Parenthood is regarded as a feat of its own, and while some are working moms, there are also stay-at-home moms who want to start a business from the comfort of their own home. There are also many other parents in general who may want to start a business from the comfort of your own home.
If you have a knack for knitting, making beaded jewelry, or creating custom items, becoming a small business owner from the comfort of your home is possible for any stay at home mom or parent.
We will share business ideas for stay-at-home parents so they can practice both starting a family and a lucrative business. One of the most common home business ideas is a home-based craft business.
Step 1: Identify Your Crafting Niche
The first thing you should do as anyone preparing to start his or her own business is to know your specialty for your small business. This is particularly significant in home-based businesses for moms because most likely, you’ll want to engage in something you enjoy doing and that can easily fit your busy schedule as a business owner.
There are many different business ideas for moms, such as a bookkeeping business, writing business, consulting business, or even a virtual assistant, but there are also more creative routes such as a baking business, a gift basket business, and other craft related things.
Ask yourself these questions before starting your own business:
- Which crafts do I have the greatest enthusiasm for?
- What strengths do I possess?
- Looking at this type of craft, is there a market available for this product or service; is there a business opportunity?
For instance, if you are good at crochet, then your focal area can be baby blankets or biodegradable market totes. If you enjoy home decor or art, you can try producing your own wall art or some handmade decorations.
Pro Tip: Explore currently popular crafts on websites like Etsy or look for ideas on Pinterest.
Step 2: Create a Business Plan
When owning a business, writing a business plan is a must–even with smaller home-based businesses. It assists you in identifying objectives, understanding your market, and planning of tasks required for running your business to build your home-based business idea. This will also help you, as a stay-at-home parent, manage expectations around your other duties at home.
Key components of a business plan include:
- Mission Statement: What is your reason for starting this business and what do you wish to accomplish as an at-home business.
- Target Market: Are you targeting busy moms, gift buyers or event organizers?
- Budget: How much capital can you put on the table at the onset? These expenses should involve costs related to the commodities, advertising, and putting the product in a neat pack. Starting your own business requires you most of the time to prepare for this.
- Pricing Strategy: Distribute the total cost of materials used in constructing the product, the total time taken and a reasonable profit margin.
With a business plan, your business can be great as you’ve set foundations and a framework of how things will be done, which will help to guide you especially when you are managing both your business and other activities.
Step 3: Set Up a Crafting Workspace
Another advantage of operating a home-based business for any mom is that one is allowed to work from home. Set a specific room or a part of your house as the craft room. This helps you manage and sort your documents, and more so helps you draw the line between your local business work and personal life.
Functional workspace ideas:
- Purchase your craft materials from reliable sources so you don’t need to go out for it, such as Country Brook Design.
- Choose a small room, a piece of the primary living area, or a giant closet.
- Organize storage such as shelves, bins and trays and label them.
- Ensure that your tools and building materials are within reach to ensure you spend little time hunting for them.
Having a dedicated space enhances productivity and helps better manage working hours while working from home.
Step 4: Build an Online Presence and Start a blog
Any home based business requires an online presence nowadays. Create accounts on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Pinterest, where people interested in your crafts can find you.
Steps to build the online presence once you start your business:
- Create a Brand and Social Media pages: Open a professional store in any popular website like Shopify, Wix, or Etsy, and similar services, ensure you build a brand to stand out.
- Photography: Have proper lighting and a decent camera to take professional looking pictures of the products you have.
- Use SEO Keywords: If you own a for your business, you can use words like ‘home-based businesses for moms’ in your description and in your articles to pull traffic in.
Post often and share photos, videos, and tips of the working process, satisfied customers’ testimonials, to give credibility to your great business.
Step 5: Market Your Small Business
Promotion is regarded as central to the achievement of getting your business established. Even the most beautifully crafted products may not be sold if people never knew it existed. Since most mom entrepreneurs work from home, you will find both online and offline marketing strategies that will assist in your marketing.
Effective marketing strategies include:
- Social Media Ads: Platforms like Facebook and Instagram are a perfect place for targeted advertising campaigns that can help you reach potential clients.
- Collaborations: Advertise your crafts to your website or local mom groups, bloggers or influencers and discuss with them any business collaboration.
- Craft Fairs and Markets: Engage in some event Sales in your local area so as to market your products and also introduce yourselves to other artisans.
Word of mouth is very important and should not be looked down on. Let people around you know about your business, they can be your first customers, know more about friends and families.
Step 6: Handle the Legal Aspects for your home-based business
Even if you’re working at an at-home business as a stay-at-home parent, you still need to register your business, pay sales taxes, and/or acquire several permits depending on the state you live in.
Key steps for a legal and profitable business:
- Choose a Business Name: Choose a name that will be appropriate to your craft and separates your entity from other brands.
- Register Your Business: The law on home-based business varies from one state to another, so getting a local code for registering the business is recommended.
- Get an EIN: Every new business needs an Employer Identification Number, or EIN, even if you don’t plan on hiring employees anytime soon.
It will save problems in the future and help set up credibility with customers in order to keep the business legal and in order.
Step 7: Manage Your Time Effectively While Managing your business from home
Work and family are key important areas that any business person has to balance if they are a parent; however, it is possible through time management. One thing that bear fruits when running home based businesses for moms is when you have a neat program or set time for business and time for a mom to be home with the children.
Tips for managing your time:
- Set Work Hours: Assign a certain segment of time for creation, promotion, and organizational activities.
- Use Productivity Tools: I would recommend using one of the tools such as Trello, Asana or Google Calendar.
- Involve Your Family: The older kids may be useful with simple chores as packing the orders or grouping of materials.
By coming up with a routine, you can expand your business and meet your family needs.
Step 8: Diversify Your Revenue Streams for your at-home business
When you start growing your craft business, ensure that you have more than one source of income. For instance, if you deal with sales of handmade candles, you could as well provide classes or even online guides for other candle makers. If you provide baked goods, you can provide recipes online.
Business ideas for additional income:
- Offer hobby kits with instructions and complete materials needed to make your crafts. You can even do craft or design classes to teach people how to do basic versions of your products.
- Order in bulk for weddings, events or corporate gifts, or order a customized product for yourself.
- Create a YouTube channel or a blog where one shows how one is doing it and then get paid via advertisements or through sponsorship.
Research also shows that diversification expands your revenue stream and propels you to being an authority in your field.
Step 9: Stay Inspired and Keep Learning to be the best business
The freelance craft industry is always growing, so find an edge to your home business to make it stand out, and continue to look for lucrative business ideas to continue your success. Regardless of the type of business that you are engaging in as a homepreneur, make time and invest in your creativity and skills.
Ways to stay inspired with more home business ideas:
- To continue pushing your business ideas for stay-at-home moms (and other parents), you may go for new techniques or business skills courses in an online courses offered program from the comfort of your home.
- Stay active in crafting forums to find other people with common passion. Share your latest discoveries or food experiments at home to build a community.
- Always ensure to remain passionate and motivated with your work you hence ensure it has a positive impact on your business.
Conclusion
If you want to use your passion through your home-based business then follow these outlined steps: define your niche, make an online presence and plan for time management in order to get your desired success in this business.
With proper intent and a good strategy, your home-based business can grow into something great. So pick up your tools and create your best business ideas now!