With more and more women running successful businesses, the rise of the mompreneur is real!
Side note: Can we take a break from all the “-preneur qualifying”? If you’re running a business — whether as a mom, dad, or otherwise childless individual — you’re just a entrepreneur in my book. And a brave human at that!
But what makes moms such great entrepreneurs? My guess is it has something to do with years of practicing patience, persistence, multi-tasking, and knowing how to make the most of every spare minute!
On The Side Hustle Show, I’ve had the chance to interview dozens of successful women. In this post, I’ll highlight 17 moms with diverse business models and incredible results.
If you find one or more that interests you, you can follow the link to the full profile page, or listen in right in your browser with the embedded audio player.
1. The Virtual Assistant Teacher: From $25 an Hour to 6-Figure Launches
Abbey Ashley started her virtual assistant business while on maternity leave with her first daughter. In just a few months, she’d booked enough work that she never had to go back to her old job.
Since other moms kept asking her how’d she done it and how she was able to work from home, she started sharing some of her marketing ideas.
That evolved into The Virtual Savvy, a step-by-step training program for aspiring VAs. When we spoke, Abbey sold $160k worth of her program the last time she launched it!
Next Steps
- Learn more about how Abbey went from active to passive income.
- Want to become a VA? Check out Abbey’s free training here.
- Listen in to our full conversation below:
2. Selling Printables on Etsy: $10k a Month
I’m a fan of side hustles that let me get paid over and over again from work I do once — even if they might take a little longer to get off the ground.
Printables is a business model that definitely fits that bill. What’s a printable?
Think files that people can print out and use in the home or business, like habit trackers, meal planners, budget templates, chore charts, intake forms, and more.
When I sat down with Rachel Jones, a mom of 2, she reported earning $10,000 a month from her portfolio of Etsy printables.
By uploading digital files to Etsy, you can reach a wide audience of buyers without having to fulfill individual orders. The platform handles the order delivery for you.
Next Steps
- Learn more about how Rachel grew her Etsy Printables business.
- Want to become a VA? Check out the printables training course here.
- Listen in to our full conversation below:
3. The Mattress Flipper: $3,000 a Month in Risk-Free Profit
When I heard about people making money reselling gently-used bed-in-a-box mattress returns, I was definitely curious to learn more. In this short interview, Staci Aburto, a Sharetown rep in the Phoenix area clued me in to how it all works.
Sharetown is a “reverse logistics” company for big, bulky items—like mattresses—and coordinates the return pickup requests when customers want a refund. Then, local reps pick up the items, clean and sanitize them, and list them for resale.
Per Staci, you only have to pay for your inventory once the item sells. She did note that her husband was “the muscle” in helping pick up the mattresses, and that she handled the Facebook Marketplace listings and customer communication.
4. Blogging for Dollars: $25k a Month and Up — Part Time
One of my favorite and most popular guests is Rosemarie “The Busy Budgeter” Groner. The former state trooper and mom of 2 has taken her part-time budgeting / frugal living blog and blown it up into a multi 6-figure business.
Her secret? Focusing her limited hours on the few activities that really drove results: traffic, email sign-ups, affiliate income, product sales, and more recently, Facebook ads.
Next Steps
- Learn more about how Rosemarie exploded her blogging income by focusing on ROI.
- Check out my free guide on how to start a blog of your own.
- Listen in to our full conversation below:
5. The Outschool Teacher: $10k a Month
Outschool is a platform that facilitates online group classes for kids, in a ton of different subjects. For Jade Weatherington, it meant a step away from the one-on-one tutoring she’d been doing as a side hustle for years.
She put together a class on the 5-paragraph essay, based on questions she was already getting from students. While sign-ups were slow to start, she built up a positive reputation on the site and is now consistently booked out and earning a great living working from home.
Next Steps
- Learn more about how Jade makes money on Outschool.
- Listen in to our full conversation below:
6. The Sleep Consultant: Up to $10k a Month
Jayne Havens turned sleep consulting into a $10k a month business. In our interview, she shared how she found her clients and delivered the service — all remotely.
After fielding lots of questions from other moms, she created the Center for Pediatric Sleep Management to help others get started in this business.
7. The Mastermind Host: $500 an Hour and Up
Women pay up to $2000 a month to hang out with Natalie Eckdahl for a few hours.
The mother of 3 has turned her BizChix podcast (which started as a side hustle) into a thriving business based largely on paid mastermind groups. She curates groups of high-performing female entrepreneurs – and gets paid handsomely to do it.
“What I’m trying to create is an amazing brainstorming opportunity for the women that join the group,” Natalie said.
Today she’s running five separate premium-priced masterminds for 5- and 6-figure entrepreneurs, with prices ranging from $600 to $2000 a month.
