Top Niche Ideas

For many women, the idea of working at home is a dream. They like the idea of being at home for their kids after school, or if someone gets sick. There’s no longer any concern when a school break comes around. The kids have a place to be.

But there are some challenges to working at home with kids underfoot. Whether the children are younger or older, there can be challenges. Those challenges might be a little more manageable when the children are older, but there are challenges nonetheless.

Very young children

If you work at home and you have an infant or toddler, it’s unreasonable to assume that you can work full-time during the day and have the children at home as well. But all is not lost. Many moms find suitable solutions.

First, you can hire help to come in and help you with the child or children while you’re working. If your infant generally sleeps the morning away, consider having someone come to help in the afternoon when he’s more alert. Since you will be at home, you won’t have to pay a babysitter as much as you would if you were gone.

Some moms will work very early in the morning before their young child gets up and then late in the evening when the child has gone to bed. Of course, this might mean sacrificing some sleep yourself, but at least until the child or children are older, this can be a suitable arrangement.

Other moms who work at home with young ones will put the child in daycare. This might seem contrary to the notion of staying at home to be with your children, but there are times when there’s no other solution. Since you have control over your hours, you can drop your child off later than you would if you were commuting and you can also pick him or her up earlier. You can also visit at lunch if you like. As your children get older, and enter preschool, this arrangement will no longer be necessary.

Preschool children

If you have preschool-age children, your dreams for working at home become at once easier and more difficult. That is, at this age, children are more likely to play independently, but might also – vocally – demand your attention. This can be a challenge if you work on the phone.

Most moms find that the best arrangement for working at home with children this age is to work when the child is at preschool as well as in the early morning and late evening. Naptime is also ideal. Once your child gives up a nap, you can still institute a “quiet time” each day during which your child can read quietly, watch a movie, or do coloring or other artwork. This gives you a block of time to get some work done as well.

School age children

You might think that as soon as your children are in school, things will get easier. And they will. To a degree. But if you want to work full-time, you must account for those few hours after the kids get home from school and before your quitting time.

Many moms simply take the approach that involves setting up business hours and keeping the kids on a schedule that requires they respect those business hours. You can make clear to the kids that you aren’t available until your business hours are over (perhaps 5 p.m.).

One of the best solutions for most moms will involve keeping the kids busy. If you find many after-school activities for the kids, you might have to drive them somewhere, but otherwise can work undisturbed in the afternoon hours. You might also make an arrangement with other parents to trade off childcare duties. Or, if the kids are older and can play fairly independently, you can offer to host play dates now and then. The kids will be busy and out of your hair and you can finish your day’s work.

Being at home with the children is one of the great motivators for moms who work at home, but it does take some planning and organizing.

If you have ever heard the expression, “do what you love and the money will follow” then you understand the basic concept of finding a passion for your WAHM business. You might spend a good deal of time working your WAHM business, so it’s important that it’s something you feel passionate about.

How can you find your passion?

Think about the things in life that bring you great joy. Is it your kids? Your crafting? Your cooking? What do you enjoy doing the most? When you get a small pocket of time that’s not scheduled with other activities, what do you choose to do?

Also think about the things you enjoyed doing before you were a mom. The things you did on the weekends when you had time. What did you do? What brings you joy? You might even mentally wander back to the first job you had when you were truly happy.

Your answers to the questions give you a sense of what your passions are. Then think about how you can turn these in WAHM businesses.

Turn that passion into a business

If you are an excellent cook, you might turn your passion for cooking into a personal chef business, a catering business, a business that supplies muffins and treats for offices, or even a menu planner (where you provide other moms with pre-planned menus that they simply follow each week when cooking for their own families).

Let’s say you adore children, yours and others. You can’t get enough of them and enjoy each moment you spend with children. It’s not your desire to “get away” from them to work, but to include them as much as possible. In that case, your WAHM business might center on children in some fashion. You might tutor kids, or open a home daycare.

If you are a crafter, you can turn that passion into a business of many different sorts. You might make your crafts and sell them at craft shows, or on Etsy.com or even on eBay. Some women have trunk shows in their home where they sell their wares. This works especially well if you are selling fashion accessories or jewelry that you make.

