Learn how these 9+ side hustles can bring in extra cash for busy moms.
Moms… would you like to start a side hustle and bring in extra money each month?
How could you and your family benefit from an extra $500-$1000+ a month?
Would you go on that vacation you’ve been wanting to go on?
Or payoff that extra car loan early or other household debt?
How can we, as busy moms, start a side job hustle and bring in needed extra cash per month?
What if I told you there are real, legitimate, and very practical ways to bring in extra income working a side “job” or side hustle as a busy working mom?
Side jobs that you would actually enjoy doing, that do not involve multi-level sales, and require a minimum initial investment.
All of the jobs I’ve listed below can be started from the comfort of your own home!
Do you have experience in something that you could turn into a paying side gig?
What is something you have always wanted to do and have thought about turning that side job idea into a paying side hustle?
Do you love to bake, or organize home spaces? What about managing social media accounts or copyrighting? Do you have experience in creating graphic art, web design, or other freelancing areas?
Maybe you are good at bookkeeping or teaching piano or other musical instruments. Do you love to help people? Have you thought about becoming a life coach?
Let’s dive into the true small business success stories and recommendations I have researched for you.
Before you read further, please know that this post may contain affiliate links, for which I may receive a commission. There is no cost to you if you purchase through one of these links. Thank you.
Home-Based Bakery
Have you thought about starting a Bakery business in your own kitchen?
Baking from your own home allows for incredible flexibility, and very low start-up costs, with the potential of making hundreds of extra dollars per month.
As a very busy mom of two, Jasmine Madison started her own in-home bakery called “Jazzed Up Sweet Treats” in Fort Worth, Texas.
Within a few years of consistently baking for clients in her home, she had grown her small home-based business to the point that she was able to quit her job as an engineer to bake full-time.
If you are thinking about starting your own home-based bakery, Jasmine provided step-by-step instructions on how to do this from your local cottage laws, start-up costs, how she created her own business plan, and how to balance your family life starting this new venture.
As a busy mom, this is a great business opportunity and one of the best ways to start with just the items in your kitchen, and grow into a profitable business!
How much can I make selling my baked goods at home?
How much can I potentially make? $500+ a month! It all depends on how much you want to bake and sell. Check out my interview with Jasmine, and how she started a successful baking business from home.
Experience Required? Just a little experience in your own kitchen cooking for your family.
What are the startup costs? $50-100 startup costs are involved.
Turn Thrift Bought Items into Cash
Do you love to go “thrifting?” Have you considered turning your thrift store items into cold hard cash?
From kids’ clothes to high-end purses, hats, and even shoes! You can find these items anywhere from thrift stores like goodwill to your local flea markets with very little work and much time involved on your part.
What about Craigslist or even estate sales?
Make sure to download apps like “Craigslist” and “Yardsale” to find the deals and locations of yard sales near you.
If you decide to sell clothing items, there are websites that help make it incredibly easy like thredup.com or depop.com.
What about flipping used books for profit? There are ways to sell your books through Amazon FBA or software companies like TextTrader.com.
Whether it’s thrifting books, clothing, and other apparel, or furniture is one of the best small business ideas out there for stay-at-home moms!
How much can I make reselling thrift store items?
How much can I potentially make? $500-$1000.00 a month to start.
Experience Required? Very little experience is necessary for this – just good haggling skills if you are yard sale hopping and purchasing your items at the lowest price to make that profit.
If you are interested in selling products as an Amazon FBA, there is a great course for only $39 to start, that will train you every step of the way called the Proven Amazon Course.
What are the startup costs? $25-$100 can buy you some great used items to start!
Bookkeeper
Have you thought about starting your own Bookkeeping business?
Do you enjoy bookkeeping and working with numbers? Is this something that you feel will be a natural fit for you to manage other small business accounts?
Working in the evenings and weekends can provide you with the ability to do this with very little investment upfront.
As a matter of fact, my friend Katie started her bookkeeping job on the side!
She built a successful bookkeeping business while working her corporate job as an engineer and as a busy mom of two tweens!
She has been able to bring in hundreds of extra dollars a month, and build her clientele up with the goal of eventually turning it into a full-time business.
How much can I make, bookkeeping on the side?
How much can I potentially make? You can potentially replace your income working in a corporate position if you are consistent enough and build your clientele steadily.
Experience Required? There is some experience necessary with keeping books and financial transactions. Take this free workshop to see if this is a good fit for you.
What are the startup costs? There is a minimal fee for purchasing QuickBooks – a bookkeeping tool that ranges as low as $15 a month. This online tool can help you hewn in those skills you already have.
Social Media Manager
Freelancing as a Social Media Manager is one of the best ways to earn hundreds if not thousands of dollars per month from the comfort of your own home.
Managing social media accounts is a great opportunity to work your own schedule, have flexible hours, and be able to enjoy your family life too!
