Business Ideas for Stay at Home Moms and Dads
Starting a business as a stay at home parent can be a great way to make some money and still have time for the many other responsibilities you have. In this article, we’ll go over 35 business ideas that are great for both moms and dads to consider. And they’re not all generic too. Some have a unique twist so it’s relevant for 2019 and 2020 and years to come. Let’s jump in.
1. Daycare
Running a daycare can be a great way for stay at home moms and dads to continue to be with their child, while also taking care and watching other people’s children and making money while doing it.
In many countries and cities, there are certain regulations and rules you’ll need to follow, but if you can meet those requirements, running a daycare can be a very lucrative business to run.
To start this business, you’d first want to look into a safe place where you can have these kids for the entire day. Then, you’ll want to get any licensing (if required in your area) and begin marketing the business. A great way to reach potential customers is through networking with the parents in elementary schools.
2. Virtual Career Tutoring
If you’re a stay at home parent but have extensive experience working for other companies, this could be the perfect business to start from home while you watch your children.
This business idea would involve setting up a service that would help tutor and teach people into making the right careers choices for their desired path. The great thing about this is it can be run from your home and you can do video calls with clients to talk to them. To make money, an hourly or package rate can be charged.
3. Virtual Language Tutoring
If you know two languages or want to teach English to others in a different country, starting a virtual language tutoring business would be the perfect fit for you. As a language tutor, you would charge your clients an hourly rate for your language services.
If you wanted to grow this business as a stay at home parent, you could eventually expand your services to language transcription services so you could diversify your revenue streams. If you are tutoring English virtually in other countries, the time difference may work great as your child will be sleeping when you need to teach.
4. Personal baby photography
If you’re a stay at home mom or dad who loves photography, the Personal Baby Photography company could be a great way to make money from home while taking care of your children.
You could begin by setting up a small area in your home that has different backdrops, themes, photography accessories and proper lighting and then invite your clients over to your home to take the pictures.
Initial start-up costs may include a high-quality camera, lighting and backdrops, but new moms will spend anything on amazing photos of their baby so it could be worth the investment.
5. School meal prep subscription
Many parents these days both have full-time jobs and a busy schedule and may not always have the time to prepare lunches for their own children. This business idea would help solve that problem, and could be operated by a stay at home parent as you may have more time to deal with lunch prep on some days.
The School Meal Prep Subscription business idea would cater to these parents by allowing them to choose a lunch that could be delivered to the school for the children that sign up and it would already be paid for. The great thing about this is that the parents know their kids are getting something healthy and they don’t have to worry about dealing with the money and if the child used it for a healthy lunch.
6. Community Dog Walker
This business idea is nothing revolutionary, but it’s a great one to consider if you love dogs and are a stay at home parent that has a spouse that works and comes home at night.
As your spouse comes home at night, you could go and walk the various dogs from your clients, so you get to spend the day with your child, and make money in the evening while enjoying the company of dogs.
To start this business, you could begin by going to houses in your neighbourhood and seeing if they have dogs that they don’t have time to walk on a regular basis. Charging an hourly or weekly fee would be a great way to get started with making money.
7. Personal School Children Pick-up Service
The hours of elementary and high school can make life tough for many working parents as work hours usually run until 5pm and children typically get out of school a few hours before that. So, parents struggle to pick their child up on time sometimes.
If you are a stay at home parent, you may already be picking up your own child at school and staying around to pick up and drop off a few other children for some extra money would be a great way to run a business.
Many states and provinces will require that you have a special driver license and insurance, so keep that in mind for your initial start-up costs. Otherwise, this could be a great business for you to start.
8. Online Community Assistant Service
The key to starting a successful business as a stay at home parent is to make sure you can do the work from your home, so you can also watch your child or be there to pick them up from school and play with them when needed.
That is why the Online Community Assistant Service would be a great side hustle to consider. There are many Facebook and Instagram groups, chats and communities that need to be managed as the owners need time to operate their own business. This is where your services could come in. By charging a monthly fee to the group/ chat room owners, you could moderate the comments and peoples posts so they stick to the certain guidelines.
