During my research for The Chill Mom: How to go from anxious expectant mother to relaxed, confident mom book, I posted a question on an expecting moms Facebook group.

I asked them: What are your biggest worries?

I was surprised to hear that besides the fear of labour pain and health-related issues, many soon-to-be mothers expressed worries over finances. Many are planning to stay at home with their babies but they would also like to contribute financially to their families.

Do you feel the same?

Or are you currently working full-time and ideally, you'd like to work from home so you can spend more time with your children?

Is it possible to have the best of both worlds?

I'd say yes! 

Whatever your reason is for wanting to earn an income from home, here is a list of ways to contribute to or provide for your family as a stay-at-home mom.

1. Sell things online

Setting up shops and selling things online couldn't be easier these days. You can set up your own website or use platforms like Shopify or even sell on a marketplace like Etsy. The hard part is figuring out what to sell and how to differentiate your offering from others.

One of our mombosses, Jillian started a children's batik clothing brand, Dots & Dribble from home while juggling young children. She spends about 20 hours a week on her business, working on social media, sourcing and fulfilling orders.

Besides selling your own products, you can also consider reselling products. If you are the type to buy loads of things at garage sales or during online sales, then reselling those items would be a great way to make some extra cash.

2. Blogging

If you can attract a regular readership for your blog, there’s good money to be made from sponsorships and other digital product offerings. I've been blogging for more than 12 years now and I make between $10k to $20k per month without having to do much.

Decide on the message and direction of your blog early on and don't blog for the sake of making money.

Good content is what makes readers coming back for more. If you’re interested monetising your blog, here’s a free cheat sheet I’ve created. This is MY own step-by-step plan to bring the content and income generated from my blog to another level. 

3. Baking

For those who love to bake, why not start a baking business? You can start off baking for friends and family and be sure to take lots of lovely photos. Marketing your biz couldn't be simpler these days. I've purchased many cakes from mothers whom I found through Instagram and Facebook pages. Depending on your experience, you can start by doing something simple on the side like making rustic cookies before heading on to offer exquisite artisanal fare - just like MomBoss Academy's alumni's, Peizhen and Karen.

4. Tutoring

Many parents are eager to shell out money to outsource tutoring their kids to someone else. I'll probably do the same for subjects I'm weak (or rather zero knowledge) in, like Chinese. MomBossGoal alumni, Winnie Lee when from a full-time PR professional and journalist to teaching English with her online business, The Language Tribe. She takes both primary and secondary school children and focuses on those who learn differently.

And if you're an accredited teacher or have special certifications, you are able to charge a much higher rate for the right students.

5. Hair styling

My aunt used to own a hair salon. When she encountered staff problems and tired of working long hours every day, she closed down her shop front and started a hair styling business from home. All you need is a presentable room or space within your home, dress it up with a large mirror and a comfortable chair and you can get down to business. Of course, if you have more equipment, you can offer more services like perming and treatments. Otherwise, with a background of hair cutting, all you need is a few pairs of good scissors, combs and clips.

6. Be a virtual assistant (VA)

You can be a virtual assistant for pretty much anyone or businesses from around the world. Virtual assistants offer many different services. What skills do you have and what do you enjoy doing? I for one, hire a virtual assistant to reply to my emails, schedule my meetings and help with the boring admin side of my businesses. You can offer your services on a freelancing platform like Upwork.

One of my students, Kristy Ting went from being a VA to specialising in funnel building to starting her own agency and now teaching others how to do the same - quitting their full time job to be a full time funnel builder, working from anywhere in the world. She earns a consistent USD20,000 per month and is able to retire her husband in the process.

7. Tailoring and Alterations

If you know how to mend clothes, then you have a growing market of budget-conscious and personalisation-obsessed customers readily available.

Firstly, get your hands on a commercial-grade sewing machine. Next, offer to partner with your local dry-cleaning and laundry services in exchange for referral fees every time they send you a new customer.

After that, all you have to do is do a good job and hopefully grow your at-home business via word of mouth!

8. Party decorator

If you love parties and have a good pair of hands at putting things together, being a party decorator could just be your thing. Jacqualine Chan from Hello Lobang does about 5 events on average per month, which brings in about SGD500. Being her own boss, she chooses to have a balanced work/home life over more events. So she keeps it to a comfortable number of jobs she can handle.

9. Social media marketing

If you have a sizable Instagram following or have a knack for getting followers, major brands, PR companies and other relevant businesses could be knocking on your door wanting you to market their products and services to your audience.

