June 14, 2023
Editor
Kari is a writer for SideHustles.com. She previously managed a website in the privacy and digital compliance industry and earned money on the side by working as a pet sitter for 7 years.
Editor's Choice
Pet SittingEasiest
Data EntryHighest Earning
ConsultingRaising kids on your own is one of the hardest things anyone can do. It’s notoriously time-consuming—and expensive.
If, like many single moms, you need to earn a little extra money, you may have found that fitting more work into your busy schedule is tough and often not worth it.
To help out, we’ve compiled a list of the best side hustles for single moms to make sure you get the most out of the time you dedicate to taking on extra work.
Finding time to get out into the world when your kids are at home can be tricky. To find work you can accomplish at any time of the day from the comfort of your own home, check out these online and remote side hustles for single moms.
Average rates: $25–$35 per hour
Freelancing is a great way to make money from home and pad your professional portfolio. As a freelance writer, you can write content for clients in many different industries, and take on a wide variety of assignment types—including copywriting, blog content writing, and even social media post creation.
You can kick off your freelancing career with absolutely no experience, then raise your rate as your portfolio grows.
Average rates: $25–$40 per hour or $.02–$0.03 per word
You’re probably no stranger to looking over your kids’ homework and checking for mistakes. You can take that skill, apply it to adults, and get paid for doing it.
Proofreading serves as one of the final stages in a piece of content’s pipeline. As a proofreader, you’ll check over the work for consistency in style, spelling, and grammar.
You can take on proofreading assignments at your own pace and complete your work during the day or after the kids go to bed, whatever works best for you.
Average rates: $12–$22 per hour
You can easily fit freelance transcription work into your day or night, depending on when the kiddos need your attention.
If you become a freelance transcriptionist, you’ll listen to audio or video files and write out what you hear, creating a textual record. You can specialize (e.g., by focusing on medical or legal transcription) if you have experience in a particular industry.
Average rates: $25–$40 per hour
As a single mom, you already have all the skills and experience necessary to be a virtual assistant. Virtual assistants help businesses run smoothly, just like you do with your household.
Your job will vary based on who you’re helping, but virtual assistants are usually in charge of admin tasks like phone calls, calendar management, scheduling, and file organization.
Average rates: $11–$22 per hour
After a long day running around with the kids and talking to family members, teachers, friends, and other parents, working in peace and quiet may sound like a breath of fresh air. If solitary and straightforward work appeals to you, consider a role in freelance data entry.
This work consists of transferring information from one format to another. In many cases, this will just mean entering it into a spreadsheet of some type. This job often won’t require your full attention, so you can do it while listening to music or even catching up on an audiobook.
Data entry is always in demand and doesn’t require any experience, so you can slide right into this side hustle.
Average rates: $15–$23 per hour
Take a virtual vacation by helping others book their trips. Working as a virtual travel agent is similar to virtual assistant work, as you’ll mostly be tasked with admin and organizational tasks, like planning, scheduling, and confirming travel details, reservations, trip calendars, and excursions.
Note that this role often isn’t quite as flexible as others on this list, as you’ll need to make phone calls during business hours.
Average rates: $5–$50 per hour
Take the skills you already possess and sell your services to folks in need. Whether you’re skilled at graphic design, marketing, web development, or something else entirely, you can post your services online for an hourly or per-project rate.
Check out sites like Fiverr to get an idea of what kind of services there might be a market for online.
Average rates: $15–$27 per hour
Moms wear many hats, one of which is usually a teacher’s. Even if you don’t have formal training or professional teaching experience, you can start now—even without a teaching certificate. You can create and teach your own course on sites like Udemy, or you can quickly get a TEFL or TESOL certificate and teach English as a foreign language.
Of course, if you are certified, getting back in the (virtual) classroom will be even easier. You’ll be a shoo-in for almost any part-time and remote teaching position you apply for.
Average rates: $20–$30 per hour
If teaching is too much of a time commitment or you can’t find any worthwhile entry-level jobs, consider tutoring (conducting one-on-one lessons) instead.
You can tutor a standard school subject like math, science, or literature. Alternatively, you can tutor a skill, like playing a musical instrument. You can even tutor English-language learners, which often just involves conversing in English.
Average rates: $12–$20 per hour
No one knows the importance of patience like a parent. If you can bear to extend that patience to strangers, take up a freelance gig in customer service.
