All over social media, moms are posting questions about how to make extra cash in addition to parenting. Their newsfeeds are flooded with friends selling everything from cleaning products to children’s books and jewelry. But what actually works? LittleThings went right to the experts and those with success stories.
First things first, though. Avoid all multilevel marketing (MLM), network marketing, or direct marketing businesses, warns Emily Lynn Paulson, author of the forthcoming book Hey Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and Other Lies That Drive Multi-Level Marketing (May 2023, Row House Publishing). Paulson actually is in the elite 1% of people who succeed early on in the MLM movement. But after her experience, she urges moms to “do literally anything else.”
“Even by the most conservative accounts, 80% to 90% of women who join MLMs lose money,” notes Paulson. “On social media, it’s sold as an easy way for moms to earn money in small pockets of time. The guilt of being a working parent and the other insecurities of women are preyed upon as a way to sell products and, ultimately, the business model. Who wouldn’t want to join something easy and lucrative? The reality is, it’s extremely difficult to make any money unless you recruit many other women to join you, and encourage them to recruit more, and even then, the odds are extremely low.”
Paulson points to a MagnifyMoney research study, which concludes that 60% of participants earned less than $500 in five years. “Considering the buy-in for a consultant ‘kit’ can be thousands of dollars, these are pretty terrible odds. They also concluded that, considering how many hours MLM participants ‘work’ (posting on social media, doing Zoom calls, attending business presentations), their take-home pay equated to about 67 cents per hour. And that is before deducting costs and taxes. It’s unpaid labor with very little potential to actually make money.”
Paulson got involved in an MLM when she was a stay-at-home mom with five kids. “It addressed every need that I had, without the requirement of child care. Because I was one of the first people in my community to join and had a big network of people who could afford products, I excelled very quickly. However, as time went on, I started running out of people! And I began realizing how few other people were succeeding, in fact, the more people who joined and ‘failed,’ the bigger my paycheck continued to get. Most people were losing money. Plus, I hated the behaviors that I participated in and asked my ‘team’ to participate in — cold-messaging strangers, pestering people on social media, and constant event planning.”
It also dripped into her personal life. “I pushed away friends and family and wasted precious time being distracted with ‘my business’ instead of spending time with my young kids. I spent thousands of dollars on retreats, trainings, personal development, products, and recruited hundreds of women into a dream that wasn’t achievable or sustainable for the majority of them. It became my entire life; in fact, I felt like I was in a cult. Seven years in, my intuition finally became strong enough to drown out the constant toxic positivity surrounding me — ‘You only fail if you quit!’ — and I did just that: I quit. No amount of money was worth being involved anymore.”
Paulson suggests that moms looking to bring home the bacon as they make it should “sell items on Etsy or eBay. Do personal shopping for Instacart, or drive for Uber. If you are credentialed in any way, find online platforms for courses or teach on places like Outschool.com. Tutor or translate (online or in person), offer child care, or walk dogs. Virtual assist or freelance write. Join Fiverr and offer your skills. Website design, online transcription, social media management, customer service, or blogging are all ways to make money at home. With Zoom and the switch to online work during the [health crisis], the opportunity to work from home has never been better! Bottom line, join something that pays you for your time. MLMs do not do that; there is no guarantee that you will ever make a dime, regardless of how hard you work, how much you post on social media, or how many friends you pester.”
One mom who is successfully leading a side hustle is Latasha Peterson, a side hustle coach known as Arts and Budgets. Peterson is a mom of three little boys and currently earns an extra $10,000 a month working 20 to 30 hours per week.
Peterson shares her journey with LittleThings, saying, “In 2016 after getting pregnant with our son, my husband and I decided that I would stay at home with our baby and also start a new side hustle. After that, I came up with the idea for a side hustle blog because of my love for helping people find multiple income streams. So, in Feb of 2016, I launched my website Arts and Budgets.” After a year and a half, she really started to make money and formed an official LLC.
She currently makes money “through affiliate marketing, working with brands on sponsored posts, working with an ad management company to have ads on my website, 1:1 coaching, group coaching, selling digital products, selling physical products, and speaking at seminars and events.”
She’s found the best side hustles for moms are becoming a virtual assistant, freelance writing, becoming a tutor online, transcribing documents, and proofreading/editing online. One thing she tried and doesn’t favor is completing surveys online.
“I noticed that the payment wasn't the best. So I only recommend the survey side hustle if you are looking for a little extra money, such as setting up a gas fund for your car or a food and coffee fund each month,” she advises.
Peterson offers these tips for moms who want to have a side hustle:
- Take time to rest on your journey. Rest is just as important as the hustle.
- Learn about self-employed taxes so that you aren't hit with a huge tax bill at the end of the year.
- Prioritize your time to make the most out of each day.
- Set up clear goals to help you accomplish them each week and month.
- Remember your "why" and why you want to start a side hustle. Is it to pay off debt, stay at home with your children, to make more money for investing?