This ultimately saves a lot of time for the group owner so they can focus on more important things. To get started with this idea, you can begin by talking to group moderators on Facebook.
9. Virtual IT Consulting Services
If you’re a stay at home dad or mom and have previously education, training or career experience in the information’s technology sectors, starting a Virtual IT Consulting Service may be right for you.
This service would offer IT consulting services to various small and medium size businesses. Charging clients on an hourly or project-based basis, this business idea could work great if you wanted to continue working in the IT field even as you are a stay at home parent.
10. After-school care program
A common problem for other working parents is that they are working when their kids get out of school. This is a problem as they need to be there to pick them up or they could send them to an After-School Care Program that you could start and run from your home. If you’re already picking up your own kids and taking care of them at your home, this could be a great extension of your responsibilities and you could make some money too.
Like the daycare business idea, you’ll want to make sure you’re in compliance with regulations and other rules about having other children over at your house after school.
11. Airbnb Host
An Airbnb host, can be the perfect business for you to start because you can be available at the odd hours when other unit owners are usually working, and cannot accommodate their guests. That is where you can help them since you may have more flexibility with your schedule during typical office and work hours.
This business idea would involve working with the unit owners to provide a great guest experience for their bookings. Services could include clean-up, laundry, amenities replenishing, key management and other guest satisfaction tasks. A per unit or per-visit charge could be applied to your clients.
If you live in a big city, this would be a great idea to consider as there will usually be a lot of Airbnb rentals to target.
12. Business Coach
Do you have a background in running or operating a business and want to help others do the same? There is a major need for Business Coaching Companies as the baby boomer generation moves into retirement and they want to hand down their businesses, but the younger workers may not be fully prepared. That is where this service could come in.
By coaching certain executive level staff on a part-time basis, you could steer them towards CEO and operational positions and help build succession plans for these businesses. This could be a very lucrative business to start on the side, while you take care of your children.
13. Surrogate Mother Coach
A surrogate mother is someone who uses their body to carry and give birth to a baby for a couple or women who is unable to get pregnant themselves. If you’ve been through the process of carrying a child, you may have the experience to start a Surrogate Mother Coaching Company.
This business would involve working with the surrogate mother to make sure they are eating properly, getting enough rest, and doing all the right things so the baby is healthy. The main purpose of this service is to help the surrogate mother, but also give piece of mind to the person that is going to be raising that child later on. They are going to want to make sure that the surrogate mother is doing all the right things.
Since people care so much about these areas, a high fee can be charged as you consult and help these surrogate mothers.
14. Baby based Etsy Shop
As a stay at home parent, you may have experience in choosing baby clothing and seeing how fast they grow out of it, and not knowing what to do next with it. That is where this business idea comes in. With all the old baby clothes you could collect or buy for really cheap in your community, you could start an online used baby clothing store.
15. Toddler Educator
Education for children while they are young can be very beneficial, and some parents may want to educate their toddler but not know what to teach them. That is where you could potentially come in and provide specific lessons or other educational films, videos and apps.
16. Children Book Writing Company
Writing and selling children books can be a great side-business to start while you’re a stay at home parent. If you have certain lessons you like to teach your own children, you could write these into stories and work with a graphic designer to make it look appealing for the kids.
These books could be published on your own website and other marketplaces to generate you an income. The best part, you can work on writing these books when you don’t have other commitments and tasks involved as your role as a stay at home parent.
17. Single mother help hotline company
There are many single mothers out there that are working one and maybe two jobs while raising their family. And some may not have enough time to talk to friends about the problems they are facing in life. To help solve this problem, you could start a nationwide hotline that single mothers could call, and for a very low cost, be able to vent or talk about the problems they are experiencing.
If you have a background in counselling, this could be a great business to run as the other women may feel more confident when they are talking to an accredited counsellor.
