealogists helps connect members with people looking for help, as well as offering continuing education courses. 
• You’ll need a membership to a number of family history research sites like MyHeritage and Ancestry.com.

Work from home mom can still be profitable

Just because you want to stay at home and look after your family, it doesn’t mean that you can’t still make money at the same time. These work-from-home mom ideas are just a few of the ways that a job for a housewife can add to the family income.