As a customer service representative, you can either take calls and assist users with their questions and issues, or you can make calls on behalf of a business, usually to sell a product or get contacts to join a list. Customer service teams operate around the clock, so you can find the job that best fits your busy schedule.
Average rates: $25–$55 per hour
Use your work experience, skills, and knowledge to help other people thrive. Consulting is incredibly broad, varied, and flexible. The heart and soul of consulting is helping an individual or a company solve a problem, usually by listening to their needs and creating an action plan that meets them.
Companies often hire consultants to help them streamline their business operations, whereas individuals hire consultants for things like landscape planning, color analysis, and diet.
If you want to express your creative side while bringing in the bacon, here are seven side hustles that can earn money while fulfilling you artistically.
Average rates: $19–$25 per hour
A photography side hustle is a great way to exercise your artistic eye and make decent money. If you already have camera and photo-editing software, getting started will be a breeze. Otherwise, you’ll need to make some financial investments to get off the ground.
Once you have the right equipment, you can photograph people, places, events, or products, and sell your pics online or in person.
Average rates: 35%–70% of the cost of each download
If you’ve ever thought about publishing your own book but stopped short at the thought of all of the effort it entails, it might be easier than you think.
With e-book self-publishing, you can write your book, then publish and sell it online as a downloadable product and earn a percentage of each sale. You can write any kind of book that strikes you, whether it’s fiction, children’s lit, or even a self-help book based on your own experiences as a single parent and the lessons you’ve learned.
Average rates: 90.5% of the sale price (on Etsy)
You can flex your creative muscles, relax with a satisfying hobby, and even get your kids involved by crafting goods and selling them online. The world of online crafts is nearly limitless; you can make soaps, bath bombs, candles, needlework, jewelry, metalwork, and anything else your heart desires.
Sell your homemade wares locally at craft fairs, farmer’s markets, or even shops, or sell them on online marketplaces and ship them to lucky buyers.
Average rates: $100 per month
Reselling used clothing is a fun and unique way to bring in extra cash. You can sell your own old threads, as well as the kids’ clothes you no longer need. You can also hunt for steals and resell other people’s clothes for a profit.
If you’d like to take this gig out on the town, you can also sniff out deals in bargain bins, flea markets, and garage sales. Then, clean up, repair, or even alter your finds and post them online.
Average rates: $20–$29 per hour (highly dependent on the popularity of your content)
Find your voice and make it known by becoming a YouTube creator or blogger. You can join the mommy-blogging community (if it appeals to you), but you can also create content that isn’t related to your life as a parent.
You can monetize your videos, blog posts, or even social media posts through affiliate deals and ad sponsorships.
Be aware that blogging and video creation are extremely popular, so the content creation space is competitive. Find a niche subject to help your content stand out, and consider other means of generating income while you’re getting started.
Average rates: $300–$1,000 per month
If you’ve been watching the Great British Baking Show and are feeling inspired, put your own oven mitts to the test and sell your homemade baked goods for some extra cash.
Baking desserts is a great way to relax your mind and start a side hustle that you can get your kids involved in.
Before you begin, do some research on local cottage food laws to make sure you adhere to regional regulations for selling at farmer’s markets, online, or door-to-door.
Average rates: $3–$15 per printable
This is an up-and-coming market with tons of opportunities to show off your creativity and help fellow single moms.
Printables are downloadable and customizable sheets that serve a specific purpose and are visually appealing. Parenting and mom-related printables are among some of the most popular, including homework schedules, nighttime routines, weekly calendars, and meal plans.
To make your printables, you’ll need to use basic design software like Canva, Adobe Photoshop, or Templett.
Spend some time out of the house when the kids are busy elsewhere by taking up one of these side hustles that will take you out of your home and into the world.
Average rates: $23–$29 per hour
If your kids are away for a chunk of time in the summer, this is a great opportunity for you to spend a few weeks working at a summer camp. Better yet—work at the same camp you send your kids to. This lets you keep them close by, make money, and enjoy time outdoors.
If working at a sleepaway camp isn’t in the cards, you can also look at day camps, sports camps, church camps, and craft camps that all require commitments of just a few hours each day.
Average rates: $8–$12 per hour
If you like to spend time hitting the road, make money driving for apps like Uber and Lyft. You can take up day shifts when the kids are at school, or only work when they’re at friends’ houses, their grandparents’ place, or with their other parent.
