Work from Home Jobs for Moms

Work from home jobs for moms can give the best of both worlds — career & family. It used to be that moms had to choose between the two — each decision having both its pros and cons. Nowadays, parents can have their cake and eat it too when they land a flexible job that allows them to work from home while watching little ones.

The benefits are numerous — money saved on childcare, extra income coming into the household, and being readily available for your family. This is especially helpful when littles ones come down with a nasty bug, your car won’t start or the weather is just absolutely atrocious.

But, if you’ve never worked from home before, you probably have a lot of questions:  Are there legitimate work from home jobs for moms? Will I be able to find something that works for me? Can I really earn a living with kids at home?

Yes. Yes. And, yes.

But, be warned, it’s not always easy or convenient — but if you’re willing to make it work, it can. And nine times out of ten, the benefits of being a stay-at-home working parent far outweigh the rough patches.

Be Realistic

While there are legitimate work from home jobs for moms, you also have to be realistic about what might be available. If your availability is a short four-hour window that falls between the time you drop off your oldest at school and pick up your youngest from daycare, expect your options to be limited.

Similarly, if you have an infant requiring constant care, there will likely be even fewer options available to you.

I’m not saying these things to discourage you — I just want to make sure you go into the work-from-home job search with realistic expectations and an open mind.

Assess Your Work from Home Skills

You’ve probably got a number of skills that translate well to popular home-based job options. Think about what it is you can do and that will give you a good indication of where you should start looking.

• Can you write well?
• Are you a natural salesperson?
• Fast typist?
• Grammar aficionado?
• Social butterfly?

It’s always a good idea to play to your strengths no matter what kind of job you’re looking for, but especially so when looking for a work from home job. Why? Because when you’re working from home and raising a family, you can get burned out pretty easily. If you’re doing something you don’t mind or actually enjoy, you’ll be more likely to keep going, even when the going gets tough.

What’s Out There?

Remember, when I said you’ve got to go into the stay-at-home, work-from-home job search with an open mind? Well, now’s the time to implement that!

In terms of work-from-jobs, you can usually expect them to fall into one of four categories:

• Employee position
• Freelance
• Home-business
• Independent Contractor

As with anything, each employment type has its pros and cons.

Employee

Employee-based positions come with stability like benefits, set schedules, and an hourly rate. However, they offer the least flexibility and aren’t always accommodating to schedule requests.

Freelance

Freelancing is great for flexibility since you can choose which projects you work on and when. But the freelance world usually goes in an endless cycle of feast or famine — totally unpredictable in terms of work and pay.

Home-business

Home-businesses are wonderful for the entrepreneurial spirited stay-at-home parents. This can include everything from direct sales to starting a business entirely from scratch. Keep in mind, businesses require a lot of your attention to thrive which may not lend itself well with kids around.

Independent Contractor

As an independent contractor you get a little more predictability than freelancing but less stability than an employee position. Independent contractor (IC) positions allow you to work on your own terms, as long as you meet your contract requirements.

Often, stay-at-home moms and dads are most likely to find home-based success as a freelancer, independent contractor, or direct sales rep. Why? Because these types of employment offer flexibility, autonomy, and can work around a busy family schedule — not the other way around!

Where to Find Work at Home Jobs for Moms

Now that you’ve narrowed down your search by establishing what you’re good at and the types of positions out there, you can start looking for work at home jobs for moms. So, where exactly do you look?

Where you look depends on what you’re looking for.

Employee Positions

Indeed Jobs can lead to some work from home jobs for moms. Openings for companies like American Express, U-Haul, and Hilton Hotels will regularly show up here. I mention these because they are familiar brands that offer remote positions, but there are tons of lesser-known companies listed, too.

The best way to find them is to type Remote or Work at Home in the box labeled “Where”

what	where
job title, keywords or company	city, state or zip jobs by

Make sure you read the requirements carefully — many companies offering employee positions expect you to have availability during normal business hours. And since you’ve got little ones in your care, this probably isn’t practical. A growing number of companies, mostly startups, are embracing a non-traditional work-whenever-makes-sense-for-you mantra. These forward-thinking companies recognize that talent comes from all sorts of places, including stay-at-home parents.

Another option is FlexJobs. They hand screen all job postings to ensure they are 100% legitimate — guaranteed! But FlexJobs does cost money to access their job leads:

If you’re concerned about scams and like the idea of only pre-screened ads, FlexJobs may be worth it — even for just a month to see what’s out there!

