Want to earn income while caring for your children at home? Of course we do – and sometimes finding the right route to earn extra income can be difficult. Check out these 5 ways mums (and dads) can work from home to earn extra income for their family.

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The following is a list of 5 tried-and-true income-generating business ideas that can work well for stay-at-home parents. They work around (or with) the kids, you can set your own schedule and there is a good element of flexibility – perfect for busy parents.

Work From Home Ideas

#1. Start a Home Daycare Business

A home daycare business is one of the few enterprises that will allow you to play with your child, plus other children, all day – without feeling stressed or guilty over ignoring your work.

In almost every other sort of business venture, your child and your work will be in competition with each other for your attention. This can be one of the biggest frustrations work-at-home parents face. So a daycare business already has that one tremendous advantage over other types of businesses, assuming you have the resources, skill set and qualifications to successfully run such a business.

This is a business that may require a significant amount of upfront investment, as you will need to ensure that your home daycare space complies with all applicable safety laws, insurances, etc.

Depending on your location, local laws and academic credentials, you might also have to make some investments in training. In Ireland, if you plan to work directly with the children in your daycare service, you’ll most likely need at least a QQI Level 5 Major Award in Early Childhood Care and Education. You can find more details at the Early Childhood Ireland website.

In the USA, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has helpful information regarding qualifications for daycare directors.

In Australia, it’s beneficial for daycare directors to obtain a diploma of early childhood education and care. Both the Training.com.au website and Victorian Skills Gateway website have more insights about requirements and qualifications.

You might also enjoy reading 4 Tips to Help You Identify Suitable Work as a Mum

#2. Tutor Students Who Need Academic Help

If you have an area of academic expertise, you could put your knowledge to work by tutoring struggling students. Tutoring is a great way to earn a respectable amount of income on a flexible schedule.

Reaching out to local schools and parent associations is one way of finding tutoring clients. The school may have a noticeboard where you are allowed to post a tutor notice. You could also find tutoring work online through sites like Firsttutors.com or Tutor.com.

You might also enjoy reading Ways To Save Money and Earn Money At Home

#3. Become a Freelance Social Media Manager

If you have a knack for social media, you could manage the social channels for other small business owners.

Having your own thriving following is the first step to success as a social media manager, because it demonstrates that you have an understanding of how to nurture a community. Your sizeable following gives you credibility as you reach out to potential clients to offer them your services.

Since social media has many facets, you’ll want to make a list of services you offer – perhaps posting videos to YouTube, photos to Instagram, posts on Facebook or Twitter, or some sort of package deal that includes multiple services.

Look for clients at sites like Monster.com, Indeed.com, and in your own social media networks like LinkedIn.

Many social media tasks can be automated. For example, you could set up your clients’ blog posts to automatically be promoted to their Twitter followers as tweets. Using the automation tools at your disposal can help you to get significant amounts of work done at odd hours, like when your children are sleeping.

You might also enjoy reading Why a Work From Home Dad is NOT a Stay at Home Dad

#4. Sell Stock Photography or Illustrations

Do you have a talent for telling stories through single photographic or illustrated images? If so, you could earn income selling stock images online.

To get started as an illustrator, you’ll need to figure out a means of creating your images. Many illustrators use software such as Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator for this purpose.

To get started as a photographer, you’ll need a camera and lenses. Lighting gear is also helpful to have, although it may not always be necessary if you shoot in a naturally well-lit environment. You might be able to rent or lease the appropriate gear if you don’t want to make a considerable upfront investment to buy it all immediately.

Photo editing software, such as Photoshop, is also an asset for photographers; you can use it to brighten dull images or correct flaws that would otherwise detract from your images.

If you aren’t already knowledgeable about the mechanics of photography, you can find photography classes online at Creativelive.com, they often stream digital photography classes for free. They also offer a broad variety of reasonably priced photography classes if you can’t find what you want among their free offerings. Famous photographer Anne Geddes is one of their instructors, you might be familiar with her gorgeous baby images.

There are numerous stock photography websites that enable photographers to sell images to the public, istockphoto.com is one of the most popular of these.

To become an istockphoto.com contributor, you’ll need to submit an application at their parent company’s website including uploads of some of your photographs. Every submission is evaluated for commercial viability, so be sure to submit only your best work. If you’re curious about what kinds of imagery they are looking for, you can take a look at their current bestseller list to get an idea of which images are in demand right now.

If you’re accepted as a contributor, they will display the photos you’ve uploaded on their website. Their customers will then have the opportunity to license the images for use in their projects. Each time a customer uses one of your images, you’ll be paid a royalty for the usage. The same photographs can be used and re-used countless times – so every good image you create has the chance of earning you passive income.

You might also wish to sell your images through your own website. You could create stock photography CDs to sell online through sites like Etsy.com and eBay.com as well.

You might also enjoy reading How to Take Great Photos

#5. Become a Freelance Writer

Many businesses need written content: blog content, website pages, sales copy, product descriptions, SEO articles and press releases. Relatively few business owners hire in-house writers to create this content. Instead, they turn to freelance writers to create the copy they need for managing their businesses effectively.

One of the quickest ways to get started as a freelance writer is to seek out clients who are already actively looking for writers. Some clients advertise that they are looking for freelancers at websites like the Blogging Pro job board and Problogger’s job board. Textbroker can be also be a good source for freelance writers to find writing jobs.

Starting your own writer’s website is another great way of reaching business owners who want to hire writers. You can also approach potential clients by sending out letters of introduction.

You might also enjoy reading 10 Ways to Get Creative Writing Ideas Flowing

These work from home ideas are all viable for earning at least a part-time income, and perhaps more. As your children grow older and begin school, it’s possible that you might even be able to eventually grow your business enough to earn a full-time income working at one or more of these ideas.