In this article, you’ll find the 10 best home-based business ideas for housewives and stay-at-home moms.
Although you can find millions of opportunities and resources on the internet to work from home, most of them are pure scams and don’t pay well.
In rare cases only, people make a significant income by participating in surveys, PTC sites, and fraud MLM schemes.
If you are looking for part-time jobs or home-based business ideas for housewives or stay-at-home moms, then you are landed in the right place.
Why Do People Search Small Business Ideas for Housewives?
1. With the increase in population, only a limited number of people get high-paying jobs. Especially in countries like India, where women used to stay at home after marriage and rely mostly on their husband’s salary.
Since the income from a single source may not be sufficient to cover family expenses, home-based business ideas can help to earn a great side income in spare time.
2. Nowadays, most women are educated and skilled, but only a few of them consider a career as a priority against the home, kids, and similar.
Although this situation is changing, and men are getting involved more in-home activities, home-based business ideas can be a better solution.
3. Some companies are looking for skilled people to outsource their work to make their business operations cost-effective.
4. With a small investment (a computer, fast internet, and mobile), housewives and stay-at-home moms can leverage their professional skills into a cash-generating machine.
Top 10 Small Business Ideas for Housewives
If you are searching for part-time jobs or home-based work for housewives without investment, then this article will help you to discover the best opportunity and earn money in your spare time.
Pick any profitable business idea from the following list and start making extra income by working from home.
1. Publish An Ebook
If you love reading books, novels, or any literature, then you probably know how to write an engaging copy.
You may share experiences or special moments, tutorials, DIY guides, or write stories that people will love to read.
Structure your ebook nicely, proofread for spelling or grammatical mistakes, and add some visual elements including photographs or suitable graphics.
You can publish this ebook on Amazon Kindle, Instamojo, or on your blog if you own one.
Depending on the content quality and marketing efforts, you can create a source of passive income.
You may reach out to some influencers and book reviewers or use social promotion to increase the sales volume.
Getting initial sales is the most challenging part of ebook selling, but then you can leverage the social proof to sell more copies.
Category | Product-based Business |
Difficulty Level | Medium |
Investment Required to Publish an Ebook | $0 to $100 |
Estimated Profit Margin | Variable |
2. Selling Homemade Food Items
Selling tasty homemade food items is one of the best business ideas for housewives and stay-at-home moms.
Almost every housewife is gifted with excellent cooking skills.
Working couples, hostel students, and even some families love homemade food items.
Here are a few ideas under this section.
- Offering homemade meals (Tiffin service).
- Cake designing
- Making low-fat bakery products
- Making special food items including pickles, jams, sago
- Offering tasty but healthy snacks for busy professionals.
- Making special dishes for small events or parties.
- Making ice creams, smoothies, or juices.
You may sell homemade food items to nearby restaurants and local markets.
Since you’re involved in the food business, ensure that hygiene and safety are your top priorities along with healthy and tasty food.
Also, inquire if the particular region requires any license or certificate to run a home-based food business.
Selling homemade food items is the best way to work from home in Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, and other major cities having busy lifestyle.
You may scale up this business with the help of your family members and a small investment to earn extra income.
Remember, social media promotion, WOMM (word of mouth marketing), and a small business website can multiply your marketing efforts and help to generate more customers.
Category | Product-based Business |
Difficulty Level | Medium |
Investment Required to Run a Homemade Food Business | $100 to $500 |
Estimated Profit Margin | Variable |
3. Offline and Online Tutoring
Education is a base of women’s empowerment, and most of the countries in the world, including India, support this movement.
As a result, many women are getting a higher education and becoming a part of the mainstream workforce.
However, most of those women quit their jobs to look after their families and kids.
In such cases, highly qualified and skilled women can utilize their academic knowledge by offering offline or online coaching to school or college students.
Experienced women can teach professional courses and earn a significant amount of money by working at home.
Offline coaching business requires a small investment mainly for whiteboard, writing material, books, and sitting arrangements.
If your house has a limited seating capacity for home tuitions and can’t accommodate more than ten students at a time, then you may consider online tutoring.
Either record videos while you teach a particular topic or do live sessions using Facebook Live, Zoom, or Google Hangout.
Online tutoring may prove the best home-based work for housewives without investment.