Next Steps
- Learn more about how Natalie structures and sells her paid mastermind groups.
- Listen in to our full conversation below:
8. Virtual Bookkeeper: Up to $70 an Hour
With her youngest starting part-time preschool, Kate Johnson wanted to “be a good steward” of that newfound time. She discovered bookkeeping as a natural complement to her existing skills.
After some training in the rules and software, she began to land clients locally — first at a real estate investors’ group.
When we spoke, she reported earning up to $70 an hour and is able to do most of the work from home on her own schedule. Since then, she’s even helped other women get started with bookkeeping as a side hustle.
Next Steps
- Learn more about how Kate started and grew her virtual bookkeeping business.
- Check out this free training on how to get started and see if it’s a fit for you.
- Listen in to our full conversation below:
9. Digital Wardrobe Consultant: $100k from Free Facebook Challenges
“I teach women how to get dressed in the morning.”
That’s how Kelly Snyder from AdoreYourWardrobe.com introduced herself to me at FinCon.
(The more “official” tagline is that Adore Your Wardrobe teaches women how to confidently dress their unique bodies through the principles found in math and science.)
Kelly has used an interesting strategy of free “challenges” on Facebook to grow her business to multiple 6-figures in under two years. This was definitely one of the more creative ways I’ve come across to make money on Facebook!
Next Steps
- Learn more about how Kelly sets up her Facebook challenges for maximum engagement and income.
- Listen in to our full conversation below:
10. The Video Game Coach: $4k a Month Part-Time
I connected with Devyn Ricks, a mom of 4, in this video, where she reported earning up to $4000 a month playing video games on Outschool!
11. From Struggling Songwriter to Multi 6-Figure “Dream Job”
Over the last decade, Cathy Heller has earned hundreds of thousands of dollars from her music and helping other musicians license their songs.
In fact, you’ve probably heard some of her music without realizing it. Songs of hers have been featured in ads for huge brands, like McDonald’s, Walmart, Kellogg’s, as well as many popular TV shows.
Today, the mother of 3 balances family, her art, her agency, her online course, and her new Don’t Keep Your Day Job podcast, where she interviews other entrepreneurs, artists, and influencers.
Next Steps
- Learn more about how Cathy reverse-engineered her dream job and found hungry buyers for her music.
- Learn more music licensing here.
- Listen in to our full conversation below:
12. Baking Bread: The $4k a Month Sourdough Side Hustle
Teresa Greenway is a mother of 10 who went from working part-time in a bakery to making $4-5k a month doing what she loves – baking and teaching others how to bake.
More specifically, she teaches how to bake perfect sourdough bread on Udemy.com.
Her secret weapon? Teresa starting a baking group on Facebook “by accident” in 2013. Today it’s filled with her biggest fans, students, and supporters.
Next Steps
- Learn more about how Teresa’s Facebook group marketing and building an income stream on Udemy.
- Check out my Udemy course launch breakdown, where I made $3500 in 60 days.
- Here are the 101 Best Udemy Courses for Entrepreneurs, Freelancers, and Side Hustlers.
- Listen in to our full conversation below:
13. Online Fitness Coach: Consistent $10k Months
Nagina Abdullah turned her weight loss blog, MasalaBody.com, into a 6-figure fitness side hustle.
By day, she works for a large consulting company, and with a busy work schedule, a young family, and limited time to work on her side hustle, Nagina has been very smart about her marketing and pricing.
After struggling with her weight for all of her adult life, she finally hit on something that worked and dropped 40 pounds! With friends, colleagues, and neighbors asking how she did it, she started her blog to share recipes and tips.
Next Steps
- Learn more about Nagina’s process for building an audience and creating and selling her services.
- Listen in to our full conversation below:
14. Playing with Kids: $200 an Hour with After School Programs
May Najafabadi earned $12,000 in 8 weeks — working just 1 hour a day.
Her side hustle?
After school enrichment classes teaching crafts and jewelry making. With no experience working with crafts or teaching children, May jumped right in with a lunchtime demonstration and handing out flyers to the kids.
“The kids went crazy, they just loved the crafts. It was a big hit,” May said.
With her hopes set on 6 or more kids for that first class, May had 18 sign up at $120 each. And with that validation, her new business was off to the races.
Next Steps
- Learn more about May’s after school program business.
- Listen in to our full conversation below:
15. Amazon FBA: A 6-Figure E-Commerce Business in 7 Months
Amazon FBA is “fulfillment by Amazon” — the program in which individual sellers like you and I can store our products in Amazon’s warehouses, and they ship them out to customers on your behalf.
“Find a hot trend and piggyback on it,” Toni Anderson told me.
