Best Home Business Opportunities for Stay at Home Moms

If you are a stay at home mom, you may wonder what the best home business opportunities are that fit your situation. Are you worried that in-home child care is your only option? Rest assured, there are many different ways to earn a lucrative part-time or full-time income while still caring for your family's needs. These opportunities are the best way you can balance work and family so you can live the life you deserve.

Direct Sales

Direct sales are one of the top home based business opportunities for stay at home moms. In fact, direct sales have been around since the turn of the last century when it wasn't really proper for a woman to work outside the home. But a few enterprising women started working for direct sales companies while staying at home anyway and thus the lasting success of corporations like Mary Kay, Avon, and Tupperware was born.

Nowadays, there are hundreds of successful business opportunities available in direct sales, pitching products ranging from cosmetics to handbags to stationery. With the range of products available, there is sure to be something out there you will enjoy selling from home.
You can also make and sell your own products. If you have hobbies that revolve around crafting, you can actually turn your passion into a successful home business idea. Hobbies that work well in this instance include: baking, any of the needle arts, scrapbooking, photography, and jewelry making. You can sell items from your own website or on a storefront website like eBay or Etsy.

Network Marketing

Network marketing is another one of the successful home based business opportunities that have been around for decades. It's very similar to direct sales, in that you sell a product for another company. However, you are encouraged to recruit other salespeople to your home company, and you earn a commission on each of your recruits' sales.

Network marketing has gotten a bad reputation thanks to unsavory pyramid schemes which proliferated in the 1980s and early 1990s. But if you find a legitimate organization, it remains a great way to make money from home.

You can also use network marketing principles to promote your own company in the global marketplace. If you have products or services to sell, a network marketing system such as GPT (Get Paid Today) can help you compete against multinational corporations with just the click of a mouse. The principles can be easily adapted to any small business, regardless of size or what you sell. In fact, one enterprising entrepreneur used it to market the pet beds she made at home.

Turnkey Operations/Franchises

Another good option for the work from home mom is a turnkey operation, also known as a franchise. These are prepackaged businesses that you can purchase and then open as your own. Everything, from product development to marketing, has already been done for you, so you can literally just "turn the key" and start running the business. A popular and visible example of a franchise is a fast food restaurant chain, although you can also purchase Internet turnkey operations.

Franchises are beneficial because they have millions of dollars of market research, advertising plans, product development, and brand name recognition going for them. In a sense, they are a fail proof way to make a living. On the other hand, they do require a large investment up front and offer very little room for customization, so if you are of a creative personality you might find a franchise too restrictive.