In this article, author Smriti Tuteja explains why having a baby doesn’t mean ending your financial independence and discusses options to earn money from home after a maternity break.
About the author: Smriti is a freelance content writer and an avid reader. She quit her six-year-long IT career to embrace her love for writing. Her previous article – How much money can I make as a content writer – went viral. She writes content across genres and takes pride in her ability to research and carve magic with words. Over her six years of content writing experience, she has developed a knack for technical and digital marketing content.
She also passionately writes about parenting and is currently working on her book. When not writing or reading, she can be seen running behind any of her two kids or learning Deutsch. Reader’s may recall Smritis is the lead author of this popular book published via freefincal: How to profit from content writing.
Congratulations on your new baby. If you are here, you have mostly had a bundle of joy recently and are on a maternity break. Or you have exhausted the leaves and are desperately wanting to get back to work. While we all love our financial independence, it isn’t as easy as just picking up the handbag and heading to work. There is so much more to it, finding a nanny or day-care, trusting family with the child, pumping milk, etc. The pandemic situation has made it even tougher as most daycares are still inoperative and family incomes have gone down. That the expenses have soared after the new baby doesn’t help either.
Sounds familiar? Are you also looking for options to earn after you have exhausted your paid maternity leave?
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Here are some options for you:
Join your job back: Okay, okay! I am sorry. I know that you already know this and are looking for alternative options to stay at home with the child.
Below are some options that will help you earn money from home after maternity break:
Take freelance projects in your field of work: Suppose you are a programmer or a web designer or fashion designer, you can start looking for similar work opportunities that let you work from home. Even if you are not one of these, you might start looking for work from home opportunities in your field of work. You never know, you might even earn more than you did at your job. Many women that I know hit a gold mine this way. You can too.
Work on your skills and expertise: When it comes to the opportunities to learn, we are living in great times. With a lot of information out there for free and easily accessible with just an internet connection, you can learn anything anytime. Are there skills that you always wanted to enhance while you were working a full-time job? Acquire them now. Start here:
Work on building your skillset, earn certifications and increase your capabilities. You will be amazed at the potential that upskilling can unleash. It will help you pitch for jobs that were just a dream earlier or start home-based ventures. It will also make it easier to grab freelance opportunities.
You can also learn new things. Learning languages, for instance, will increase your employability as well as work from home prospects. Social media management and digital marketing are also key skills that convert to home-based income.
Chase your passion: I may be a bit biased here because I never liked my full-time career and followed my passion for writing and still keep experimenting with my ever-evolving list of passions. However, this is a slow yet foolproof way to earn money at home. Do what you love most and slowly begin to monetise it. My neighbour started her pickle business at the age of 48 after her elder child turned 15. All these years, she just made them for friends and family. After a lot of motivation, she has a business that yields a turnover of nearly 40 lakhs per year. Well, that is quite a long maternity break but worth all the effort. What is it that you are passionate about? Cooking? Cleaning? Painting? Embroidery? It could be something as simple as watching formula 1 races or reading about cars too. If you like to do it, you can monetize it. Remember, there is a person who earns a handsome sum for doing nothing. Well, that is hard to believe but still true.
Take inspiration from your routine: What is it that you do all day? Is there anything that you can turn into a successful venture? Well, you’d say that I change diapers or rock the baby all day. You could maybe start an online shop for cloth diapers or a blog/vlog that focuses on making routines easier for parents. You could also start an Instagram handle and review everyday baby products. Reviewers earn huge amounts per month apart from free samples of products. If you homeschool or do activities to engage your kids, a youtube channel about engaging little kids or a blog will be a great way to earn from what you do every day. These are just examples. You do not need to stay confined to the baby niche. For me, for instance, work is a great respite from the humdrum of parenting and monotony of a routine with kids. I, hence, stay as far as possible from work related to kids. The power to choose is always with you. My yoga instructor was once a new mom looking for earning opportunities. One thing she loved about her routine was her workout sessions. Today, she has a successful yoga studio.
Assess your strengths: If you cannot zero on what you are passionate about or would like to keep your hobbies separate from your career, you can focus on what you are good at. You could be baking great loaves of bread or be an awesome teacher but not really be passionate about any of these. Well, not a problem. You could still leverage your expertise to become your career.
Too generic? Too much work and introspection? Are you looking for the right answer to: How can women earn money from home after maternity break? Are you looking for a list of careers that can help you self-assess?
While I do not have an exhaustive list and I cannot say what will work for you, here are some work from home options for women. Well, they work for men too. Some of them may require you to upskill.
- Blogging
- Vlogging
- Review writing
- Home baking
- Online tutoring
- Freelance writing
- Physical tuitions
- Consultation
- Career counselling
- Call and chat-based customer service
- Home-based food delivery or tiffin service
- Reselling apparel, books, toys, etc.
- Reselling preloved kids books
- Kids worksheets and activities
- Reselling or selling self-made handicrafts
- Web and app development
- Graphic designing
- Tailoring and alterations
- Homemade beauty products
- Pickles and preserves
- Babywearing library
- Cloth diaper manufacturing and selling
There are many more options. Do write to us if you can think of any and we will add them to the list.
Having a baby doesn’t mean the end of your financial independence. Stop worrying; get working.
In addition to freelancing opportunities (that would pay immediately), you can also consider using your skills to gradually build a secondary income source that will last a lifetime!
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Dr M. Pattabiraman(PhD) is the founder, managing editor and primary author of freefincal. He is an associate professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He has over ten years of experience publishing news analysis, research and financial product development. Connect with him via Twitter(X), Linkedin, or YouTube. Pattabiraman has co-authored three print books: (1) You can be rich too with goal-based investing (CNBC TV18) for DIY investors. (2) Gamechanger for young earners. (3) Chinchu Gets a Superpower! for kids. He has also written seven other free e-books on various money management topics. He is a patron and co-founder of “Fee-only India,” an organisation promoting unbiased, commission-free investment advice.Our flagship course! Learn to manage your portfolio like a pro to achieve your goals regardless of market conditions! ⇐ More than 3,000 investors and advisors are part of our exclusive community! Get clarity on how to plan for your goals and achieve the necessary corpus no matter the market condition is!! Watch the first lecture for free! One-time payment! No recurring fees! Life-long access to videos! Reduce fear, uncertainty and doubt while investing! Learn how to plan for your goals before and after retirement with confidence.
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