29-year-old Liz Eswein for example, who charges a fee to brands for taking the photos she posts on her account @NewYorkCity, and an additional $1 per like on top of that. Not bad, considering most of her photos get between 10,000 to 20,000 likes.

10. Selling your craft

Adeline of Adeline's Loft started making accessories for herself instead of getting them off the shelves. The interest had since spurred her to offer her handmade affordable bespoke lifestyle jewelry to many women online. 

While the business does not provide a regular side income for Adeline, she thrives on passion. On a good month, she earns a modest $400 to $500, which is good enough pocket money to treat her family to a nice meal.

If you have a talent for crafting or creating handmade goods, you could also easily sell your handmade baby clothing, phone cases, hats and bags on Etsy - one of the world's biggest independent marketplace that's perfect for anyone who is creative and willing to sell their handmade creations.

11. Rental Services

Fion Koh founded Baby Carriers Rental SG with a heartfelt mission to support parents in their babywearing journey. Over the past 8+ years, the business has grown steadily, now catering not only to babywearing needs but also to families—both locals and tourists—by offering a wide range of rental items, including car seats, strollers, sterilisers, travel cots, blackout tents, child harnesses, and babywearing winter fleece covers.

Looking ahead to 2025, the journey becomes even more exciting as they expand into curating Singapore’s very own carrier and stroller brand under Tiny Bloom Club.

12. Write an ebook

Access to self-publishing tools and marketplaces is so easy and affordable these days, anyone can publish their own book. While some ebooks never sell more than a dozen copies; when marketed correctly, you can earn a good recurring passive income from ebooks.

Abby from A Girl and Her Blog makes a comfortable five figures income from 3 of her ebooks each month.

13. Teaching music lessons at home

If you're comfortable playing an instrument and have a good instrument you can teach on, and you enjoy teaching, you can teach music at home.

Gracia Teow has been running her own piano teaching studio from home for more than 6 years, with the aim of nurturing a love for music in young learners by helping them learn to play actual pieces/songs within 3 months of beginning lessons.

Powered by her passion as a music teacher, Gracia is also currently working on launching a passion project in 2025 together with a fellow piano teacher, with the aim of empowering other piano teachers to build a thriving private teaching studio.

14. Network Marketing

While most people frown upon network marketing business, we have seen many successes amongst our mombosses who have built highly profitable business with network marketing.

It's because most of the time, it comes with proven products, business models and mentorships from your upline.

Competition can be stiff because everyone is selling the same products. But we have seen many successes amongst our mombosses who built a strong personal brand and manage to differentiate themselves from the competition.

Vanessa Joo, now a platinum director at Drs Secrets and BWL earns a consistent five figures monthly by providing skincare and supplement consultations, personal customer service, and coaching people who'd like to realise their dream by becoming a BWL products distributor. Not bad for someone who works an average 30 hours per week on flexible timing.

Hsien Hui is another example of how you can build a personal brand and create multiple sources of income from your network marketing business. She now trains others as a fitness coach and is the proud owner of CornerCup, a cafe selling healthy smoothie, treats and desserts.

15. Fill a gap in the market

Felicia, founder of Little Fig Foods offers convenient and nutritious freeze-dried baby porridge to busy parents who want to provide wholesome, balanced meals for their little ones. Inspired by her own parenting journey, Felicia launched Little Fig Foods in October 2023 to help families ensure their babies enjoy meals as close to home-cooked as possible, even during busy days or travels. In just one year, Little Fig Foods has served close to 400 families, gaining trust for its use of natural ingredients with no preservatives, MSG, added salt, or sugar. Felicia is proud to provide a solution that combines convenience, quality nutrition, and peace of mind for parents.

16. Start a consultancy business

Have you noticed your friends and family were asking you for advice or help in a certain area? Is that something you are naturally good at and wouldn't mind continuously learning more about?

That was basically how I started my maternity concierge business - helping new parents with anything to do with the arrival of a baby, from products advice to services such as finding a suitable doula, confinement nannies, etc.

I charge by the hour for a one-off project or a package fee for bundled services. What I like about what I do is the flexibility of time and I get to pick whom I like to work with. 

17. Trading

A former remisier, Jenn Lee now trades stocks, indices, commodities and invest in real estate. Her goal is to a have a fully paid-up shelter over her heads, to have at least one fully paid-up property for rental so that she can safely retire, and to have one investment property set aside for her son.

Over the last 7 years, her annual income and capital gain range from S$50,000 to $200,000 - not bad for a stay-at-home-mum.