18. Personal Skills Development Service
As a stay at home parent, you most likely have extensive personal skills such as cleaning, cooking, managing personal schedules for your family, running errands and many other tasks that you could teach others.
To start this service, you could list the kind of development services you could offer on a website and start networking with other parents who hire a nanny, but also want their child to learn those important life skills.
19. Kids Technology Management Business
Technology can easily now be integrated into their lives with smartphones, laptops and tablets. However, this is not always good. Kids need to get outside to play and enjoy nature, and some parents have trouble managing this.
To solve this problem, you could launch this company to help parents download the correct apps and settings on their children’s devices to control when they can use it, and ultimately limit their use if they are overusing. Things like apps and wifi management portals can set this up. A fee per child and household could be charged to each client.
20. Children Money Management Business
Learning money management when you are young is crucial if you want to have long-term success with your money. And unfortunately, the school systems don’t teach you how to manage your personal money. This becomes a major issue as people grow up as they don’t know the necessary skills to succeed financially.
This is where the Child Money Management Business could solve that problem. This business idea would involve developing courses, lessons and other content to help educate children about money, and also help parents have tools that they can use to continue to educate their children about their finances (and may also learn something new themselves). This idea could be operated from the comfort of your own home as a stay at home parent.
21. Sleep Consultant
If you have a passion for sleep or know all the tips and tricks to getting a baby or small child to sleep, this could be a great business to start. There is a huge problem related to the lack of sleep for sometimes both the parent and baby. It can be frustrating at times for parents to try and get their child to fall asleep when they wont.
To help, you could start a consulting company to help these parents get back the sleep they deserve. If you have previous experience in sleep aid, then this could be a great business to start as you could charge a high fee, since sleep is so valuable to everyone.
22. Child Development Subscription Box
A different spin on teaching child development could also be done through a subscription box service and would also be a more scalable business that could potentially grow to be a full-time career, once your own kids are out of the house.
The problem this business idea would solve is that some parents may not know what tools, toys and other things they should use to help their child learn in their early years before school. The monthly or quarterly subscription box would come with new toys that match the child’s development and age. This way, the parents get a consistent learning experience for their child, and you can generate a recurring revenue.
23. Feel Good Home Wife Subscription Box
This is another subscription box idea, but instead of targeting children, it targets the mothers. The problem that this would solve is that mothers tend to leave their own well-being to be taken care of last, once the kids and husband have been taken care of. Leaving no time for themselves.
This Subscription Box Company would solve that by delivering a new monthly gift that the mother can use to pamper and enjoy herself. If you have a passion for setting up gift boxes like this, it could easily be run from home as it can be done online and through shipping companies.
24. Spousal Dating Setup Service
There are many married and co-inhabiting couples out there that want to go out on dates together, but can never think of anything to do. Some couples are even so busy working and taking care of their own children, they don’t have time to make those important plans.
This service would help those couples by providing them with a full date experience package for a single price. The couple would simply pay you a fee and then they would be able to get a recommendation for an entire day or evening of events, dinning and fun that they could enjoy together.
If you like planning dates and know the best spots in your area for the different kind of couples, this could be a great business idea to start as a stay at home mom.
25. Children Wardrobe Specialist and Shopper
Do you have a passion for fashion? Particularly children’s fashion? Well this could be a great business idea for you to consider. This side business would involve working with the upper class to design and buy the wardrobes their children will wear for school and other occasions.
Since you’re dealing with the upper class, they will expect the luxury treatment, so start-up costs could be a little higher. However, you are also able to charge a lot more, so working with only a few clients could make you enough money to be happy. This would give you time to continue your life as a stay at home parent.
26. Parenting Lessons Service
Many new parents don’t know what to expect or do when they bring their newborn child home. If they have been preparing, it usually involves reading a lot of books, however, in your local area there may not be many options for in-person parenting classes. And some people learn so much better with an in-person instructor where they can ask questions and get live feedback.