What if you don’t have a passion?

You might think about the things you like doing and realize that those things don’t translate well into a business. What then? Then it’s time to reexamine the things you like to do. That is, you might find that your passions do lend themselves well to a WAHM business.

Are you passionate about watching television? If so, you can turn that passion into a blog that might get a good number of readers. You might find a job reviewing your favorite shows for a funny or irreverent site.

There are sites that pay for book reviews; if you are a passionate reader, you might write book reviews that net you some pay. You can also set up a blog that is written for passionate bloggers. Learn how to market it and you could have a nice little income for yourself from that blog.

If you are passionate about fitness, you might find a WAHM job as a personal trainer, providing you have adequate equipment and space at your home. You might also find a niche for yourself as a personal fitness motivator, providing customers with detailed and customized fitness plans and motivation.

Finding a business that is rooted in your passion isn’t hard once you examine your basic skill sets and combine that with your passion. You’re sure to do well when you start with the things you love doing.

If you’ve always had a skill for planning birthday parties and other events, you might want to think about starting an event planning business from home.

This is an ideal choice for moms who can do much of the planning from home and even have business meetings in their house. You do need to attend the party of event, of course.

What do you need to know?

If you want to start an event planning business, you should have either experience or training in event planning, or a combination of both. You can actually get a degree in event planning or management. There are many 2-year and 4-year schools that offer such degrees.

If you have done event planning in any capacity in a professional manner, you can us that experience to help you establish yourself in your own business. Think about the skills you might have acquired from other jobs. Have you had to arrange travel or luncheons?

In addition to any specific jobs you might have done before and your desire or ability to get a degree in event planning, you also should know some basics of how to plan an event, how to organize people and how to acquire the necessary items for a party.

Although having planned your own wedding and your children’s birthday parties might provide some experience in event planning, you can’t rely on this alone. Try to acquire more experience through a professional job or specific training.

What skills should you have?

Aside from specific experience, you should have some basic skills. Most important of these is organization. You should know that you are very organized and can plan an event from beginning to end without too many bumps in the road.

You should also be a self-starter and independent worker. Some customer service skills are also necessary, since you will be working with clients who might or might not know exactly what they want. They might also be stressed while planning and during the event and your ability to stay calm and professional is essential.

How to start your event planning business

Knowing people is the most important component to getting your business going. You need to connect with people who can give you business, or connect you with those who can give you business. You should take advantage of the connections you do have and let them know that you have an event planning business.

For many moms, event planning businesses start as birthday party planning business. If you have a real skill at putting on spectacular birthday parties, you can make a small business from that, and often your contacts will turn up larger events, from formal dinner parties to weddings.

To get the word out, have business cards printed up, and perhaps make a flier offering information about the services you provide and sample prices. Include any information about previous experience you have.

This kind of business requires in-person networking skills. You might attend local community events and talk to people about their event-planning needs. You could go to the chamber of commerce luncheons and offer to do some event planning for free. You can build a website and offer limited information about how to plan events. If they want more information, they must call you for the information, which allows you to market your services further.

If you want to start an event-planning business, just make sure you have the contacts, the experience and the know-how to get it done.

With just a few small investments in training and equipment, you can start an at-home inbound call business and create a work schedule that’s flexible and sometimes lucrative.

Many WAHMs find that inbound calling is a great business to start at home. Though you won’t have your own business, but will work other companies, you can control much about your work environment.

What is inbound calling?

First, let’s understand our terms. Inbound calling refers to calls that you answer for companies. Usually it’s to take orders, but it can also be to perform certain customer service tasks.

There are many companies (like FedEx, 1-800-Flowers.com and HSN, to name a few) that contract with other companies to do inbound calling. You are hired by the company that has a contract with, say, FedEx, as an independent contractor. Usually there will be tests, trials and others criteria to determine if you are the right fit for the company.

