Here are some of the offline possibilities that WAHMs we talked to have tried:
• Service businesses
Sell your knowledge, skills and experience.
• You offer your expertise or skills for an hourly rate or a flat fee. Examples: consulting, bookeeping, medical transcription.
Downside: You need to fund training and equipment, find clients, and work when, and possibly where, it suits them, rather than you.
I trained to be a medical transcriptionist at night, and after six months, began transcribing weeknights. I would sign on each night, praying there was enough work to meet my desired income level. I had to work one weekend a month, and if the kids were sick, or I couldn’t work, I had to find a substitute. Working 1-5 hours a night, I earned around $500 a month. Cate
• Open your own business at home. Examples: in-home hair or beauty salon, children’s daycare facility.Downside: Your home might need alterations. You work when clients want your services, rather than at the best hours for you. You fund your own training, equipment and insurance, and you either take the wear and tear on your home or rent premises.
I’m a WAHM with 2 little boys, one who just started kindergarten. I used to run a hairdressing salon out of my house. I worked in the evenings when my husband was home, but guess what, we never saw each other, and we rarely were together as a family… the four of us. Michelle
• Sales businessesYou create or purchase products and re-sell them for a profit.
• Make your own product
Crafts, quilts, baked goods, etc., which you market at craft fairs, kiosks in local stores. The list is endless.
Downside: You can sell only as much as you can make, unless you outsource. Selling could take up as much, or more, of your time as making the goods.
• Catalog sales
There are many catalog companies, with Avon one of the most well-known. You drop off catalogs to customers, pick up orders and deliver products.
Downside: You spend hours traveling between customers and may be required to work evenings/weekends.
• Network Marketing: Multi-level Marketing (MLM)
Melaleuca, Herbalife and Amway are well-known companies. You sign up as an independent representative and buy a supply of goods. Your “upline” is the person who brought you into the business, and you become their “downline”. You make money when you sell the products you buy from the company. Uplines earn commissions on their downlines’ sales, so you must recruit other sales people to expand your own downline.
Downside: You must train and/or strongly encourage your downlines to get results. Products are usually expensive, and you might need to store stock. These jobs involve inconvenient hours and travel, plus you have deadlines, hours that suit others and fluctuating income. You also need an extensive personal network, and must feel comfortable selling goods to people you don’t know.
• Network Marketing: Party plansYou purchase a starter kit, from which you sell make-up, jewelry, kids’ toys, kitchen utensils, etc., for companies like Tupperware and Usborne Books.
I ran a party plan business for two-and-a-half years. I recruited a team of 3 or 4 and usually earned around $400-$800 a month. I didn’t like having to keep track of inventory, constantly delivering product, hounding people to set up parties, and then having to go out at night and lug all my stuff in and out of customers’ homes, especially in the dead of winter. Cate
You take orders at parties held in customers’ homes, and also deliver products. You earn by re-selling the company’s goods and making commissions on sales made by your downlines.
Downside: You may work difficult hours, as most parties are in the evenings or on weekends.Please don’t misunderstand us…
We are not disparaging the hard-working moms out there who are making money at all of these work-from-home options. We admire their energy and determination, and some certainly do thrive. (And if you love the work you're currently doing, stay with us, because we're going to show you how you can get more leads, more sales, build a larger client base and downline... without leaving home.)
But we wonder how many moms fall by the wayside sooner or later, discouraged by all that these jobs demand of them in return for payment that is seldom generous, and limited long-term prospects.
We speak from hard-earned experience, and we came to the conclusion that somehow, somewhere, there had to be a better way to earn money.