To start this service, you could begin by hosting classes at your house for a small fee and it could be done in the evenings when you don’t have many responsibilities. This may work well for other working parents too. By going to schools and where other new parents hangout, you could see if they would be interested in taking one of your classes.
27. Online Guides Company & Parenting Website
If you want to educate new parents and help them on their parenting journey, but you don’t necessarily want to do it through in-person or one-on-one classes, creating an online business that helps new parents could be a great way to get started.
You could sell courses and blank template checklists that they need to follow as a new parent. If you have a background in digital marketing or want to learn, this could be a great business idea to explore further.
28. Baby Shower Event Planner
Some parents want their baby showers to be extravagant and will sometimes even hire a regular event planner to make it happen. There isn’t a major problem solved with this business idea, but it does provide a lot of value to the person who wants the baby shower. And if you started a specialty Baby Shower Event Planning Company, people may see you as more specialized for these types of events.
To begin, you could start by designing special event packages that cater to different interests and budgets, and then begin marketing that to new mothers in the middle and upper-class communities in your area. Since baby showers are usually on the weekends, it would be easy for you to continue your commitments as a parent yourself.
29. Electronics Disposal Business
More and more electronics are thrown in the garbage, not recycled properly, or just collect dust in someone’s home. This is partially due to the increase in consumption for electronic products like phones and computers, and it’s becoming a problem as these parts can harm the environment if they are not dealt with properly.
This business would involve networking with your neighbours and community members so you could properly dispose of their electronics. By collecting their electronics and then either taking them apart yourself or working with someone who can do it safely, you can sell all the internal pieces to make a profit from each device. This work could easily be done in the evenings and weekends too.
30. Children’s Toy Refurbishing Company
There are so many children’s toys that get thrown into the trash because they end up being too old and the kid outgrows them, or they break. This is also very wasteful and ends up harming the environment as more oil is needed to make these plastic toys.
What if you started an online toy refurbishing company? People could ship or drop off the broken toys to your place and you could either fix them for a fee for the person, or keep the toy and sell it to someone else online. This would be a great business to start if you’re handy with fixing things and the margins would be great since most of the stuff would be donations.
31. Augmented Reality Children Stories Company
Augmented Reality Children’s Stories are the way of the future as more children become immersed in technology at such a young age. Augmented reality can also add more dramatic story telling effects and can ultimately make the experience more enjoyable.
To start this idea, you could begin by writing a children’s story, then working with a developer to get them to program the augmented reality after-effects that could be accessed through a basic website or app.
32. Direct Sales Company
Have experience in sales as a stay at home parent? Well this company could be a perfect one for you to start. The Direct Sales Company would involve working with other businesses to sell their products directly to the consumer. This could be done online or at events and tradeshows.
33. Kid Tracker Business – GPS enables bracelet, or earrings, underwear
Some parents want to know where their child is located at all times of the day. And even with a cellphone, the GPS location can be switched off or they could lose it and you don’t have the location of your child anymore.
To help solve this problem for those parents that are worried, you could create a line of children’s clothing that has a small GPS tracking device built into the garment. That way, the child can always be tracked and still look fashionable. A monthly subscription could also be sold along-side this so the tracking can be viewed on a phone.
34. Home Birth Consultant
Many parents these days are having home births, however, if it’s not done correctly it can be very dangerous for both the mother and baby involved. That is why it’s important they have a Home Birth Consultant.
If you have experience in this area or want to learn more to become a consultant, this could be a great business to consider as you could charge a high fee for such personal work.
35. Baby Proofing Consultant
If you’re a stay at home mom, you’ve most likely have done the home “baby-proofing” routine right when you got home from the hospital. If you enjoyed the process, you should consider starting a Baby Proofing Consulting Firm.
This company could work with local daycares, child development centers and home residences to make sure the environment is completely safe for babies. There are many new things that new parents don’t consider when they first bring home their child, and that is where you can save them the “Oh Crap!” moments.