Average rates: $10–$19 per hour
If the “people” part of driving for a rideshare app doesn’t appeal to you—which is perfectly understandable if you’re socially drained from dealing with the kids all day—driving delivery is a popular side hustle for introverts that still allows you to make money behind the wheel.
As a delivery driver, you’ll be asked to pick up food, groceries, or personal items, and drop them off at residences. You’ll often leave deliveries at the door, so your days or nights probably won’t have to involve much human interaction.
Average rates: $19–$24 per hour
Show off your green thumb and enjoy some quiet time away from the kids with a side gig in lawn maintenance. You can garden, clean pools, rake leaves, tend grass, and do a dozen other yard work tasks to help people keep their green space beautiful.
Some work may require experience or a particular physical skillset, but most lawn maintenance just requires a basic level of physical fitness and a can-do attitude.
Average rates: $40–$50 per hour
You certainly aren’t getting paid to clean up after your kiddos, but the messes they make may have prepared you for a side hustle as a house cleaner. Cleaners are paid surprisingly well, and you can schedule just a handful of house cleanings each week while the kids are busy.
If you’re comfortable getting your hands dirty, cleaning is a great way to move your body, work in much-needed solitude, and earn some quick cash for you and your family.
Average rates: $10–$16 per hour
As a single parent, you’re probably well aware of how limited the childcare talent pool is at the moment. Many families are living in childcare deserts and struggling to find good and affordable care for their young ones.
You can help fill the gaps by offering your services. You can make babysitting housecalls, take up a nanny job, or even open your own in-home daycare center to look after your own kids along with other people’s.
Average rates: $10–$18 per hour
If you already get enough time with little ones, turn your caretaking attentions towards furry friends instead of children. As a pet sitter, you’ll be asked to stop by pet owners’ homes for a short time each day while they’re away, or even to stay overnight while they’re out of town or otherwise unavailable.
If you have the kids and aren’t able to take on an overnight pet-sitting stint, you can always look for jobs that allow you to watch the animals in your own home, giving your kids the chance to enjoy some animal love as well.
Average rates: $10–$18 per hour
With a lower time commitment than pet sitting, dog walking is a great way to spend time outdoors, sneak in exercise, and make money while hanging out with pups. You can take walk requests whenever you can fit them into your schedule, as they usually only take thirty minutes to an hour.
If you want a low-commitment way to make passive income, try out one of these easy side hustles for single moms. Unlike many of the other ones on this list, these don’t have the potential to grow into a primary source of income for you and your family, but they won’t take much time or effort to pursue.
Average rates: $5–$20 per month
Taking surveys for money is one of the easiest and fastest side hustles to get into. That said, it’s not a very profitable one. It’s incredibly time consuming for a low payout.
The idea is that you sign up for apps or websites that ask you to watch ads, take surveys, or complete tasks in exchange for payment. However, payouts are very low, so you’ll need to spend hours on your phone or computer before you can cash in any money at all.
Average rates: $17–$26 per hour
A more lucrative (and still very easy) way to help companies gauge their audiences is by becoming a freelance website tester.
Web developers and business owners are constantly releasing new sites or service updates, and they want feedback from consumers. Website testing usually requires you to complete certain tasks on a website or app, then relay feedback about your experience to the company via a form or survey.
Average rates: Varies
Renting out a spare room (or a second home, if you have one) to short- or long-term renters is an increasingly popular side hustle these days.
Whether you’re renting short-term stays to vacationers or long-term leases to people like traveling nurses, this can be a very lucrative source of income. However, it’s not completely passive work, as you’ll need to deal with the ins and outs of either sharing your space or managing a rental property from afar.
Average rates: $20–$25 per day
It’s totally understandable not to want people in your private space if you’re a single mom. However, there are other ways to make money renting out things that you’re leaving unused during the day.
For example, with the apps below, you can rent out your car for hours or even days at a time to commuters, travelers, or rideshare drivers.
Average rates: Varies
If you can’t bear to rent out your house or your car, how about letting people use your garage or backyard?
You can offer up a storage room, garage, shed, or even your basement as private storage space for passive income. This has the benefit of earning money without requiring you to allow strangers into your home on the regular. You can even list your green space (i.e., back, front, or side yard) as a private dog park for local pet owners.
Average rates: $600 per month
As you know, baby gear doesn’t come cheap. Thousands of other parents are struggling to afford essential items like cribs, car seats, strollers, bathtubs, and more. Help out your local community and make some money off of the gear you’re no longer using by renting out your old baby equipment.