To start trading, you can get started with an easy to use trading platform like XM.

18. Provide online tech support from home

Creators of The Blog Help, tech support (including WordPress transfers) service for bloggers, are husband and wife team - Forrest and Katie Clark. Katie, stay at home mother of one, is self-taught with most of her SEO, tech support, and blogging skills.

19. Teaching online courses

If you have marketable skills as a programmer, photographer, or online marketer, there's a worldwide online audience who'd be willing to pay to learn from you.

You can market your courses on online educational platforms like Kajabi or AMPLY, where there's already an existing audience and tools to deliver your courses.

20. Photography

Do you take great photographs? You could sell your photographs directly to customers or you could sell to a stock photography website like Shutterstock.  

You could also set-up a photography business like Theresa Olesen and take pictures at special events like birthday parties, celebrations, weddings and more. This option requires you to actually get out of the house, though.

21. Graphic Design

Do you have experience as a graphic designer? Start creating your own design and sell it!

Gigi Chan started her own graphic design company Six12 Creation, selling ready-made downloadables and custom designs for weddings and event stationery.

Throughout the year, there are tons of occasions when people need to order pretty stationery thus making this a good side venture.

22. Be a massage therapist

If you enjoy meeting people and are interested in overall holistic wellness, you could offer massage services during your free time. This one requires you to venture out of the house though. These days, a postnatal massage therapist charges between $80 to $120 per hour.

23. Turn a hobby to a business

Vivien Tan started The Cotton Shoppe on Etsy in 2013, offering handmade gifts and baby products. Driven by the founder’s passion for sewing and crafts, it blossomed into a full-time venture by 2016. Today, the business specialises in premium Japanese fabrics and craft materials, while recently branching out into creating customised pet products.

24. Web design

With the increasing usage of the internet, it’s no wonder the popularity of doing freelance web designing as a side job is growing rapidly. There are always new websites popping up that need web designers to create a good and value-driven experience for web users or app users. If this sounds like a job you can do, then go for it!

25. Web development

As a web developer, your skill sets are in extremely high demand. Not well versed in it? No worries, there are so many inexpensive or free online programs such as Udemy and Codeacademy to hone your web building skills. Once you have knowledge of HTML, Python, JavaScript, CSS, or Ruby, it’s time to become a freelance web developer and build your portfolio.

26. Online coaching

For Anji Hallewell, it all started when she moved to a new country where she knew no one! She was told that Singaporeans wouldn’t pay for career coaching and it wouldn’t work online. But with a vision, grit and determination, she knew in her heart it was highly valuable to the right people. 7 years on, 3 awards and 100s of clients success stories later, Anji has built a career coaching business that delivers high quality results and that she can operate from anywhere. Win win!

If you have something you are skilled at and really passionate about, you can turn that into one-on-one or group coaching. Imagine doing what you love and spreading that knowledge to others who want to learn what you know!

Besides the skill and experience components to being a successful online coach, this business idea is all about building a community around the help you are offering and building rapport with members.

Also, your community members will learn from each other during their journey. Creating the space for that community can be as simple as setting up a private Facebook group such as what I have done for my MomBoss Academy's Momentum Membership!

27. Podcasting

If you can create a regular audience or have an existing audience from your blog to listen to your podcast on a specific topic, this is a great way to get sponsors and fund this side business idea.

It helps if you already have an audience, but even if you don’t, you can still be one of the many people who have successfully turned their side businesses into podcasts such as Neil Patel.

28. Healthy Food

Driven by a passion for healthy eating and a belief that nutritious food should be easy and delicious, Dawn Curreem founded Clean and Real Foods in Singapore providing all-natural, plant-based food products like dips, cooking sauces, and wholesome crackers, making it simple for busy individuals and families to prepare nourishing meals in under 30 minutes.

Since launching, she's proudly stocked her products in well-loved local stores like Global Snack Village and Bakery Brera. She also collaborated with 'A Few Green Farms' to create a special edition Mylo powder trio for the festive season.

29. Share your knowledge

As a busy mom of 3, Jean Wong experienced the challenges of balancing motherhood, career, and personal health. She struggled with weight, energy levels, and overall well-being until she decided to make a change. This transformation ignited her passion for helping other mums achieve a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle. She started Graceful Health Inspiration to empower mums to take control of their health while balancing the demands of family life. 

What sets her approach apart is its sustainability—this is not just about losing weight but about creating a lifestyle that is enjoyable and manageable for mums in their everyday lives. She aims to help them to break free from the endless cycle of fad diets & regain their self-confidence through tailored coaching, virtual challenges, and community support.

