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Stay-at-Home Mom (SAHM) desperate for remote side hustle

I've been a SAHM since my son's birth last May. It's extremely important to me to be at home with my son, and we rearranged our finances and my husband changed his career to make this possible; we are determined to make it work.

However, as it true for many, we have been hit pretty hard by inflation, coinciding with a domino-fall series of big, unanticipated expenses, one after the other. I've always been pretty conservative with spending money, especially on myself, but for the last year or so, it's gotten to a point where the guilt I feel over spending money on anything that is not a grocery item or diapers is overwhelming, reduces the pleasure of even having anything new, and is impacting my mental health.

I've done the deep dive into "side hustles for SAHM" and found myself knee deep in customer service applications for jobs that pretty quickly begin to require too many hours per week (with my son's naps, I have about 10 hours per week, during traditional work hours).

I've considered virtual teaching jobs (like VIPKid, though that program has apparently changed and has fewer opportunities than it used to), virtual assistantship jobs (like those offered by BELAY, but they require too many hours as a minimum), tutoring and online essay help (the latter would be ideal since I could literally give feedback on essays from home during my son's naps). I used to be a teacher and plan to return to education once my son is in school full-time. But that's several years away -- I can't imagine feeling this tight about money for the next few years, even if inflation changes.

Do you know of any SAHMs who have a relatively consistent, remote side-hustle, something that is flexible or not time-sensitive, or doesn't require a set number of hours during the week? Even making a few hundred extra dollars per month would make a big difference.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

