Money was tight when my daughter was born. We lived paycheck to paycheck most of the time. Sometimes, we lived on far less than paycheck to paycheck. It is such a struggle to spend your life robbing Peter to pay Paul, worrying over how you’re going to pay your bills each month and even worse, how you’re going to take care of your kids. The simplest two answers to learning how to stop living paycheck to paycheck is first to as many ways to save money as possible and secondly, to bring in more income. If you can’t take a second job, hopefully one of these home business ideas will be able to help you boost the amount of money you have coming in each month.
If you are currently trying to stop living paycheck to paycheck, you’re not alone. It is estimated that as many as 49% of the American population lives paycheck to paycheck with no savings for emergencies that may happen (source). These home business ideas are designed to do two things; first they will help you build your savings and secondly they may actually turn into a full-time income for you and your family. That is exactly what happened with me and blogging. What started as a hobby, eventually became a full-time career and now, I earn six-figures a year blogging. If you take the time to really build your home business, you could easily replace your job and income with something you enjoy more.
Home Business Ideas to Help You Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck
These home business were included so that just about anyone can do them. A few may require learning a new skill, but none of them are too terribly hard to do or to get started. They’re also fantastic if you aren’t living paycheck to paycheck, but instead are trying to pay off debt or are simply trying to increase the amount of money in your savings account. I personally believe that everyone should have at least one side job. Not only does having a side job give you the chance to turn a hobby into a business or to do something you truly love doing, but it also gives you an income buffer that will allow you to prepare your family for a financial crisis.
Once you have built your new home business enough that it is providing an income, consider taking the time to learn how to invest so that your money continues to grow. Keeping your money in a savings account is great, but investing it so that your money grows into more money is even better. It gives you the chance to grow your money beyond what you ever expected.
Create a Wordpress Blog
One of my favorite home business ideas is to create a Wordpress blog. Professional blogging can be stressful, but it is also extremely rewarding and can be very profitable. When you learn how to create a blog, you give yourself the freedom of not only working for yourself, but you open yourself up to be free and focus your home business on whatever topic you want to focus on. For new bloggers, I recommend learning how to create a Wordpress blog on Bluehost. Their system is very easy to work with plus they’re super budget friendly at just $3.95/mo (paid upfront).
Bonus: If you want to learn how to make money blogging, but aren’t really sure how to get started making money blogging? Join my FREE 7-Day Journey to Blogging email course! In just 7-Days, I will show you how to set up your blog and how to begin making money with it!
Create a Resale Website
Creating a resale website is another one of my favorite home business ideas and can go a very long way toward helping you stop living paycheck to paycheck. For this, I suggest that you sign up for a Shopify account. It will allow you easily build a website that is specifically designed for selling products. You could also create a Wordpress website that is designed to sell products as well. For inventory, you can use a few thrift store shopping tips to pick up quality used items (and new items a lot of the time!) or hit clearance sales to find inventory.
Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck with free gift cards
Another way that you can earn money to help you stop living paycheck to paycheck is by putting your computer to work. There are a ton of ways to earn free gift cards online that are all 100% legitimate and can help add hundreds to your personal budget every month. For me, there are only a few places to earn free gift cards that I trust 100% to earn free gift cards and to earn free cash online with. I have used them all for years with no issues at all. You can check them out HERE if you wish.
Skill Based Home Business Ideas
Are you good with power tools and building things? Why not create a home based furniture making business? Once you have a few pieces made, you can create a Shopify store or create an Etsy store to showcase and sell your work. Another option is to use Amazon Handmade to sell your items too. Handmade furniture and homemade decor often sell very well and sometimes for as much as several hundred dollars each.
Another option for skill based home business ideas is great for teachers! Places like Udemy and Course Hero are always looking for people to teach classes or tutorials. You can teach on any subject that you’re good at which means the possibilities for earning are endless! If you are a teacher, another great option is to sell printables online at places such as Educents and Currclik. Homeschool Moms like me use printables a lot in our lesson plans which makes them invaluable.
If you’re a social media whiz, why not start take a look at how to start a virtual assistant business? There is a lot of money to be made doing things like managing social media accounts, managing email newsletters and more for people like me who simply don’t have enough time to do those tasks themselves. Some clients will pay you hourly while others will pay you per task.
For those that love children, looking into how to start a home daycare business is always a good option. Before you begin, check state and local laws. Some states limit the number of children your home daycare is allowed to have at one time, some require special certifications and others have very lax laws and don’t require much. When you go to set your rates, you will be able to choose between hourly, daily or weekly rates. Choose the option that will make you the most money while keeping your daycare as full as it can be. When you’re ready to launch your new home daycare, make sure to place ads in local parenting related Facebook groups, Craigslist and places such as Care.com.
