My Income Streams as a Stay-at-Home Working Mom

I took my once freelance business, Bone & Bloom, full-time six months ago so I could work from home with my daughter and choose my own hours, and it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done. It took me years to get the courage to make the jump, and I think it’s pretty safe to say that the main thing that holds us all back from doing it is the fear of not having steady income. Today’s post is on my income streams as a stay-at-home working mom, allowing me to make a steady income, in addition to some extra money here and there each month.

MY CURRENT INCOME STREAMS

#1: Clients on monthly retainers
Establishing steady monthly income was crucial for me to get my business off the ground. To do this, I established social media packages, created a website and social media accounts to promote them, drafted proposals and did outreach to people I have worked with in the past. Today, my clients consist of people I reached out to, and people who were referred to me through past clients or people I know personally. This is where a majority of my income comes from, falling into the categories of monthly social media strategy/management and monthly digital marketing clients.

#2: Project-based clients
In addition to my monthly contract clients, I bring in additional income from one-off projects that people reach out and hire me for. This includes designing websites, logos, pitch decks, email newsletters, media kits and more. Website development and design are my best jobs to book because they generate the most money among my short-term project services. In the last six months, I’ve booked:

• Website design
• Logo design
• Email newsletter design
• Social media graphics design
• Pitch deck design
• Instagram story template design
• Media kit design
• Media kit edits
• Consulting calls

My project-based clients are people I’ve connected with on Instagram, people who were referred to me by people I know, and people who were then referred to me by those people. If you do great work and can book your first client, they will likely refer you to someone else and it can build from there.

#3: Affiliate links (RewardStyle/LTK)
Instagram offering the Story link feature for all users this year changed the game for me when making money through affiliates. Previously, you had to have 10,000 followers to access this feature, which was always such a bummer since I’ve been sitting pretty at 3,000+. Though I do make a decent amount of sales through Instagram stories, I make far more through Pinterest traffic, to my surprise. This pin below of my inspiration board for Clay’s first birthday party BLEW UP and I consistently make sales from it week to week, even though it was published back in July.

Nearly half of my total affiliate earnings in the past six months were made in the last six weeks alone, so I’m definitely on a great track to grow this income stream. Even though this is currently my smallest earning stream, I see potential for it and the extra money each month, no mater how much, is awesome. Gotta love passive income!

Needless to say, I highly recommend utilizing Pinterest for affiliate income. Create targeted product collages and share eye-catching photos of products you love and use. Also, always link the pins directly to your LTK or shoppable blog post (which I, personally, always like to do to boost my blog traffic as well). Every time I post on my blog and/or social media, I publish the photos to Pinterest too, and it’s interesting to see what gains transaction and what doesn’t. It honestly feels like a game to me!

INCOME STREAM I WANT TO IMPLEMENT NEXT

Digital goods
I’m thinking about selling custom digital download prints and using Instagram and Pinterest to push sales. I have an idea in mind that I think would be a good niche for me. I’d also love to sell website templates one day!

INCOME STREAM IDEAS

It was requested that I share income stream ideas for people who aren’t in the design/social media field like I am. First, consider what you’re good at. Do you have a special skillset, something you can create and sell on Etsy or a service that could be helpful to others? For instance, if I wanted to do something to make money outside of my design/social media services, I could sell pom poms on Etsy like the ones I made for our Christmas tree. I wanted to buy them on Etsy originally, but I couldn’t find what I was looking for, hence why I DIY’d them. That’s another way to figure out what to sell — pinpoint what’s missing in the market! I think a lot of people can make money from home through skills that they already have, you just have to find the right fit.

Those are my income streams as a stay-at-home working mom! I’m happy with where I’m at, but I’m not where I want to be yet and I’m working hard to expand these this year. Check out my other business posts and follow Bone & Bloom on my socials below.

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