There are many opportunities to manage different forms of personal or professional online platforms and social media accounts.
I found an amazing online course called Hay There Social Media.
This training course can train you in everything from content management and how to build credibility and a solid client base, to client On-Boarding, pitching, and closing the deal.
The online course through Hay There Social Media gives you an incredible opportunity to hewn in those skills in several specific areas that are very much needed for social media management.
Busy moms! This is a chance for you to own your own business, have fun doing it and make really good money doing it!
How much money can I make managing social media platforms?
How much can I potentially make? You can potentially replace your income working in a corporate position if you are consistent enough and build your clientele steadily.
Experience Required? There is some experience necessary. You can learn more at Hay There social media.
What are the startup costs? There are zero startup costs to manage social media platforms.
The tuition required for the Hay There Social Media online course starts at just under 3k. Please note, this online course is the most expensive startup fee that will be mentioned here in this article.
Freelance Work
Freelance work is in high demand and is one of the top best online business opportunities for busy moms!
Freelancers work in many forms of social media management, tech, graphic design, coding and creating websites, creating marketing materials and graphics, and even bookkeeping including the list below.
Freelance Side Jobs that bring in extra cash:
- Freelance Writers / Copywriting
- Proof Reading
- Transcriber or Translator
- Virtual Assistant
- Brand Ambassador / Branding
- Video Editor
- Graphic Designer
- Digital Marketing & Ad Campaign Manager
- Web Design Business as a Developer/Coder/Programmer
- SEO Professional
With a little bit of determination and good writing skills, you could potentially turn this into a full-time job.
How much money can I make doing freelance work?
How much can I potentially make? Check out Upwork.com to find out how much several different freelance jobs create every year.
Experience Required? Some technical skills are required. Gain experience and certifications from Skillshare.com.
What are the startup costs? $0 – $100.00
Start a Blog
If I can start a blog, ANYONE can start one. This is one of the biggest regrets of my life – not starting one sooner.
With a little education of “how-to” videos and instructional e-books backing you, there is the possibility of making multi-thousands of dollars a month…. yes…a month, blogging!
With FREE educational videos on YouTube, you can learn about the strategy and science behind keyword research.
How much can I make blogging on the side?
How much can I potentially make? Beginner: $100-$1000.00 per month within your first year and up to 6 figures and more!
Be patient in blogging! It takes time, consistency, patience, and a lot of strategies to start ranking on the first page of google.
Experience Required? You will need to learn WordPress, content building, and building links. This eBook – Easy on-page SEO for Beginners by Debbie Gartner will help you get started!
I recommend watching Adam Enfroy’s one-hour video on the “Complete SEO Course for Beginners” on YouTube. In this video, he teaches about content building, link building, affiliate marketing, and connecting your affiliate links throughout a blog post.
What are the startup costs? Up to 500.00 for WordPress, hosting, site set up if needed, and misc., tools to help with keyword research.
Parenting Coach
Thinking about becoming a Parenting or Life Coach – Ask yourself these questions:
Have you ever considered helping others as a Life Coach or Parenting Coach?
As a life coach, you would help others in different ways to manage stress, career change, spiritual coaching, divorce/ grief coaching, business coaching, health and fitness coaching, and more!
Working as a life coach can be done from the comfort of your own home, with flexible hours around your own children’s schedule.
It’s an excellent way to bring in that extra cash, and really feel fulfilled by helping people.
- Do you like to help people?
- Are you naturally a good listener, encourager, and nurturer?
- Do your friends, co-workers, or family members come to you for advice on how to move forward on certain issues?
- For parenting coaching, do other stay-at-home moms, your co-working moms, or dads come to you for advice on parenting?
- Have you had experience in challenging parenting issues and would like to offer that to others?
If you have answered yes to even one of the above, you can be a life or parenting coach!
My friend and busy mom of 5, Kim Muench, started her side hustle as a Parenting Coach at the Real Life Parent Guide and has helped hundreds of people.
She was able to quit her full-time 9-5 job and is working full-time coaching moms and dads to be better parents all from the comfort of her own home via online zoom calls.
Parenting coaches can also include helping with baby sleep better, breastfeeding, potty training, nutrition for elementary-age children, and much more.
This is exactly how my friend Kim did it and turned her side hustle into a very successful and profitable business.
How much can I make as a Life Coach?
How much can I potentially make? Up to 6+ figures.
Experience Required? To become a parenting coach, it is recommended that you become certified through the Jai Institute or the PCI (Parenting Coaching Institute).
What are the startup costs? Coaching certification prices can vary from very little to over $3000.00.
Tutor
Have you considered this home-based business idea – working as a tutor?
Did you know that as of May 2021 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there is a national average of 147,100 across the US?
This means there is a demand for this area of work.
Tutors make an average annual income of $41,780.00 working full-time.
And the average hourly median wage for tutors was $17.53 with the highest percentile at $29.61?!? (See the Stats here at BLS.Gov for Tutors)
What if you were to do this part-time, as a side hustle working only an average of 10 hours a week?