That’s exactly what the mother of 7 did in launching her ecommerce business in the jewelry niche. It’s not just generic jewelry, but jewelry designed to specifically ride on the “essential oils” trend.
Toni said 90% of her business comes through Amazon vs. her own storefront, but that she and her partner did $190k in sales in their first 7 months!
Next Steps
- Learn more about how Toni decided on her product niche, sourced inventory, and sold $190k worth in her first 7 months.
- Listen in to our full conversation below:
16. Etsy Success: Turning Corks into Cash
Kara Lamerato is a work-at-home-mom of 2, but runs a successful business in her spare time. Kara’s Vineyard Wedding supplies brides with wine-themed wedding decorations, and has shipped thousands of orders.
Kara started the business before having kids while she was still working full-time in private banking. The idea came from her own wedding and thinking there might be other brides out there looking for similar DIY-style items.
She put a listing up on Etsy, and a couple weeks later, she had her first order!
Next Steps
- Learn more about how Kara started her ecommerce empire on Etsy and made her first sales.
- Listen in to our full conversation below:
17. The Newsletter Creator: $1300 a Month
Danielle Desir-Corbett has hundreds of paying subscribers to her Grants for Creators newsletter. Every couple weeks, she sends out a curated list of grant opportunities, which could be worth thousands of dollars to the winner.
She came up with the idea after winning several grants herself. Still, the research and application process can be daunting for creators who may not even know these programs exist. Her newsletter helps cut the clutter and present worthwhile grants to those who need them.
Could you start a similar business curating information or resources you’re an expert in?
Your Turn
What do you think? Do any of these business models resonate with you? Let me know in the comments below!
And if you’re still looking for ideas, this monster list will help get the creative juices flowing.
Serious About Making Extra Money?
- Start Your Free $500 Challenge. My free 5-day email course shows you how to add $500 to your bottom line.
- Join the free Side Hustle Nation Community. The free Facebook group is the best place to connect with other side hustlers and get your questions answered.
- Download The Side Hustle Show. My free podcast shares how to make extra money with actionable weekly episodes.
The award-winning Side Hustle Show is a
Top 10 Entrepreneurship podcast
with over 1,200 5-star ratings!
Listen in your favorite podcast app or directly in your browser.
Pin it for later:
It will be 20 years next year that I started “crushing it”. I had my first child and wanted to be at home with him so I started working from home doing what I did outside the home which was being a travel agent. I did what I did in the office and just started doing it at home minus the walk in clients. It was hard. It wasn’t so accepted in the travel industry. I started helping other moms learn the travel industry and be agents with my own little agency. And it blew up from there. Now I am the proud owner of one of the top travel host agencies in the US. We have just under 500 agents working with the agency. Each year we keep crushing goals. If you love what you do and have passion for it, you can do it. 2019 marks 20 years.
Such innovation in all these mompreneurs. I love hearing stories of people finding success in the midst of serious time constraints.
I LOVE this post so much! Go, Mompreneurs! I’ve been a WAHM since 1999 but it wasn’t until I started publishing on Amazon in 2010 that I turned multiple side hustles into a 6-figure steady income. Prior to that I had done everything from blogging, podcasts, PLR creation, info-product launches/courses/Udemy, and the list goes on. I think the key to finally finding ongoing success was in focusing on something I am personally interested in and very passionate about. Everything up until then was just a job. Great article!
All of these people have a purpose and their dreams are achievable!! Thank you for sharing their stories, this is amazing.
I’d say hooray and kudos to all these successful Mompreneurs. They saw the opportunity, they took action and they all work hard.
What an incredible group of moms! A lot of people complain that they can’t think of an idea. However, I’d argue that everyone has a skill or something that they enjoy doing. You’d be amazed but there will be people out there willing to pay to learn this skill either in person or online. Check to see if you can monetise your passion.
It is good to hear about how women are making it big doing what they love despite the big responsibility of taking care of their family that they have on their shoulders.
Great list of ideal moms! I wish to be one of them! Thanks for this amazing article!
All these mompreneurs are amazing. Being a mompreneur is such a challenge and the way these women make their way up to the top is amazing. I’m still hallucinating with the digital wardrobe consultant. Such an amazing idea. Thank you for sharing such amazing stories.
Which one impacted you the most?
Wow this is amazing, I am also a mompreneur. Just launched my after school program running it from my dining room with 3 kids so far paying R250 per month, its been exactly two weeks since and I am so happy to find this article I can’t wait to read read May’s tips on the business… I must say its a very fulfilling job.
These stories are so inspirational and there is so much to learn here! Thank you for sharing. I have been running my online business for many years selling custom made cushions. I started my side hustle completely alone and not knowing that others have done similar things. Now I am finally learning there are so many others who have similar goals and stories as me, and I’m always looking to learn from them.