Are you a stay at home mom with little work experience? Maybe you had kids young and never got a bachelor’s degree or didn’t like your profession before having kids. Are you looking for the best jobs for stay at home moms with no experience? In this blog post, we will discuss seven positions perfect for a stay at home moms with no experience and average pay.
These jobs are flexible and work around your family’s needs. Most of the time, you need an internet connection and communication skills. So, these jobs are perfect for you, whether you want to make a little extra money or find legitimate work. Let’s get into my favorite stay-at-home mom jobs.
Best Jobs for Stay At Home Moms with No Experience
You might feel unsure where to start when you reenter the workforce after being a SAHM, whether it’s 12 weeks or 12 years. As a SAHM who was there myself, I’m here to reassure you that you can make money while being home with your kids or working in the margins of life when they’re sleeping or with your partner. Finding the best jobs for stay at home moms with no experience takes a bit of work, but it’s not hard.
Not all jobs are created equal. Some will pay a lot quicker than others, and some will pay a lot more than others. It’s a good idea to read through this post and jot down some notes on the jobs you think would suit your interests, abilities, and needed income.
Most of these jobs and money-making opportunities are things I’ve done personally and can vouch for. A few are ideas I got from other moms and vetted appropriately to ensure they’re legit. NO MLMs or DIRECT SALES. All these earning opportunities are ways you can make right away without recruiting a pyramid of other moms. Your prior experience in any job you’ve ever had will help you find the best work.
Let’s Talk About “Experience”
Before we get into the actual jobs you can do as a SAHM, I want to touch on what “having experience” really means. Many stay-at-home moms who didn’t get a college degree before having kids think they have no previous experience, and that is simply not true. They most likely have experience with child-rearing, sleep training, potty training, cooking, cleaning, schedules, kid activities, creating a budget, pet care, laundry, etc.
The list could go on and on. Remember that all those skills are your experience; many people will pay you for them. The best jobs for stay at home moms with no experience are the ones you enjoy doing and feel accessible to you, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have value. But first, you need to leave your imposter syndrome at the door and step into what you know you’re good at.
What are the best jobs for stay at home moms with no experience?
- Daycare Provider
- Nanny
- Instacart Shopper
- Laundry Service
- Meal Prepper
- Dog Walker
- Graphic Designer
- Clothing Reseller
Daycare Provider
Average Pay: This field has a wide range of income depending on where you live, but the average pay for a small, home daycare is $400/week.
The first job I will go over in the list of best jobs for stay at home moms with no experience is being a daycare provider, and that’s because I was one for almost five years. When my oldest was seven months old, I took on my first client as a new SAHM and watched their daughter twice a week. Over the next five years, I watched over ten more kids in my house. I could stay home with my kids and make a decent income while I did. Yes, it was hard work, but it was one of the best ways I ever brought in an income and raised my kids side by side.
Starting a home daycare is your first option. Reputable and loving home daycares are always in high demand. If you love staying home with your kids and think watching a few more would be a good fit for your personality and home, this is an option I highly recommend.
If you want more info on starting a home daycare, check out this podcast episode, where I go into more detail about how I did it. I also love the YouTube channel WorkLikeGlue, where Sarah was a daycare provider for over six years.
Not enough space? No problem!
Your second option is to work at a daycare and bring your kids. You could work at someone else’s home daycare as an assistant or at a daycare center as an employee. While I’ve never personally done this, I have known other moms who have. Some daycares will allow your child to attend free while you work, or they might give you a discounted rate.
This is a good option if your home isn’t appropriate for a home daycare or you don’t want to deal with being in charge. Start by calling your local centers to see if they need help and their policies on employees’ kids. You can also post in your local moms’ Facebook group asking if any home daycare providers are looking for an assistant.
Nanny
Average Pay: This one varies depending on where you live, but the average pay for being a nanny is $13/hr.
While being a nanny is similar to being a daycare provider, it is not the same, so I wanted to touch on it. When you have a daycare, you are an employee. That distinction is essential. even though both are listed as the best jobs for stay at home moms with no experience.
Being a nanny while being a SAHM typically works best if you only have one child. I’ve known many moms who could work for another family while bringing one of their kids with them, but I’ve never known of any who did it with two or more kids. You’re much better off doing home daycare with two or more kids.
As a nanny, you will most likely provide care at your employer’s home and bring your child. Though this is negotiable, I have known moms who watched kids at their homes as nannies. Being at someone else’s home means less time to do the things you want to do in your home during the week, but it also means less time to make your house messy, so it’s a toss-up.
