When I first became a stay at home mommy, one of the things I struggled with the most was no longer earning money.
I knew, and it was made clear, that I was contributing in plenty of other ways that made up for the lack in income.
In my own mind however, I really had a hard time with not contributing financially.
I was determined to find a way to bring home the bacon AND stay home with our littles.
So I tried A LOT of different things.
What worked? What DIDN'T work?
I'm going to tell you the top options I tried.
Number ONE
The first thing I tried was to sell handmade goods on Etsy. Now, I KNOW that you can probably make money on Etsy, and certainly, I made some. But here's the thing. Anything that you make by hand requires HOURS of your time.
Most people are looking for a deal, and yes! They absolutely want that beautiful, handmade, heirloom quality baby quilt, or blanket, or baptism outfit, or handmade, one of a kind earrings.
What they don't want? To pay the price.
And who can blame them?
So I spent hours, days, working on handmade baby crochet items and precious stone jewelry; but I had to price my products competitively. After 2 years of this, I realized that I simply was not making enough for the time I was putting in. When you're covering your materials and then making $3 an hour above that- well, I'd rather spend my time with my kids. Not stressed about making deadlines for custom orders.
Number TWO
Network Marketing.
I actually really love this. It's certainly not for everyone, which is fine.
It has gotten a bad rap, which is not fine.
The truth is that if you find something that you truly love, and are passionate about, then you're not "selling" anything. Sharing the love? Absolutely. For me; that turned out to be essential oils. That might look different for you.
Most network marketers are moms trying to stay home with their kids, and I'm absolutely behind supporting that movement. I would far rather help out a friend if it's a product I need, then purchase it from a big, chain store.
If you think that momma isn't working her booty off then you haven't tried it yourself.
HOURS get put in. BUT it can be super lucrative if you devote yourself to it.
It's definitely a viable possibility for making an income from home.
Number THREE
Selling stock photography online.
This is one of my favorites, and something I've only recently discovered. Most of us have decent phone cameras nowadays, which makes taking high quality images simple. Uploading them can be done straight from your phone.
If you want to up your phone camera game; you can easily purchase clip on macro and wide angle lenses without spending a fortune. I grabbed this one from Amazon, and I've been really happy with the results.
Chances are- you already have pictures in your phone that you can sell. Of your pets, your kids, the ocean, flowers, skylines, whatever you're into. It costs you absolutely NOTHING to upload your pictures and see which one's they will accept.
There are guidelines, and they will reject whatever you submit that doesn't meet their criteria, so you don't have to go nuts wondering if what you have is good enough. They'll let you know if it isn't, AND they'll tell you why.
Be careful which sites you use. The best ones will let you retain your rights, which is great because you can upload them on multiple platforms, increasing your chances for sales. However, this isn't the case for all of them. My favorite two platforms are Shutterstock and Adobe Stock. These links will take you directly to where you sign up as a "contributor" or "seller" and start uploading pictures.
They typically pay you each time someone downloads one of your pictures, and the more pictures you eventually have on your account, the more you can potentially make.
The great thing about this, is that it can become a form of #passiveincome.
Number FOUR
The stock market.
I'll admit, this is probably not attractive to most people.
In all honesty, it was never attractive to me until recently.
I am not by nature a gambler.
I want to make money, but I cringe at the thought of losing it.
I don't do casinos because the idea of losing more than $20 is out of the question for me.
In addition to this, I felt that the idea of learning how the stock market works to be daunting.
In reality, it's something anyone can do.
Doing it well though- that's a different story.
Stocks are inherently risky.
So where do you start?
Small.
Research.
Look at stocks that have traditionally done well.
Big names tend to be stable, but they also tend to be expensive.
I'm talking about Microsoft, Apple, Disney, Amazon, and the like.
Now look at stocks that pay dividends.
This is important, because they also tend to be more stable.
They pay you quarterly per stock that you own.
Sometimes it's .30 per stock 4 x a year. Sometimes it's significantly more.
Now, set that up for automatic dividend reinvestment. You now own partial stocks of the stock that you bought which will continue to accrue every time you get paid dividends.
Now watch the news.
Globally.
Crazy stuff happening worldwide tends to affect the stocks, and it's usually negatively.
BUT, before you go crazy selling everything off- this is actually often a great opportunity to BUY. Wait for the prices to drop, then grab a few of something you've been eyeing.
Here's the thing about stocks. Unless something truly catastrophic happens- they usually rebound.
It can take weeks, months, even years- but they almost always rebound.
Playing the stock market is best played as a long game.
It can be downright nail biting to look at the stock reports daily and see how much you've gained or lost. #igetit
But, traditionally, people make more on stocks when they don't sell the second they drop and try to buy again the second the begin to go up.
For one thing, no one has time to watch the stock market like that unless you're a day trader. However, that doesn't mean you shouldn't watch your investment.
You should ABSOLUTELY watch the market, and your stocks.
Before you buy something- you should look at it's history, see what the analysts are saying, look for upcoming splits in large stocks and follow the stock for a little while.
It helps mitigate the chances of loss.
But rest assured, you will almost certainly lose something at some point.
The objective has to be that you gain overall.
Have something to add that has worked for you? I'd love to hear about it! One of my biggest goals in life is to attain enough of a passive income (from multiple streams), to travel the world without working.
In the diffuser:
8 drops Orange
4 drops Thieves
