Income for a stay at home mom? Is it really possible to stay home with your child, earn money and keep a hand in your career? You bet. By structuring your life to provide income, you can be a stay at home mom (or dad) – even after your maternity leave runs out.
Earn an income and stay at home
Staying at home may sound expensive, but, if you earn an income at hone, you may earn as much or more than you would at a regular job. Say what? My calculations show that a stay-at-home parent who makes just $300 a month actually earns the equivalent of $50,000 to $76,000. If you earn more like $1,000 or $2,000 a month by working from home, you may actually be more in line with an $100,000 income.
Earn an income by working from home
Through work from home opportunities, you can generate money to help offset the income you’d gain by returning to work. In fact, many stay-at-home moms return to work by working from home. Some of the work-from-home moms (and dads) I know enjoy rewarding careers as business consultants, technical writers, engineers, graphic designers, jewelry designers, fitness consultants and even Tupperware consultants! (See more consulting business ideas.)
Maintain your career
Choosing to stay home with your child doesn’t mean you have to give up your career. Many people decide to start businesses, consult or freelance for their former employer, telecommute, work part-time, teach continuing education and community centre courses, or even write articles for newspapers and magazines. Whether you stick with your previous field or venture into new territory, you face a wealth of opportunities to earn money from home. And you don’t have to earn peanuts. In fact, if you were toying with picking up a part-time job, I urge you to read up on how to become a consultant. Why make $8 an hour when you could be making 10 times that? Don’t sell yourself short.
Broaden and build your career
Regardless of whether you work for yourself or someone else, you can enrich your work experience by becoming a work from home mom (or dad). Some of the work from home parents I know have accomplished such feats as:
- Franchising a business throughout a major metropolitan area
- Starting and expanding an ecommerce real estate service business throughout the West
- Landing a column in a big city newspaper
- Developing a consulting business that now subcontracts work to others
- Garnering media attention in major magazines and newspapers
- Securing $100,000 in seed capital for engineering projects
…and those are just people I know in my city!
It’s no secret that I think becoming a consultant is a great career move. If you’re interested in learning how to become a consultant, check out my become a consultant series.
Not convinced you could be a consultant? My Discover Your Inner Consultant workbook will help you figure out what skills and experience you have to offer as a consultant.
Subscribe to my Become a Consultant newsletter and get a FREE copy of Seth Godin’s Bootrstrapper’s Bible – a guide to starting a new business. See the form at the very top of this page!
"Income for stay at home mom – income is possible" from Become a Consultant at ConsultantJournal.com.