You could also look for a part-time nanny position if you still want time as a stay-at-home mom at your home every week. Those are always plentiful, and it would give you extra income while also allowing you the benefits of being a SAHM. You can look for nanny jobs on your local Facebook page or websites like Care.com and Sittercity.
Instacart Shopper
Average Pay: According to my research, the average pay is $20/hr working as an Instacart shopper, but it can go up or down depending on the area and time of day. If you work 15 hours a week, that means $300/week.
Being an Instacart shopper is a great way to make extra money while spending time with your kids. You can work as much or as little as you want and set your schedule. Plus, you’ll get to choose which stores you want to shop at and which products you want to deliver.
And, best of all, you’ll be able to earn money while spending quality time with your children. So if you’re looking for a flexible job that will allow you to make some extra money while also spending time with your kids, then being an Instacart shopper is the perfect option for you.
Laundry Service
Average Pay: You could quickly profit $10/load from my research and number crunching. If you have three clients with four loads a week, that’s $120.
While most moms hate doing laundry, it’s one of my favorite chores. If you feel the same way, starting a local laundry service in your neighborhood could be the best job for stay at home moms with no experience.
Most laundromats charge around $1.50/2 a pound of laundry to be picked up, washed, dried, folded, and dropped off. The average home washer can hold about 7-8 pounds, meaning you could safely charge $15/load and make a decent profit.
Here are a few things to consider:
- How far are you willing to pick up and drop off?
- Will you offer any other services, such as ironing or stain removal?
- What items are you ready to launder, how much laundry will you realistically be able to do each day, and how will you find clients?
I’ve yet to offer this service, but I have considered it and would do it. First, I’d post in my local mom’s Facebook groups that I’m offering this as a service with my prices and delivery zone and see if anyone is interested. If there were interest, I’d probably take three clients initially to develop a process.
After I did those clients, I’d put a policy in place and type it out to give to all customers. Look at local laundromats to see what their policies are. Then, I’d set aside my first $100 as an insurance policy in case of any issues and I had to pay for an item of clothing. (Most laundromats cap their refunds at ten times the cleaning cost, so they don’t need to replace a $500 Burberry top.
As I got more clients, I’d implement a pick-up and drop-off day to cut down on commuting around the neighborhood and get a system in place to get it done throughout the day. You could always go to a laundromat and not use your machines, significantly reducing your profits. If space allows, I might get a second washer and dryer from Facebook Marketplace to do the laundry faster.
Additionally, I would set up a Facebook business page and ask clients to leave reviews so that I could find more clients. My marketing strategy would be to advertise myself as a SAHM who loves doing laundry and earning extra money. People love to support local businesses, especially moms!
Meal Prepper
Average Pay: When I did this for a few months, I charged the price of the groceries for my labor. So if I ordered $75 worth of groceries to make five meals, I would charge the client $150 total; $75 for groceries/supplies and $75 in labor. If you had two clients a week, you would make $150. If you work at a family home, you could quickly charge $25/hr or a $100 flat fee.
Do you love to cook? Me too! That’s why doing meal prep for families in my neighborhood made my list of the best jobs for stay at home moms with no experience. This started as me making a freezer meal for a friend who had surgery, but she loved the food so much that she asked if she could pay me to make more. Other families started reaching out once word got around that I was doing this for her.
Making freezer meals was a job I did in between home daycare clients. One family aged out in July, and I found a new family I knew was a great fit but didn’t need care until November. So, I did meal prep for the four months in between.
There are a few caveats to making food for other people safely and legally. You should check with your state for appropriate guidelines. Luckily, I had a Food and Sanitation license from my state that was still valid. But I later learned that the food should be prepared in a commercial kitchen, so if I ever did it again, I’d have to factor that cost into the operation.
If you don’t want to worry about that, you can find clients who will allow you to prepare food in their homes. For this situation, the family might have specific recipes and prep they need to do for the week and list them out. Or they might ask you to find recipes.
After having the recipe list, you would order the groceries to be delivered to their house (or give them the list to do it) and block off a chunk of time to go to their home, cook, prep, and package food away with reheating or cooking instructions. This cuts out the need for a sanitation license.
However, that can get tricky if you have small kids. If you can arrange the weekly chunk of time to be when your spouse is home with the kids or have free childcare from a family member, this can be a great way to make extra money doing something you love. Plus, lots of moms will pay for this service if you ask around on Facebook.
Dog Walker
Average Pay: From my research, $15/walk is the going rate. If you walked three dogs twice daily, you’d earn $450/week for Monday-Friday walks.
