The pandemic hit many people very hard, lots of which never recovered. We learned much about ourselves and our society during this crisis. Mothers, as a group, were hit especially hard.
During the crisis, our children were pulled out of school without forewarning. Parents, mothers in particular, were forced into tough choices involving going to work or staying home. There wasn’t a correct answer, but maybe we can find a better solution through entrepreneurship.
Let me go on a quick rant/tangent. Two working parents will find it difficult to survive in the American workforce. Somewhere along the way, society forgot that parents are working people and not staying at home. I have this rant because everything is during official work hours- if you try to get anything done.
The post office, dentist’s office, doctor’s office, department of motor vehicles all work the same hours as you do. Then school doesn’t buy us any dividends by requiring us to remove our kids for 24 hours every time they get a fever.
Minimalism: 7 Ways that it Can Lead to Financial Freedom
Society is not on the side of families and working parents. Even before the pandemic, it was becoming difficult to have two working parents against the world’s needs. Add to that the cost of daycare and having one parent stay home is almost the best bet.
If you are lucky enough to have grandparents involved, they may be able to lighten the burden. Most Americans do not like this option, however. I wrote about it in “The Advantages of Adult Children Living at Home parts I and II.”
End rant. Okay, that ends my rant and time to come to the table with a productive solution. I believe entrepreneurship is the answer for mothers or anyone who decides to stay home with the children.
There are many forms of entrepreneurship and having a combination of a few of them is the key to success. When you search “work from home,” you will find many people trying to upsell you something. Be careful. The best advice I can give you is to read books and learn the game.
Every business that you start is going to be difficult at first. You will instead have to carve out a niche of people that will become your audience or clientele. From there, you need to create value for them. But before I go too deep into business, I want to talk about my wife’s work situation. I think that we have a great solution and many people can look to this to start working from home.
Our situation. I work full-time in the military. My wife was lucky enough to have her job transferred to “work from home” during the pandemic. So far, there are no signs of them having to return to the physical workplace anytime soon. If they do require her to go back, she will probably be retiring.
Kris (short for Kristina) made $42,000 from her job last year. Not a small amount of money- and working from home is the bonus prize. Kris also manages our three properties, and these bring in $2,300 a month in income. I am starting my book business through Amazon Kindle to diversify our income further.
We are diversifying our income and learning more ways to build wealth without a job. If Kris were to retire, she could buy some more properties to add to her passive income. When I retire, I will have my book business, and I will find other wealth generators like real estate notes, Airbnb, or car rental business. Something that is not too demanding on the brain but generates excellent returns.
The key takeaway I want you to understand is that using self-education and knowledge is more effective than brute strength. You don’t need to try to create a mega business that will become a job. You will want to aim for a company that is as passive as possible.
Taxes 103: Real Estate for the Win !!
That’s where I come in. Everything I have been learning, I have been writing. I have no end goal except to share information. I remember making $100,000 a year at my job and wondering where all my money was going. Once I educated myself, our lives improved drastically. We have more time and more money than ever. Oh, and less stress. Let’s look at some of the ways we can diversify our income without a ton of busywork.
Investing is a great way to build wealth and have a steady stream of income coming in via dividends and interest. However, in the investing world, it takes money to make money- so we will need a wealth generator. I talk about investing in the Stock Market Investing 101 series, Preferred Shares 101 series, and Introduction to REITs series.
I believe Kris and I are bringing in roughly $300-400 a month from dividends. That may not seem like a lot, but that is almost all of our home expenses. And we don’t have to work for that money anymore- that’s why we call it passive. Passive income is something that you will need to understand before you begin your journey. I explain more in the Cash Flow 101 Series.
Real Estate. I wrote in the aptly titled article “Use Real Estate as Your Wealth Generator.” The best part of real estate is it adapts whatever you need it to become. You just need to understand the different sub-niches that it offers.
I believe that becoming a real estate agent is an excellent profession for a stay-at-home mother. Just understand that you may not have the time or drive to become the top salesperson. Keeping that in mind, you may only have to sell one home a quarter to satisfy your income requirements. Read the book “Sold” for more on the life of a real estate agent.
Real Estate wholesaling may be something mothers can do as well. In the article “Is Real Estate Wholesaling Right For You?” I explain that real estate wholesaling is the middle person who finds clients who want to sell their homes and investors looking for a good deal. You can perform much of the work from home via flyer campaigns and data research. If you keep your area of operation small, I believe there is value here.
Some other real estate ideas involve finding distressed land deals (read “Dirt Rich”), real estate note investing (read “Real Estate Note Investing”), and renting out rooms in your home. I think many people should consider renting a room to senior citizens. It is excellent money that is already in an infinite return.
Investing for Dividends 103: The Magic of Re-Investing
Business for the win. This finally brings us to business, and there is much to discuss. First, understand the company that you want to start. I like to break my business down into two types: automation and royalties. I even wrote an article about it, “Automation vs. Royalties.”
Royalties come from music, video, and writing. I like royalties because they can be completely passive once finished. I am building my base of royalties via writing books. Everyone, especially mothers, should be creating some kind of content. In the article “Create.” I discuss why it is vital to start your own brand. It doesn’t have to be significant. In the book “Superfans,” the author says you only need 1,000 diehard fans.
Automation comes in three forms; robots, out-sourcing, and managers. By robots, I mean automation via software; robots just sound cooler. As you start your business, automation should be a top priority. It may sound incredible to be a full-time entrepreneur who is hustling and bustling, but that takes a lot of time and money. Read “The 4-Hour Work Week” for more on automation.
When I think of automation, I think of a laundromat, vending machines, rental car business, or Airbnb. Maybe you can get a tiny home planted on your property and collect rents. Before you start your business, take a hard look at your time constraints. If you want a business that you can work through the middle of the night, create that.
I am writing this article at 1 am; I do this every night. I love to write, and I love doing things in the middle of the night. So I created a business model that can support both of these things.
Mothers as Entrepreneurs. As you can see, I did not make it easy on you. There are many considerations for mothers to become stay-at-home entrepreneurs. The key points are to diversify your income- use business and real estate to build your money system. Your money system is passive income. The more money you invest into it, the more freedom you create.
Use the Military as Your Wealth Generator
Renting rooms is a great way to bring in income to sustain you throughout your journey. And it can fund your money system very quickly. Also, keep your expenses low. By budgeting, you can prevent lifestyle inflation, the killer of wealth.
This process is a long road; remember that. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Read books like “The Practice” that will prepare you for the long road. Not everyone fits the mold to become an entrepreneur, but you will be successful if you have these traits.
My final recommendation is to read as much as possible. With reading, you start to convert your mind from a scarcity mindset to a mindset of abundance (read “Scarcity vs. Abundance”). The education you obtain through reading compounds (read “The Compound Effect”) and makes you more effective at connecting the dots.
You can see from this article; I have been doing a lot of writing. And each connection to an item is special to me because I wrote those articles. The compounding effect is potent, and once you start, it can increase quickly.
If I combine all these articles, it would be a 30,000-word book or roughly 120 pages. Not bad. When I started, I had nothing. I have been writing for about three months. Imagine what I can build in 2-3 years. Your time is now, and this is your call to arms! Become the mother, wife, and entrepreneur that I know you can.
Check out our Merchandise Shop on Redbubble: (here)
Follow us on our Facebook Page (here)
Join our Facebook group (here)
Follow us on Pinterest at:
Disclosure: I am not a financial advisor or money manager, and any knowledge is given as guidance and not direct actionable investment advice. I am an Amazon Affiliate. Please research any investment vehicles that are being considered. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Leave a Reply