7 Ways to Choose the Right Side Hustle for Moms

As a mom, you have limited time to work on your side hustle or business. That’s why it’s so important to choose your side hustle carefully so you can reach your goals. Keep reading to learn how to choose a side hustle for moms that fits into your busy schedule while helping you make real money.

Take the Overwhelm Out of Choosing a Side Hustle

A side hustle can be one of the best ways to change your family’s financial future. The average person makes about $500-$1,000 a month with their side hustle, but some side hustles can net you up to $10,000 a month. This extra money can make managing your finances or saving for a home much easier. 

However, when choosing a side hustle, there are so many options, and it’s easy to get “shiny object” syndrome, where you abandon one to go work on another that seems more promising. Unfortunately, this is pretty much the worst way to make money. 

In the long run, your best chance of success is choosing one side hustle and sticking to it long-term. When you choose the right side hustle and have the right plan from the start, you can average $1,000 or more per month. The earning potential is unlimited.

So with that in mind, how do you choose the perfect side hustle for your busy mom schedule? Read more. 

1-Think About Your Passions, Skills, and Why 

What do you love to do? What are you good at? What do you not mind doing for long periods, and how can you make money doing those things? This might seem self-explanatory, but when starting a business or side hustle, you will be sacrificing time that you could use to be doing other things. What type of business is worth making those sacrifices for?

2-Think About Your Goals

Why do you want to start a business, and how much money do you need to make from that business? How much money would give you the financial stability you need? Once you have an idea what that number is, start researching the earning potential of your chosen side hustle. 

3-Think About When You Need to Start Making Money

One of the biggest reasons people start a side hustle is to make more money, and it doesn’t have to be your passion. It just has to help you live a life you are passionate about. If you need to make money fast, consider a side hustle like Shipt or Uber or another side gig that has a built-in customer base. Bonus–both are consumable! (See #5 to see why that matters!)

4-Think About How a Side Hustle Fits Into Your Schedule

Mom life is hectic, especially when you have very young children. Start by taking an honest look at your schedule and determining how much time you can carve out. You can start a great side hustle in just a few hours a week, but you might want to consider a product-based business so you can focus on marketing. Or you might want to consider a service where you can make a high-profit margin per hour. If you don’t have regular child care, consider a flexible career like copywriting that you can do on your own time. 

5-Consider Whether a Product or Service Is Consumable Or Not

Ok, you know all your friends on Facebook selling supplements and talking about how that product changed their lives? Sometimes it’s BS, but sometimes it’s not. That’s because those products are consumable. Here’s why it matters.

What Is a Consumable Product or Service?

A consumable product or service is one that a person needs to continue to buy. When you sell a consumable service like dog walking or childcare or a consumable product like a supplement or makeup, you don’t have to work as hard to get new customers because you have a steady stream of repeat buyers. This makes it easier to sell than a one-time service or product, like candles or bows.

How to Add Consumable Products to Your Business

 It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t sell one-time products or services but think about consumables to add to your business. For example, if you sell books, sell sticker books. If you design websites, offer monthly website maintenance packages. Just think of repeat services to offer.

6-Consider a Product That Has a High-Profit Margin

There are a few ways to market your online or local service-based business. You can either advertise or market your business organically through social media. However, driving organic traffic to your business can be a lot of work. When you choose a business with a high-profit margin, it gives you the option to advertise. 

How to Choose High-Profit Margin Products

When choosing a business, consider how you can increase the profit margins in that business. No matter what kind of business you are considering, it’s always a good idea to think about this before you start. This will set you up for long-term success and help you turn your few hundred dollar a month side hustle into a full-time gig.  

1-Sell More Expensive Products

Think about how much money you make per sale before choosing a product to sell. For example, instead of selling custom print-on-demand mugs, sell custom jewelry.

2-Add Upgrades 

Add upgrades services that you can charge extra for. This allows you to do a little more work for one customer instead of a little work for a lot of customers so that you make more per hour. 

3-Figure Out How to Sell More

Did you know that rapid-release romance writers can make six figures a year? Unlike most authors that put out one or two books a year, rapid-release romance writers put out a lot of shorter books each year so they can sell more of their low-profit margin but highly consumable products to a list of dedicated fans. This turns a $1-3 book into a $50-$150 collection. How can you transfer this idea into your business? 

7-Consider a Business That You Can Automate

When you are a mom, time is your biggest commodity, so consider a business you can eventually automate or even one you can automate immediately. Here are some ways to automate your business

1- Try Dropshipping

When you run a dropshipping, print-on-demand product business, or even an MLM, you market the products and place the orders for your customers, but someone else creates them. While there is still work involved, this saves you time over making products yourself. 

2-Try Advertising

If you are in a service or product-based business with a strong profit margin, advertising can be an excellent way to automate the marketing part of your business. Sometimes, you can run an ad campaign for just a few dollars a day. 

3-Start an Agency

Do you want to start a service-based business but don’t want to spend all your time doing the work? Here is how it works–you find clients and hire others to perform the work for you. I’ve also heard of this referred to as “drop servicing,” which makes sense to me. This is how many digital marketing agencies work, but it could work for many businesses.

4-Start a Course

Do you have a career, skill, or hobby that you are passionate about but don’t have time to make a full-time gig now that you have children? Consider starting your own online course. The average course creator on some platforms can make thousands of dollars a month selling just one course!

So there you have it– seven things to consider before starting a side hustle! Are you ready to choose a cool side hustle? Check out my blog, 1000 Ways to WAHM, for more ideas!