Most often, you can choose the hours you work, though some companies might require a set schedule from you. When you are “at work”, you will answer calls for the company, routing them to the appropriate place, or taking orders (you will be logged into a site that allows you to input the order) or performing customer service tasks like allowing people to pay on a bill, or change an address, or ask questions about items.

How can you do this at home?

Once you decide that inbound calling is for you, you have to take several steps. First, apply with companies that contract to do this kind of work. As you go through the application process, you will find that each company has different requirements for you. Some might ask you to incorporate your business, which is an investment on your part. Others will let you operate as an independent contractor.

There will be requirements for equipment. For example, you will be required to have high-speed internet access and most likely a wireless headset along with a landline phone (not a cordless phone). Some might require – or suggest – that you have a dedicated phone line.

As you work through the application process, you might be given written tests on the particular company you will work for, and you will also likely be given verbal tests, where someone will call you and act like a customer. They will be able to judge how well you would do in a real situation.

Don’t assume that you must have inbound calling experience to do this at home. Although if you have done this in the workplace before you might have a better chance of getting the job, people who have no experience at this also manage to get hired. If you can find your way around the internet, and can talk articulately and clearly, you can do this job.

Is inbound calling right for you?

If you are a mom who works at home, you might think that taking calls is dangerous. The kids might be noisy, or you might have little time to work when the kids aren’t around.

Most moms who work at home doing inbound calling will purchase a noise-cancelling headset. This ensures that no matter what noisy activity is swirling around you, it won’t be heard through your headset. Although you can work during the day when the kids are home, you can also schedule yourself to work on weekends or at night when the kids can be otherwise occupied.

Although there can be an investment up front for those looking to do inbound calling from home, doing this kind of work can be interesting, lucrative and is great for the social mom who wants to work at home but doesn’t want to give up talking to other adults.

If you enjoy cooking or baking and feel comfortable giving others your food, you might want to start your own home food business.

This kind of business can come in many forms – you might make specialty food products and sell them online, or you can be a caterer or a personal chef. Let’s look at a few possibilities.

Specialty food

This is one of the easiest food businesses to start. If you make the world’s greatest biscotti or homemade jam, you might consider selling it online or in the “real world”.

If you decide to sell your food product online, you can do it on Ebay or through your own website. You might also offer recipes, or several flavors or varieties of product. You might decide to keep it simple and offer the dry mix of a particular recipe so the customer can make the product at their convenience at home.

There are some limitations to be aware of, and these vary from area to area. There might be local restrictions on selling food, or restrictions based on where the food is produced. Make sure you pay attention to these rules and restrictions before you make food and sell it. Often, there are loopholes (like selling a mix) you can discover that allow you to create a small business from the comfort of your own kitchen.

Catering

Many moms have started catering businesses from home. If you are always called upon to cook the food for special events and you have particularly good recipes, you might be halfway in business already. In addition, if you have a large group of family and friends, you might also have a built-in client base.

To run a catering business, you have to have a kitchen to work in. Most county and state laws restrict making food from your home and carting it to another location. But you can always rent kitchens to use, such as church kitchens and the kitchens at schools and the like.

This is an ideal business for moms because you can choose the jobs you want to work on and reject the others. You can have a lot of control over your work schedule until the event itself, when you might work a few hours before and a few hours after the event.

Personal chef

Personal chefs cook food for people in their own home. This is an excellent choice for the cook who has the skill to be a caterer but no permanent kitchen to use. By cooking the food in the client’s home, you circumvent that problem.

Most personal chefs offer two primary services – they will cook a special meal in someone’s home for them to eat right then, and they cook food for a family or person to eat throughout the week. In that case, you will cook or pre-prep several meals and leave them in the fridge or freezer for the customers to eat later.

More than the other options, working as a personal chef requires that you have some cooking training. If you have no formal training, it can’t hurt to take a few classes. Having a culinary degree isn’t necessary, but you do need to have some training under your belt before you sell yourself as a professional chef.

These jobs might not be jobs that you work exclusively at home, but all of them have a focus at home with some work needed off-site. In that way, they are ideal for the mom who wants to work at home but needs to get out and about now and then too.