Green Living Home Business Ideas
If you use homemade cleaning supplies or homemade beauty recipes, why not turn your favorite products into a home based business! Start an Etsy store or create a Shopify store and spend some time mixing up your favorite homemade products. Sell them in mason jars, buy printable labels, have your logo designed and you’re in business!
If you have a garden, why not sell your excess garden crops at the local Farmer’s Market? Not only can you sell fruits and veggies, but if you are raising backyard chickens that lay extra eggs, you can sell those as well. When you’re considering selling at Farmer’s Markets, make sure you think outside of the box. Canning recipes can be done up and sold, dehydrator recipes can as well. Most farmers markets also allow other homemade items, so homemade cleaning supplies and homemade beauty products would also be fantastic ideas!
Cooking and Home Related Home Business Ideas
Are you a whiz in the kitchen? Why not start a meal preparation home business? There are thousands of people in the world; especially if you live in bigger cities; who don’t have time to cook. These people are ripe to be your customers! Be sure to check local and state food preparation laws before you start so that you don’t find yourself in any trouble.
Cookies and candy are always a popular home business idea too. Choose your favorite dessert recipes, package them up in pretty treat bags and sell them individually or by the dozen. Farmer’s Markets or local festivals are great places to start selling your items.
Another home based related home business idea is a cleaning and organization service. You can make quite a bit of money with a cleaning and organization business if you pay attention to what you’re doing. Call around to cleaning companies in your area to get several quotes and base your prices on what they charge. If you only use cleaning supplies provided by the client, you can have virtually no startup costs.
All of these home business ideas will perform significantly better if you have a well designed website to showcase your work, client testimonials and other important information that prospective customers should know. I recommend learning how to create a Wordpress blog on Bluehost since Wordpress is so easy to use and can be customized to look like the professional website you will need.
Crafting Home Business Ideas
If you’re crafty, Etsy is a fantastic idea for you to make extra money selling crafts! The beauty of starting an Etsy business is that if you can make it, you can sell it! Homemade beauty products, drawings, sewing projects, crochet projects, crochet patterns, knitted items, printables, digital files and more! If you have a creative bone at all in your body, you can make money with Etsy pretty easily.
Farmers Markets are also a great place to sell your crafts. As I’ve pointed out several times in this post, farmers markets are a great place for someone trying to build a home business to make money. This is true for crafts just as much as it is for food and garden extras. The next time you visit a farmers market, but sure to check out how many crafts are on display. If those sellers can sell their goods, you can do so too.
Writing Home Business Ideas
For those of us that love to write, taking work as a freelance writer is perfect; especially when you’re trying to stop living paycheck to paycheck. It has virtually no startup costs! Whether you’re ghostwriting, copywriting, creating e-books, or writing for a blogger like me, writing freelance can be can be very profitable. In fact, when I was working as a freelance writer on the side a few years ago, I was regularly bringing in over $2,000 a month solely from writing. To find freelance writing gigs, you can check Facebook groups that are specific to hiring freelancers, Craigslist gigs or actual freelance sites such as UpWork.
Another home business idea for writers is writing Kindle books and self-publishing with Amazon KDP. This is how I published my first book, Six Dollar Family and I can speak from experience that it was incredibly easy to do. I do recommend taking a Kindle publishing course at Udemy before you begin the process so that you have the marketing tips and other pieces of advice that will make the difference between writing a successful book and having a book that simply sits on a virtual bookshelf. The courses also teach you how to properly format your Kindle book so that Amazon accepts it. I took one before publishing my book and am so glad that I did!
Photography Home Business Ideas
If you’re really good behind a camera lense, you can make money from home in a couple of different ways. The first is to start a photography business. Taking family photos, graduation photos, wedding photos and the like can all be extremely profitable. Just be sure that you have the skills that people are looking for in their photographer and that you have access to a good photo editing software so you can make their photos look their absolute best.
Secondly, photographers can also create a home based business by taking and selling stock photos online. Sites such as Deposit Photo allow you to list your photos and sell them for people such as myself who use them for blog posts, brochures, flyers and more. When you sell your photos online, you choose whether the buyer has “standard rights” or editorial rights only. Usually standard rights means they can edit the photo by adding text or cropping it as they see fit. Editorial rights typically means that the photo can not be edited at all and must be used the way they purchase it.