That would bring you around $700.00 a month in extra income! What could that do for you as a working mom or stay-at-home mom?
Could that extra $700 help offset that cost and help you get ahead?
What if you could build this into a full-time business making an average of $41,000 a year all from the comfort of your own home?
This is exactly what my friend Ashley Ram did in 2018 and has now expanded her business to a completely online tutoring company.
She now has 15 contracted tutors who work for her company called Tutor Revolution.
Different age groups to teach as a side job as a Tutor:
- What age groups do you think would make a great fit for you?
- Do you prefer to teach younger children?
- What about older teens prepping for their SATs?
- What about teaching English as a second language?
- What about networking with homeschooled families?
This is an amazing opportunity all around for you to work part-time outside of your 9-5, or as a stay-at-home mom, with flexible hours and the huge potential of making good money on the side.
How much can I make on the side Tutoring?
How much can I potentially make? $500 – $1000.00 part-time with an average of $41k working full-time.
Experience Required? Experience, References, and Certifications are recommended.
What are the startup costs? Certificate costs vary. For certification education and information, go to CRLA Certifications.
Teach Piano
Are you good with music, do you play an instrument, and would love to help others learn how to play it too?
What about starting a side job as a private music teacher?
Private music teachers start anywhere from $25-50+ an hour and can be done all from the comfort of your own home by online teaching or in person at the location of your choice.
What could you do with $500 -$1000 in extra income per month?
There are countless ideas to expand this into more money-making opportunities.
Ideas to Expand your Piano Teaching Business:
- Create a Piano teaching YouTube Channel
- Create music lesson eBooks to sell online or to your students.
- Monthly “Piano Game Days” where your students come for group music team building sessions.
- Partner with homeschool families and co-op groups.
- Teach group lessons to adults with a fun twist of BYOB and finger foods.
- Partner duo piano lessons – bring a buddy to play piano for a week.
- Partner with Daycare Services or Centers to teach music lessons.
- Partner with Mom’s Groups for a “Sing and Play” time for 2–4-year-olds.
- Host Birthday Parties music dance parties for toddlers or other Musical Special Events for young children.
The business opportunities are endless along with the possibility of making a lot of extra money a month!
The business ideas listed above will help bring in new potential clients through word of mouth.
A Home-Based Piano Teacher Turned her Side Hustle into a Huge Company
As a very busy stay-at-home mom, Zoe Madewell-Harrington started her business as a piano teacher giving lessons to children in her home.
She grew her business to over 500 students and moved the business into a commercial building that now has over 30 highly sought-after instructors and a lot of happy children learning how to play piano and other musical instruments.
She started with just a very small home-based business idea that grew into a very successful music teaching company.
The “Irving Fine Arts Academy” has won countless awards including the “Best Music School” in Irving, Texas in 2022!
Programs in her growing company now include summer camps, art classes, adult classes, and ballet lessons, with multiple instrument lessons offered including drama, and voice lessons,
She has overcome significant obstacles, even the 2020 shutdowns that almost shut her business down.
Zoe is an incredible businesswoman managing a hugely successful and profitable music-teaching business.
She pursued her passion for helping children learn how to play the piano, and one by one, it grew into what it is today.
If Zoe can do it, you can too!
How much can I make teaching piano lessons?
How much can I potentially make? $500 + part-time to 4,000+ full-time.
Experience Required? Experience is required and References are recommended.
Working well with children is a must for this side job! 80% or more of your client base will be young children.
What are the startup costs? $100+ on teaching material and music lesson books. Be sure to weigh the cost of traveling to your students’ homes, the cost of gas, and the time traveling to each student. It’s recommended that they travel to your location to save time, gas, and more.
The Top 9+ Side Jobs for Busy Working Moms – Summary
How can you as a busy working mom find time to bring in extra cash each month?
To recap the list:
- Start a Homebased Bakery.
- Turn Thrift Bought items into Cash.
- Become a bookkeeper.
- Become a Social Media Manager.
- Do Freelance work or become a Freelance Writer
- Start a Blog
- Become a Life Coach or Parenting Coach Online
- Tutor Children or Adults
- Teach Piano or other Musical Instruments
With determination and direction, you can make this side job a reality!
Moms, if you find yourself struggling with doubt, I want you to know that some of the greatest businesswomen in the world started as very busy working moms and a dream.
In the book Think and Grow Rich Napoleon Hill wrote “The thought of all achievement no matter what its nature or purpose, must begin with an intense, burning desire for something definite. Through some strange and powerful principle of “mental chemistry,” nature wraps up in the impulse of strong desire “that something” which recognized no such word as impossible and accepts no such reality of failure.”
You have great business ideas, I know it!
You have the “desire” for more, that’s why you’re here doing the research.
Don’t give up. Keep going! You’ve got this!