Another mom making money from home is Arvie Narido, a writer and gift researcher for Gift Rabbit. “I make money by offering writing services to clients — content writing, proofreading, copywriting, and editing,” she tells LittleThings. “Before I embraced writing as a side hustle, I was a general virtual assistant, which became my stepping stone to exploring my focused niche.”
Narido works three to four hours per day (15 to 20 hours per week) and earns about $1,200 to $1,500 per month. She says, “This kind of working-hour setup is super perfect for me since I’m not only a mom of a 2-year-old baby boy but I also take care of my sick mom who is suffering from cancer, and I also look after my 10-year-old brother (since my mom is sick). So working in a very flexible time is a huge help for me.”
She aspires to be financially independent from her husband, contribute financially to her family, and become a successful entrepreneur.
Sharing her secrets, she spills, “I find gigs on freelancing platforms such as Upwork. I think it is one of the best platforms for freelancers where anyone can kick-start their freelancing career or if someone is looking for short-time side hustles. Especially if you don’t have your own website or strong portfolio yet, freelancing sites like Upwork, Fiverr, and PeoplePerHour are great starting lines.”
Angie Makljenovic pins for the win. She tells LittleThings, “I'm making money with my blog and by managing Pinterest accounts for small businesses. As a blogger, I earn money as an affiliate marketer, writing sponsored posts, and selling my Pinterest course. On top of that, I earn money as a blog coach and by optimizing Pinterest accounts for SEO.” She works about 20 to 25 hours per week as a digital nomad in Serbia. She’s from the Netherlands, and she and her husband want to raise their daughter in both countries, so this route allows that.
Melanie Anderson is a teacher, photographer, mom of three, and the owner and author of Loopy Little Letters, a blog dedicated to helping others find or reclaim their creative spirit through learning hand lettering. She tells LittleThings, “I make some money as a self-employed portrait photographer. I currently have a full-time job besides this, so I usually do about two to four family/newborn sessions per month. This results in about $500 to $1,000 extra for our family. I originally did this because I had a really low-paying teaching job and needed something else to help make ends meet, and I wanted to remain in control of my schedule. I stayed at home with my kids for a few years, and my side hustle helped pay the bills. And now that I am working full-time, I still enjoy it. I keep it in my back pocket in case I’m ready to leave teaching as well.”
Natalie Runyon is a mom of two kids, ages 8 and 12 (one with special needs), with a full-time W2 income in marketing. “I make money online by selling digital and downloadable (on-demand printable) products and blogging to help young women professionals thrive in terms of happiness and productivity after experiencing anxiety and depression,” she shares with LittleThings. “Currently, I work 10 to 12 hours per week running Well and Wealthy on top of my full-time job.” That side hustle alone brought in $50,000 last year. (Yes, you read that correctly!)
Revealing more, Runyon says, “I acquired the business after a failed startup a decade ago as part of a larger goal to create passive income streams. My true north is that I believe my children will need to have multiple streams of income as working adults and that working a W2 job to trade time for money as the only income stream is [a] riskier proposition for my children in the future. I want to be an example for my children and give them the opportunity to work in the business with me to learn how to pursue entrepreneurship and the basics of business and marketing during their youth.”
She balances both, saying, “My W2 job is hybrid, pretty flexible in terms of where and what times I get work done. In addition, I mostly control my meeting schedule, and my job only requires three to four hours of meetings per day. The other time that I am not in meetings, I spend creating content and interviewing thought leaders for articles.”
If you’re working full-time and thinking about taking on an additional income stream, Runyon says, “Maniacally prioritize your self-care; get crystal clear on what is expected of you to achieve adequate success and meets expectations for job performance at your W2 job; outsource cleaning, cooking, and laundry to your spouse if possible; say ‘no’ to volunteer opportunities that don't serve your interests; and define what a ‘success’ is to you for being a mom.”
For her, that’s to be present. “The pickup time with my 12-year-old is gold. This is where I learn about his day, his challenges, and any help he needs.”
Ready to leap into a new life? Kari Lorz, certified financial education instructor at Money for the Mamas, tells LittleThings that the first step is to “decide how many hours you realistically have to give to your side hustle, and does that fit with your family schedule. It makes zero sense to have a side hustle that needs 25 hours a week when you only have 10 hours a week. You'll just end up frustrated, struggling to getting it all done and end up burned out.”
Lorz suggests that moms fully research before investing in any business programs, don’t try to do it all in the beginning, decide how much you’re going to invest and stick to a budget, and look for proof that the people you’re listening to are actually experts.
Gwen Montoya, chief operating officer at MOB Nation, the National Alliance of Mom-Owned Businesses, helps moms get off the ground. She wants LittleThings readers to be realistic about time and the commitment that may be required to start a side hustle, set boundaries, ask for help, set up an LLC after a few months along with a bookkeeping system for taxes, and form a community.
“Your community is so important and often overlooked,” says Montoya. “No one is going to understand what it is like to be a mom and run a business the way another mom does. It is just such a unique juggle. A strong community not only gives you support and resources but is also there to cheer you up when you are frustrated and celebrate with you, as well.”
And members of your community won’t delete you from their social media because they are tired of being invited to online parties for products they don’t want.
