mdolla: Top 5 Small Business Ideas for Homemakers

Raising a family is an important responsibility for a homemaker. You spend your mornings preparing breakfast, packing lunches and driving to carpool, and then coming back to do household chores. You spend your days tending to the younger ones and running errands such as grocery shopping and picking dry cleaning.

After your last child starts schooling, you may find yourself with plenty of free time in your hands. What do you do with this? Should you go back to school? Should you volunteer at the local shelter? How about revisiting that catering idea you had in college? All these and more are typical questions that a homemaker will ponder at this stage in their life. In this article, we explore 5 small business ideas that you may want to consider.

1. Beauty Salon

After going to the same hairdresser for many years, the thought of starting a beauty salon may have crossed your mind once or twice. If you have a passion for hairdressing, take a short course at your local college and obtain certification in less than twelve months. Alternatively, you could find talented hairdressers and hire them as staffs.

Having experienced staff to do the job will free you up for managerial duties. Learn from your experiences of visiting different salons over the years and create solutions for any concerns you may have ever had; for example, making separate appointments for waxing, hair styling, and massages probably irked you more times than you could count.

Diversify your beauty salon with different services such as waxing, eyebrow threading, manicure, and pedicure, and so on. Promote your beauty salon as one-stop-shop for all things beauty and you will have clients lining up around the block.

2. Car Hire

Recall your first job in high school where you handed out flyers at the local dealership. You continued to work at the same dealership through college, moving from one department to the next. During this time, you learned a lot about car selling and car leasing business. You may have even developed a passion for the trade; but this flame burnt out when you graduated college, and after a couple of years in the job market, you decided to pause on your career goals and prioritize family instead.

Well done. Now, you can resume that dream and try your hand at car leasing. Discuss with your spouse about this business and draft a budget for used and old car options. Run your credit score and apply for financing to get the fund. Give little effort and watch your small business grow.

3. Graphic Designer

Graphic design is another field that might work well for you. As a homemaker, you still need to take care of your home and your children after they return from school. If your college major was not graphic design at the first place, no worries. You can enroll for a professional course to get the training you need.

Try to find freelance jobs in this field; consider working as an infographic designer for few months to dip your toes in this field and get valuable working experience. Being an Infographic Designer comes with few perks; you get to work online, and of course, this job pays a significant income!

4. Catering Business

After attending numerous birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, weddings, and any other events, you must have been familiar with the catering business for social and corporate functions. Spending plenty of time in the kitchen comes with the territory of being a homemaker. You have had a chance to experiment with local cuisines from around the world, baked your fair share of cookies for the elementary class, and cooked up a storm during Thanksgiving and Christmas.

If anything great came from that intensive holiday cooking, it must be the respect you commanded each time you served that knish at the holiday party. You are clearly talented, why not channel this talent and experience into a business?

5. Design & Decor

Your keen eyes to see ‘design’ is evident in the meticulous décor that adorns your home. Friends and family alike agree that you are a natural when it comes to decorating a home. It’s fairly simple; you are good at decorating, so what about starting an interior décor business? Knock on those doors and ask your neighbors to inform their friends. The phone will start ringing soon enough.

Putting your career goals on hold to raise a family is not a death sentence. Roll up your sleeves and share your talents with the world. Make sure to inform your network of the new venture.

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