30. Affiliate sales and marketing

If you already own a website that’s driving in a targeted audience, this is a great way to make some passive income.

Rakuten and Clickbank are a few of the best affiliate networks and tools that can help you make money from the content you already produce, thus amplifying your income from your website or blog.

31. Tax preparation

It’s not the sort of side business idea that screams creativity, but someone needs to make sure all the numbers add up at the end of the year.

Every business and most individuals need someone with the domain expertise to help prepare tax returns, especially time or resource-strapped small business owners. That’s when you, a freelance tax preparer can step in.

32. Google paid ad specialist

If you are comfortable with Google and know about paid internet advertising, signing a freelance contract to manage a company’s Google Ad Campaigns can earn you some extra income.

Make sure you know all the right business lingo and industry terms used in the online marketing world before you dive into this freelance job.

33. Buy used electronics/furniture and refurbish them

How many of us have given up on their faulty laptops, mobile phones or cameras without looking into the real cause of their malfunctions?

Sometimes repairing at the stores are even more expensive than buying a new one! If you have the skills to fix them, consider pursuing this side business idea of refurbishing and reselling used electronics in your free time.

34. Yoga or meditation instructor

Very often, you will see people in their yoga pants carrying their mats around with them. Yoga is getting ever more popular, which means yoga instructors are more in demand than ever. This is one of the most physically rewarding business ideas since you get to make money, work out and keep your mind healthy at the same time!

Link up with a local yoga studio to teach classes or offer personalised yoga in-home lessons at a higher rate.

Kathryn Budig started out as a yoga instructor as a side job to support her classes but has now become well-known internationally as a yoga teacher.

35. Skincare Products

With over a decade of freelance experience with prestigious brands like Guerlain and La Prairie, combined with a successful career in medical aesthetics, Sharyln took a bold step to create her own skincare company, Sharyln & Co. She now offers carefully curated products and treatments designed to simplify the journey to radiant, blemish-free skin while maintaining her commitment to honest, pressure-free consultations.

36. Start a YouTube channel

Yes, if you are really focused and committed, spending time on YouTube can honestly be a legitimate business idea. By creating value-driven and entertaining videos, you can grow your subscriber base to a few thousand subscribers.

Your videos can then begin generating quite a substantial amount of money from the advertisements on your videos. YouTube users can earn a lot and many of them even make millions each year! With the right content, audience, skills, connections, and timing, this business has a lot of potential.

Remember that when starting a YouTube channel, you might want to do some research first and read up on tips to quickly grow your channel.

37. Translator

Have you mastered more than one language? If your mastery of another language is good enough to speak and write fluently, then translating can be a good side business idea that helps you to continue improving your language skills.

Make use of your bilingual or multilingual skills and pick up some remote translator jobs online. Browse through remote job websites to find the right opportunities for yourself such as Flexjobs that has literally hundreds of freelance, remote translator jobs available.

38. Home-based makeup service

If you have a talent for helping people look their best and know how to use cosmetics to make heads turn, consider using your beauty skills to pursue this easily profitable side business idea.

You need to invest money into buying the necessary equipment and products before starting your own makeup artist business. This lays the foundation of profitable business through referrals and word-of-mouth from your happy customers.

39. Floral design

Valentine’s day, birthdays, weddings, you name it! Throughout the year, there are tons of occasions when people need to order pretty bouquets of flowers thus making this a good side venture.

The costs can stay relatively low if you know where to source your flowers and materials, especially after gaining more experience. Check out this stunning floral designer, Sara Tedford of Ladybird Poppy to learn about how her floral design company started out as a side business idea of doing weddings and events for her friends and family.

Final words

You don't have to decide on one way to make an income from home.

The more streams of income you have, the more financially secure you are.

For example, my maternity concierge business alone has many ways of giving me a return, not to mention my blog, social media accounts, my virtual kitchen, and MomBoss Academy.

I'm always looking for more ways to complement what I'm already doing. Go for it. And good luck with deciding!

P.S. I don't want your aspiration to end here, join us in our #MomBossGoal Mentorship Program where I help mothers who are really serious about making an income from home.

Whether you are struggling with a business idea or you already have something going on and looking to grow your business, I will walk you through each aspect of building your profitable stay-at-home business.

If you would like to stay connected with and find other amazing mombosses who can help you get what you need, click here to join our Facebook closed group – MomBosses United! 

Click here for more free training and resources.