Being a dog walker is a great way to make extra money if you’re a stay at home mom. It’s a relatively easy job, and you can set your hours. Plus, it’s a great way to get some exercise and fresh air daily.
Dog walking is an excellent job for stay at home moms with no experience because it can be done in the early morning before your kids even wake up. Plus, most dog owners need their dogs walked early in the morning. If you’re considering becoming a dog walker, please try it. You might find it’s the perfect job for you and the best jobs for stay at home moms with no experience.
Creating flyers and delivering them to your neighbors or posting them on Facebook is a great place to start. You can research the going rate for a 15-20 dog walk and start with those prices. Next, see if you can get 2-3 dogs to walk that all live near each other. This way, you’ll earn more money in a short amount of time.
Additionally, you could walk dogs one at a time with your kids in tow in a stroller. You are getting the whole family out of the house for some fresh air while making some money. I would recommend taking more than one dog at a time if you have your kids with you, and I’d suggest having dog experience if you go this route. And, of course, make sure the dogs you’re walking are kid-friendly.
If you get into dog walking and think it’s a good job, you could also ask your clients if they need pet sitting and add that service to your business. That can be an excellent opportunity to earn extra cash.
Graphic Designer
Average Pay: This will depend on your chosen projects, but you could get two $100 projects weekly and make $200/week.
You might think I mistyped the above job title because how can anyone with no experience be a graphic designer? But I promise it is possible with Canva! Canva is a user-friendly visual design website and app where you can create hundreds of graphic design needs in minutes.
Canva has thousands of templates, but once you play around with it for a while, you will see how easy it is to create tons of graphics daily. Every business under the sun needs graphics for various uses, such as social media, promotional materials, and signage. Reach out to local businesses you patronize and see if they need your services. Using Canva, you can create sample projects to show prospective clients.
If you’re a creative person who loves to design but always thought the tech side of things would hold you back, I highly recommend you check out Canva and see how easy it is to use. Best of all, they have an incredible free version you can start with and make many designs.
Clothing Reseller
Average Pay: From my research, if you have good thrift stores to shop at, you can quickly profit from reselling clothes at $200/week.
Reselling clothes is an excellent option if you can access many thrift stores. Often, thrift stores carry lots of high-quality items that can be purchased for a low cost and then sold at a higher price on eBay, Poshmark, or Facebook Marketplace for a lot more.
First, start by selling the things you no longer wear in your closet. This will give you an idea of the workload without spending a dime. You can sell your kid’s clothes as well! Once you’ve gotten some practice with the stuff you no longer need, use your profits to buy a few things at Goodwill and resell them. Research what brands sell well so you don’t waste time and money.
Reselling clothes is a great job you can work on as a stay at home mom with no experience. Going to thrift stores can become part of your weekly routine with the kids, and then you can photograph them at home while they play. During their nap, you can list and package your items. The USPS will pick up your packages for free if you use them to ship, so you won’t even need to make trips to the post office with the kids in tow.
Places You Can Resell Clothes:
- Facebook Marketplace
- Poshmark
- eBay
- Mercari
- WhatNot
Being a clothing reseller does take a bit of restraint when it comes to purchasing. If you think you’ll spend more than you’ll make, this idea probably isn’t for you. It’s easy to buy a lot and get overwhelmed when listing your items to sell. Start slow, and never let stuff sit unlisted for longer than a few days. The best jobs for stay at home moms with no experience shouldn’t cause you to go into debt, lol!
Make a schedule for shopping, taking photos, and listing items. Regarding shipping, the faster you do it, the better your reviews will be, so I recommend shipping as quickly as possible. If an order comes through and you’re home, print the label and schedule the pickup for the next day. Then, set a reminder on your phone to pack the order and put it in your mailbox for pickup before you go to bed.
Check out this YouTube video for more info:
FAQs about Best Jobs for Stay At Home Moms With No Experience
How can I realistically make money as a stay-at-home mom?
First off, think about the skills you do have! I have been making money while staying at home for over seven years. I used my experience as a nanny to start a home daycare, and then after I started my blog, I used the skills I learned to provide consultation services for other content creators.
If you were a server or bartender before having kids, you likely have great people skills and could do something related to customer service. There are plenty of remote jobs you could get part-time that could fit your schedule as a SAHM and be the best jobs for stay at home moms with no experience.
Simply search for “remote customer service chat jobs” if you’d like to be the person who helps customers without talking on the phone. Just remember, no reputable business will ever make you pay for training or certification.