As a follow up to my previous post. I’m sorry you’re going through this. It’s a bit hard to suggest avenues to explore not fully knowing your background but tutoring does sound like a great idea. Do you have a specific background in anything in particular that you can advertise? I know from parent-friends that local facebook groups are great ways to get on the ground information fast. These days it seems like lots of smaller jobs can be found via specific message boards (like this one) for specific groups. I wonder if you can ask around if anyone knows of slack channels that you’d need an invite to that could get you closer. Also, have you asked other teacher friends/colleagues if/what they do as side hustles?Best of luck with it, sorry if the previous message was harsh.
Have you tried Upwork? You'll find plenty of opportunities to pick from depending on your background and personal situation.
I definitely recommend looking deeper into virtual assistant roles. Specifically, if you could find a blogger or other online business owner, they will often have tasks that tend to be less time-sensitive that are great to delegate to part time workers. Over the years of running my online publication, I've had several team members join us for those years before their kiddos went off to school, and it's been a real win-win. I love getting to support other women and give them the flexibility they need to contribute to their household while still getting to be at home with their kids.The mamas who've worked with us have jumped in and helped with various tasks depending on their interests and skillset. Everything from data entry, research, social media engagement and posting, graphic creation, blog content, copywriting, email marketing, SEO tasks, editing and proofreading, and more. We're happy to have folks who can only contribute anywhere from 5-20 hrs per week!We currently have some openings if you're interested in learning more -- please reach out!
@jessicabishop, I am interested, can you please send more details where to check out the open opportunities in your organization.
I am also interested in learning more about your company and the opportunities available!
@jessicabishop I am interested as well, thanks in advance!
I am interested as well! Is there a link where we can find more info?
@jessicabishop I am interested in your vitural openings. I've just been laid off and have lots of writing experience. I'd love to connect and tell you more about it.
Hi! I work for Remind and we have launched a virtual tutoring platform that is hiring certified teacher tutors for math and ELA. There is a 5-hour a week minimum requirement, and I do know that you can set your own hours. That said, the sessions are pre scheduled, so it may be difficult to predict your availability if your baby’s naps aren’t predictable (mine weren’t). Still worth a try! Here is the job description: https://www.remind.com/tutoring/online-tutor-jobs
Thank you, Nicole! (I've used Remind for years as an educator -- I had no idea opportunities like this existed.)
You’re welcome! I’m a product designer on the tutoring team, so let me know if it works out for you!
Check out vChief and 33 Vincent for flexible virtual assistant type roles. My last EA was a virtual assistant through 33 Vincent who was a new mom who wanted a flexible role and she loved the gig. VChief was founded by a working mom and provides short term project management support for clients. Also very flexible.
I've worked as a fractional Chief of Staff through vChief and have been very happy with the experience. If you have any school administration experience, they have a lot of education/edtech clients. I've had contracts as small as 20 hours/month. Also have you considered teaching on Outschool? A lot of VIPKid teachers made the switch there and are way more happy. Total flexibility of hours, topics, and what you charge. You can literally teach any subject. For example, one of my kids goes to a weekly feminism club there.Also, how about pet care? The pandemic puppy bubble was real. Demand for dogsitting is through the roof. My kids started taking care of friends' dogs casually and I posted for them in our local moms' FB group, and I was totally inundated with inquiries. My kids are older so this might be hard with a baby, but you could only take small dogs and keep them in a separate part of the house from the baby with gates. You can charge $50-100/night, and more on holiday weekends. Post locally, or check out Rover.com.
Hello! Yes, I did this! I had a background in software project management, but had SQL expertise. In 2018 I'd been a SAHM for about a year and decided I wanted no more than 5hrs/wk on my own schedule. I emailed and LinkedIn messaged all my prior work colleagues and told them my situation and outlined exactly what I was looking for. I got 3 leads for possible opportunities. One would have required a significant investment or training and so did not pursue, one didn't pan out, but the 3rd landed. I've been consulting as a freelancer with that company since 2018 (with a 9-mo break at the start of the pandemic when they cut all their contractors). During that 9-mo break, I started pursuing a passion of mine and now *also* run both a startup company (that I'm hiring for in the next month or so at 5-10hrs/wk), coaching business, and am looking to expand my database consulting "gig" to a business with subcontractor or employee. I remember looking and being so frustrated that every single job had such strict requirements. And then I'd hear hiring managers say that it was nearly impossible to hire part-time workers. It was really disheartening and difficult in the process. But it can be done!Aside from finding work, I do wonder if the issue is actually that your family needs *more* money or if your mindset is what's causing your suffering. I recommend the book "Your Money or Your Life" to clients dealing with money kinks. I felt like I wasn't allowed to spend money because I didn't earn it - and I was just spending "his" money. But through working on my own attitudes and perspectives I've grown to believe and understand that we both have roles and responsibilites we play in the household. In that time of life, his was leaving the house to earn the income for the *family*. Mine was to stay in the house and care for the children. The kids were still his, the house was still his, and the money was still mine - even though the balance of who was doing what had shifted. All that to say, it can be really hard to get there. And hang in there - you can find something that works for you and your family!
Hey Trisha! I'd love to connect about your new startup & what gaps you're looking to fill with hiring. I'm interested in additional part time work to supplement my FT income. Where can I find more info?
Hey Kelly! Sure - I just finished the form to accept applicants and there are details there: https://form.typeform.com/to/NOseR3BBBut also to summarize, I am looking to hire someone with knowledge and experience in blog-writing, email campaigns, etc - as well as handling operational tasks that occasionally come up with Baby Bridge. The scope of work is fairly diverse given the startup nature of things.
Trisha, thank you for sharing about your experience. My husband and I JUST had that conversation about money, and that guilt -- of spending money when I'm not contributing -- was definitely a big part of the talk. He would never want me to feel that way, but as a financially responsible person who has always provided for myself, it has been weirdly hard, mentally, to not make a paycheck. Especially since so much of my day-to-day involves spending money, 99% of the time on groceries, I often only feel aware of (and stressed about) what money is leaving our account, rather than confident and knowledgeable about what's coming in. It's a weird place to be. I have the head-knowledge of understanding that what I'm doing -- raising our son the best way I know how -- is a huge contribution to our family; I have to remind myself that that's why I'm doing what I'm doing, because I believe in it so deeply. But being a stay-at-home parent, sometimes I feel that the work I do (Ah, see? Even there, I was tempted to put 'work' in quotation marks. Why??), being unpaid and largely invisible, doesn't have value somehow. That is the hardest mindset to heal from. Your experience with that gives me hope that it can be done!
Hey there, I also just saw this from someone in my network that they're hiring a fully remote teaching coach. I am not sure it will work for your schedule or expertise but thought I'd share in case: https://roomtodiscover.com/about/our-team/join-us/
Just want to share some more virtual teaching orgs besides VIPKid. http://teacher.qkids.net/ preply.com italki.com https://www.ipalfishclass.com/#/ https://englishteaching.online/likeshuo/ www.carrotglobal.com
Opportunities are everywhere and with the market becoming more freelancer friendly, I'm sure you'll be able to find something that allows you the flexibility you're looking for. Check out hiremymom.com or themomproject.com for some part time roles!
Is there anything craft related that you enjoy doing or do you have a collection of anything vintage that you would like to sell? During the pandemic, I opened an Etsy shop, and offloaded all my vintage jewelry. I decided to go that route after a vintage dealer offered me $2 per item - I knew they were worth tens of dollars each. I was shocked at how well I did, and it taught me a lot about running a virtual marketplace. The main time suck was packaging and running to the post office, but you can arrange USPS pickups.
Laddrr has a new job matching site for moms looking for flex roles (remote, part time flexible schedule...). www.laddrr.com/talent-hub
Hi Maryland158! Fellow DMV-er here I work for Paper Edu and we’re always looking for tutors. I’m happy to refer you please message me on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vickichrea
I would check out The Mom Project - they have jobs that are part-time and full remote just for moms who want to return to the workforce.
Thanks for posting. Especially in these times it is important to find a way to make some extra money and to take care of yourself and your family. There is no easy balance. I really appreciate how focused and detailed you are about your goals. I don’t think I was that focused when my little dude was a baby! I really like your idea of essay review. We’ve just launched a new educator marketplace. We don’t have essay review as a topic that someone could search for but I love that idea. As opposed to just one subject it is more of a meta-subject that someone would search for rather than say math. Sounds like you are going to offer your services on many platforms, which makes a ton of sense. If you are looking at various platforms you can check ours our, and also would love to talk to you about possibly creating an essay review tract. Sounds like you have a plan and some good feedback below. No doubt you will find a path that works.