Plus, it’s more scalable than offline coaching, where the classroom space is a prime concern.
Category | Service-based Business |
Difficulty Level | Easy |
Investment Required for a Tutoring Business | $0 to $500 |
Estimated Profit Margin | High |
4. Beauty Parlor
A beauty parlor is also one of the best part-time business ideas for housewives.
Professional women, as well as any college girls, spend a substantial amount of money on their external appearance and look.
You can grab this opportunity to offer high-quality beauty services to earn from home.
Since beauty services are directly related to different body parts, including skin, hair, and nails, you must undergo specialized beautician training.
Don’t worry!
You may find many beautician training institutes in any major city, including Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Chennai, and Bangalore.
Join a reputed institute and complete any certification course. Later, you can learn many things from individual styling and makeup experts.
Find a suitable place, give it a decorative look, and purchase the required furniture, accessories, and beauty products to start a beauty parlor business.
Finally, promote your business through offline as well as online media to get a few customers. Later, you can upsell them additional services or annual subscriptions by offering discounts or freebies.
This way, the beauty parlor could be a profitable business opportunity for housewives.
Category | Service-based Business |
Difficulty Level | Medium |
Investment Required to Run a Beauty Parlor Business | $500 to $1000 |
Estimated Profit Margin | Variable |
5. Event Planning Service
Event planning is a challenging but profitable business for housewives without investment.
Here are a few examples of event planning services.
- Corporate conferences and meetings need hospitality services for attendees.
- Businesses need to arrange hospitality services for their staff members or clients in the name of the annual party.
- Corporate seminars.
- Product launches.
- Birthday/Marriage Anniversary parties.
- Weekend Dining parties.
As an event planner, you need to manage different things, including the meeting schedule, registration, communication, transportation, and refreshments.
Branding is an integral part of an event planning business. If you want to charge premium fees, then you will need a catchy name, portfolio, attractive business card, some creative ideas, and many soft skills.
Initially, you can gain experience by organizing local events and later contact well-established businesses to assist them in doing successful mega-events.
Category | Service-based Business |
Difficulty Level | Medium to Hard |
Investment Required for Event Planning Business | $100 to $1000 |
Estimated Profit Margin | Variable |
6. Wedding Planner
The wedding is considered an auspicious event where a couple meets for a lifetime.
Everyone wants to make this event special and preserve those memories.
Since family members and friends want to enjoy these moments, hiring a wedding planner is the best way to organize all activities.
If you have some organizational and event management skills, then you may consider working as an independent wedding planner. Later, you can hire a team to scale your business.
Remember, a formal wedding requires planning and managing different functions including transportation, reception, accommodation of guests, decoration of a marriage hall or a garden/lawn, music arrangement, photography/videography, catering service, and much more.
A reputed wedding planner can offer consultation services for pre-wedding functions, wedding purchases, destination selection, and overall budget optimization.
This way, becoming a wedding planner is a great business idea for housewives and moms sitting at home.
You can easily charge around ₹25K-100K for a single event depending on your skills and scope of work. If you wish to expand this business, you may need to hire a team and guide them to achieve a better customer satisfaction score.
Category | Service-based Business |
Difficulty Level | Hard |
Investment Required for Wedding Event Planning Business | $100 to $1000 |
Estimated Profit Margin |
High |
7. Professional Photographer
Becoming a professional photographer is one of the best ways to earn money in India as well as in other countries too.
Almost every woman loves taking beautiful selfies no matter where they are.
Transforming this passion into professional photography will help housewives to earn money from home.
Here are a few niches where you can focus and earn maximum profit.
- Food Photography
- Jewelry Photography
- Wedding Photography
- Kids/Toys Photography
- Beauty Products Photography
If you want to be a professional photographer, then you need to master the basics of photography including the light, shutter, and aperture. You may join a photography coaching institute or learn from online courses.
Apart from that, you need to buy a DSLR camera, accessories, and software suite for editing photos.
Highly skilled photographers always have demand in the market.
If you’re a complete newbie, then create a portfolio and contribute to different photography sites. It’ll help to get feedback and improve your work.
Finally, you can work as an individual photographer in the local area or create a photography gig on freelancing websites including Upwork, Fiverr, and Freelancer.