If you were a teacher before becoming a mom, you might enjoy tutoring kids after school or on the weekends. Tutoring can be highly lucrative and not take up a ton of time. You can post in your local Facebook groups about your experience, and you’re sure to get lots of responses. If you loved creating curriculum as a teacher, you could make printables on Teachers Pay Teachers.
Start thinking of ideas by brain-dumping everything you’ve done in your life so you can look at it as a whole. You can even get a friend or family member to look at the list and add anything you may have forgotten. With your list in hand, start brainstorming jobs you could do remotely or flexibly. Sometimes, you just gotta think outside the box.
What job can I do with a baby?
Jobs You Can Do While Baby Naps
- Virtual Assistant
- Home Daycare
- Freelance Writer
- Graphic Designing
- Social Media Manager
During the first year of your baby’s life, they typically nap between 3-5 hours daily. Add an hour in the morning and an hour at night, and you have about 25-30 hours of available work time. Now, I’m not saying you should work for all of that. You might still be getting up in the middle of the night and nursing. When dealing with postpartum depression or anxiety, please don’t work yourself to the bone.
However, money stress can exacerbate those issues, so I get it if working makes you feel better than resting. Just strike a balance between the two so you don’t burn out. Starting with remote work that you can do for around 10 hours a week is a good starting point. Add more as time passes, and you know you can handle it.
How do you work when you don’t have childcare?
A remote job is ideal when you don’t have reliable childcare or it doesn’t make financial sense to pay for childcare because your salary isn’t high enough. Finding jobs you can do with your kids in tow is another option. Any jobs mentioned above are opportunities you can take advantage of if you don’t have childcare; you just need to get creative with your time.
Starting a home daycare is my favorite option of them all. Not only are you helping other moms receive loving and safe childcare for their kids, but you also get to spend time with your kids, which is probably what you wanted to do most as a stay-at-home mom. Plus, your kids will get playmates and socialization built into their everyday. Win-win!
How can I earn extra money from home?
Think outside of the box and get creative. As I stated above, you have skills and abilities that you’ve acquired over the years. Tap into those talents and come up with services others would pay you to do. Stay-at-home moms can do many jobs to make extra money in their free time.
Some of these include running social media accounts for local businesses, answering customer service emails, and writing blog posts or booking travel seamlessly into parenthood! Suppose you’re looking at starting your own business soon but need to know where to start. In that case, finding something within your skillset is essential – because there isn’t always another “new idea” coming along tomorrow, right?
How can I make $100 a day?
Making one hundred dollars a day is no easy feat, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. For this list, I’ll calculate weekly earnings and divide it by seven, so you are making at least $100/day, including the ones you don’t work. I won’t be considering taxes because that’s too much math for this blog post! Below are some realistic ways I’ve come up with to make one hundred dollars a day doing the best jobs for stay at home moms with no experience:
- Watch three kids in your home daycare for $250/week per kid. That’s $750/week or $107/day.
- Walk four dogs twice a day at $15/walk. That’s $840/week or $120/day
- Nanny 35 hours a week for $20/hr. That’s $700/week or $100/day
- Do 25 hours of graphic design work a week at $30/hr. That’s $750/week or $107/day
- Write (7) 1000-word blog posts a week (approx. 20 hours of work for an intermediate writer) for $100/post. That’s $700/week or $100/day
- Sell ten pieces of clothing daily for a $10 profit a piece. That’s $100/day if you do it every day. Increase to 15 articles a day if you want weekends off.
There you have it; it’s all a numbers game. Find out what you can do to make the most money in a little amount of time. You could mix and match and do a little bit from various categories. Try things out and see what you enjoy doing most. But again, don’t take on too much or burn yourself out. Keep your goals realistic and block off time throughout your weeks so it doesn’t pile on top of you.
How can a woman make money fast?
The fastest way to make money that I know of is to watch kids. If having a home daycare isn’t feasible, you could become a date night babysitter during the week. In my neighborhood, most babysitters make about $20/hr. If you dedicate 2-3 nights a week to babysitting other kids (mostly while they sleep), you can make about $150-200/week and still have lots of time with your kids.
What job has the most flexible hours?
From the above list, the most flexible jobs are laundry service, graphic design, clothing reseller, and Instacart shopper. With any of those jobs, you can typically set your hours and work when you have time. Meal prepping can be flexible if you do it at home, but you’ll still have to get a plan going to get your clients their meals on the day they want them.