Freelance

Stay-at-home parents truly are some of the most untapped business talent out there — instead of letting all that talent go unused, consider launching a freelance career. What can you offer as a freelancer? Just about anything! Some in-demand freelance services include:

• Writing
• Web design
• Social media management
• Virtual assistant
• Business consultant
• Life coach
• Proofreader

This is just a small sample of freelance services but, really, you’re only limited by what you’re willing to offer. One of the easiest ways to get started as a freelancer is to sign up with a popular marketplace, like Upwork. You’ll find thousands of jobs posted at any given time ranging from graphic designer to article writer.

Once you get your footing as a freelancer, you can step outside of marketplaces and set up shop on your own. With an online portfolio and a business plan in place, you can start landing your own clients. Freelancing offers plenty of flexibility and the freedom to work as much or little as you’d like.

Home Business

Home business is such a broad term. It can include everything from flipping clearance products for profit to blogging — and everything in between.

Some parents find direct sales to be a natural fit for them since they already have plenty of contacts that would be interested in the products they represent.

Another increasingly popular option is blogging. As a mom, you probably have genius childcare hacks and practical advice for managing the household — why not start a blog and share your wisdom? Outside of parenting how-tos, you can blog about many different things:

• DIY
• Food
• Photography
• Savings
• Health
• Fashion

While some people argue blogging isn’t a business — I’d say it’s a great way to build a business but not necessarily a business in and of itself.

As a blogger, I earn money a number of ways — some of it comes from affiliate sales and ad revenue, which I can attribute to the blog itself. A substantial portion of my earnings come from clients who approach me for work because they read my blog. So, while the act of blogging isn’t the main source of income, blogging does present a number of money-making opportunities!

If blogging isn’t your thing, perhaps a home business opportunity with one of several companies that lets you be your own boss is more your speed. These companies allow you to become an independent business owner while performing services for their clients like customer service and sales.

Remember, the success of a home business depends on how much you put into it. One great way to have a successful home business as a parent is to find something that is manageable and you enjoy doing. Head on over to The Work at Home Woman for plenty of great ideas and inspiration for parents contemplating a home business.

Independent Contractor

One of the frequent questions I get is, “What exactly is an independent contractor?” An independent contractor is a person who provides their services on a contractual basis. That is, if you work as an independent contractor you bill for your services and not your time.

In the eyes of the law, an independent contractor differs from an employee in that an independent contractor has the freedom to act autonomously to get a job done as they see fit — as long as you meet the contract requirements. As an independent contractor you’re not entitled to benefits like paid time off or health insurance. You will also be responsible for paying taxes on your earnings.

There are a lot of work from home jobs for moms as an IC:

• Most transcription
• Search engine evaluation
• Article writing (Scripted, BKA, HireWriters — to name a few!)
• Fancy Hands Virtual Assistant
• Wonder Researcher
• REV Video Captioner

I come across a lot of these opportunities on Craigslist. I know Craigslist doesn’t have the best reputation, but there are plenty of legitimate companies advertising their jobs here.  Look out for red flags like asking you to pay for opportunities or wanting you to deposit a check in your account and giving a portion of it back to the company.

It’s a good idea to check your local Craigslist market for home-based jobs. Sometimes, you’ll find a job that requires you to come into the office for orientation before you can work from home. For example, food delivery service company, DoorDash, hires contractors to key menus from home, but first they have to come into the Atlanta office for training.

Remember to check the largest Craigslist markets like Los Angeles, New York, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Washington D.C.  When a company is hiring remote workers nationwide, they’ll typically post the ad to one or more of these larger markets.

To sort through all the other jobs, just make sure you select the “Telecommute” option:

More Work from Home Jobs for Moms

If you’ve been wanting to contribute financially to your household while also staying at home with your  kids, it can be difficult to know where to start! Remember, figure out what kind of employment makes sense for you and be realistic about the amount of time you can actually commit to. While it’s nice to have extra money coming in, you’re not good to anyone in the household if you’re run down from spreading yourself too thin!

If you’re not quite ready to commit to a home-based career or take on freelance assignments, try easing into the work from home scene by trying out these work from home extra money makers:

Usability testing

Surveys/Market Research/Product Tester

Phone Mystery Shopping

There’s also a number of hobbies that can make you money and work from home weekends jobs that might fit perfectly into your schedule.

Thanks to all the work from home jobs for moms, you can realistically make a financial contribution to your household while staying home with the kids. Have any questions? Need a little advice? Leave it in the comments below or send me an email: ashlee@workfromhomehappiness.com

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