I have compiled a list of stock photo selling sites where you can register for free and earn up to 85% royalty on images and videos you’ve submitted.
Category | Product/Service-based Business |
Difficulty Level | Hard |
Investment Required to Start Photography Business | $500 to $3000 |
Estimated Profit Margin | Very High |
8. Interior Designing
Interior designing is the best way to work from home.
It’s a perfect job for housewives to have a creative mind and a sense of beauty.
Although interior design enhances the aesthetic appeal of residential or commercial spaces, everyone should feel comfortable with their work.
Initially, you can join a design firm as an intern that will help to improve your designing skills, learn new technologies, and build connections.
Then, start working on small projects to experiment with your creative ideas.
You may need to visit an actual site because it gives a better understanding of the scope of the project and the requirements of a client.
However, the final design can be accomplished from the home office.
Once you get enough experience and exposure, no one can stop you from running a profitable interior designing business.
With the right mix of inbound and outbound marketing, you can win hundreds of interior designing projects including residential apartments, bungalows, villas, hotels, restaurants, offices, malls, and other commercial buildings.
Category | Service-based Business |
Difficulty Level | Hard |
Investment Required for Interior Designing Business | $1000 to $3000 |
Estimated Profit Margin |
Very High |
9. Jewelry Making Business
Jewelry refers to the accessories that are worn to adorn the body and holds social value in the history of human civilization.
Almost every woman loves to wear it during auspicious functions, parties, other engagements, and even day-to-day life.
In Indian culture, jewelry is an integral part of women’s lifestyle.
Although jewelry is made from precious metals and stones, nowadays people are looking for more options and love to wear custom-designed jewelry.
Since the traditional jewelry-making business needs a significant investment due to the high cost of raw materials including gold, platinum, and diamonds, you can focus on custom-designed jewelry made from inexpensive metals, stones, wood, shells, and plastic.
You may use computerized tools to create unique designs and
buy raw materials from the wholesale market to lower the production cost.
Selling readymade products is the most critical step in the jewelry business unless you’re a well-established brand.
That’s why, improve your marketing skills and sell those jewelry items in the local market or on your website or e-commerce marketplaces including Amazon, Flipkart, and Etsy.
If done right, this is a profitable home-based business idea for housewives and moms.
Category | Product-based Business |
Difficulty Level | Medium |
Investment Required for Custom Jewelry Making Business | $100 to $500 |
Estimated Profit Margin | Medium |
10. Daycare Center
A Daycare is early childhood care and preschool education services given for small kids of an average age group of 1-6 years.
It’s possible to handle 3-4 kids at home but having a dedicated daycare center is a better option.
Nowadays, most parents are career-oriented and a daycare center seems like a good option for them.
A daycare center must have an adequate play area, sleeping area, and kitchen away from the kids’ activity zone.
Apart from that, security, healthy food, pure water, proper sanitation, ECCE-certified staff, medical/first-aid, and study/sports material are a few essential things for a daycare center.
You may offer additional services including custom meal plans, SMS alerts, and live video calls to attract more customers.
Registering your business under local legislation bodies or working with a reputed franchise/daycare brand will help you to build trust among the people.
Since most housewives and moms have experience in handling their own children, a daycare center is a perfect business idea for them to earn a side income.
Category | Service-based Business |
Difficulty Level | Medium |
Investment Required for Running a Daycare Center | $1000 to $3000 |
Estimated Profit Margin |
Variable |
Summing Up
I hope that you’ve got different business ideas for housewives and stay-at-home moms in this article.
The current economic situation pushes families, both wife, and husband, to get a job so that they can live a better lifestyle and give proper facilities to their kids.
It’s creating a huge bonding gap between the parents and kids.
However, the internet and technology evolution has brought up millions of work-from-home opportunities for both men and women, especially homemakers and moms.
If you want to create a secondary income source, then pick any business idea from the above list and start making money from home.
What is next?
I have enlisted top business ideas for housewives that can be started with a small to no investment.
Now, it’s your turn to take action.
- Create a sheet mentioning your business idea, difficulty level, and capital requirements.
- If you have any questions or want to know more about a particular work-from-home opportunity, feel free to comment below or email us at help@successpixel.com
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