That’s not to say it’ll be easy; you must block your time carefully with flexible jobs that require you to self-pace. Typically you just need to find the time in your week to get the work done. This can be during naptime or on the weekends when your partner is home. It’s not hard to fit ten hours into your weekly schedule.
Is it possible to work from home with a toddler?
Working at home with a toddler is possible, but you must be realistic about your day. If you have a toddler who naps a solid two hours every day, you can use that as work time if you don’t have a job that has any scheduled meetings to attend. You could do all the jobs listed above as a stay at home mom with a toddler.
Having a home daycare is a great job to do when you’re home with a toddler. Finding another toddler to watch would be a great playmate for your child, and you probably have most of the stuff you need in your home already.
What jobs give you the most freedom?
- Laundry Service
- Instacart Shopper
- Graphic Designer
- Clothing Reseller
As stated above, these jobs provide the most freedom when asking about flexibility. You can typically pick the time of day you do them and batch a lot of the work when you have larger chunks of time to work. You can try a few out in your free time and see which works best in your current phase of motherhood.
What is a good side hustle for a woman?
Ugh, I hate the term side hustle. I feel like it’s come to mean breaking your back for a big corporation for pennies. I said it before, but please avoid MLMs or Direct Sales. They are designed for you to lose money by signing up and paying for starter packs and products but have very little chance of actually making money. Check out the podcast Life After MLM with Roberta Blevins for more info on how predatory MLMs are to stay-at-home moms.
As for making a side income, where you don’t need to pay bills with it, but it will provide your family with fun extras like vacations and weekend activities, anything I listed above would work for stay-at-home parents wanting to make money. You can decide how much you work and, for many of them, when you work. Side hustles don’t have to be these elusive things that “boss babes” make them out to be. You don’t have to DM 100 people daily to earn money.
How can I make passive income?
Passive income is the elusive white rabbit of the world. Simply put, passive income is when you make income without actively earning it. You put work in on the front end, and then people can purchase what you’ve bought, and it feels like you’re making money without much work. For example, you buy and rent a house for more than your mortgage and upkeep costs. You profit every month while someone else lives there and builds equity.
Hold on a second, though, because it isn’t that easy. Much passive income comes with maintenance work, start-up costs, and knowledge of what sells. It’s never a set-it-and-forget-it like a lot of YouTube marketing bros claim.
That being said, some passive income opportunities I’ve built over the past four and half years are making me money even when I sleep. While it took some work to get here, I’m glad I started them when I did.
My Passive Income Streams
- Affiliate Income from affiliate links on my blog and shared on social media.
- Ad Revenue from my blog (the more people who read my blog, the more I make)
- Amazon KDP (this is an online platform that allows you to create books and sell them on Amazon; I primarily sell journals.)
- Digital Products (I created many digital products over the years and still sell them today. My biggest seller is a meal planning workbook and recipe booklet.)
There are plenty of other passive income streams, but those are the ones I know about because I’ve done them. They don’t earn me boatloads of money; I make anywhere from $200-400/per month combined. If my blog traffic grew or my journals started selling more, that number would undoubtedly increase. However, it’s not predictable, and you can’t count on it to pay your bills. You never know when Amazon might change a policy or your blog might stop getting traffic because of an algorithm change in Google. That’s why I recommend the seven I listed above for stay-at-home jobs.
Start Earning Money as a SAHM with No “Experience” Today
Being a stay-at-home mom doesn’t mean your job options are limited. You can still make money and do something you love without sacrificing time with your kids. You can have the best of both worlds by considering one of the seven great jobs for stay-at-home moms. So what are you waiting for? Pick one that sounds interesting to you and give it a try. I’d love to hear how it goes!
Hopefully, this list has provided some inspiration and given you a starting point as you look for the perfect job to fit your schedule and needs as a stay-at-home mom. What other jobs have you considered? Are there any that we missed? How much money are you hoping to make each month? Let us know in the comments below – we’d love to hear from you!
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Taran is a self-proclaimed undomestic mom. She thrives as a stay-at-home-mom by consistently carving out time for herself and practicing realistic self-care. As a busy mom of 3, she knows that if mama ain’t happy, nobody’s happy! With a focus on how SAHMs can carve out time for themselves everyday, she teaches fellow SAHMs how they can do the same.
John says
Thank God i came across this informative article of yours. My wife is a stay at home mom with a 1 year old kid. The jobs that you’ve shared i know will be of great help to her.
John says
There is a wealth of information on here, very thorough.
I didn’t know you were holding you beautiful baby. How absolutely sweet and precious. I love seeing this, just proves Moms can be successful working and raising their precious families.