Published July 18, 2016
Becoming a stay at home mom can be pretty rough. For how easy most people think it is, it’s actually incredibly challenging to be plucked out of your old life and placed into another with so many restrictions. I love my son to death, and I would make the same decision again any day. However, there are plenty of times when I feel judged by outsiders for not “contributing” to my family financially. Maybe this is in my head, but that is only because of the very real stigma over SAHMs that has been created over generations’ past.
With the constant need to feel like I was making a monetary contribution to my family, I started trying to figure out some of the best ways to earn a little dough. I would google, and usually everything I clicked on said the same things. Garage sales, make arts and crafts to sell, etc. Honestly most of them I had already tried at this point, and they weren’t very effective if you wanted to make a good chunk of money relatively consistently.
Finally, one day I remembered an ad that I had seen for Rover.com. If you’ve never heard of them, listen up! Rover is part of a new wave of online business platforms that hire every day people like you and I as independent contractors. In this case, Rover hires “pet lovers” to pet sit for dogs, cats, and many other kinds of animals while their owners are away. As an independent contractor you set your own hours, rates, services, and most of your own business practices. I say most, because Rover does provide guidelines and etiquette to follow.
After really looking into this I was nervous, but I went for it! I’m sure glad that I did too, because it is perfect for my family! I am able to run my very successful pet sitting business out of my home without ever having to leave. I am able to care for my son, and enjoy the company of some great dogs while providing for my family. In the last 30 days alone, I have pulled in $1000 dollars from my at home business. Sure, it’s not as much as I used to make in a full-time managerial position, but it really is a nice chunk!
As with a lot of businesses, there are peak times and off season times. Summer, and the holidays are usually the busiest. These are the times where I am almost completely booked. During the off season there is significantly less business. The best thing that you can do to help your income potential in the off season is to provide an excellent experience for your clients. This is mostly done by just being courteous, honest, and trying to go above and beyond what is expected. It’s really important to give your clients the best experience possible, because you not only want them to come back, but you want them to tell their friends about you. Word of mouth is KEY to unlocking your business’ potential.
