At the writing of this post, our country faces one of the biggest lows regarding our economic progress. Times are hard. If this is what is called “an economic recession”, then it is tough!
I know this isn’t the case in our country alone. All over the world, I hear the same thing: High cost of living, lack of jobs… name them.
Added to this discouraging state of affairs is when a family has to survive on one salary during these challenging times.
I am a big advocate for moms being home with their children. I know the blessings and the benefits of staying home with my children. I wouldn’t give these up for anything. I pray I will never have to.
Many moms would love to be stay-at-home mamas but the economy isn’t just favoring them. Some have even had to go to work to supplement their income.
They couldn’t live on one salary. Theirs was an income problem rather than a spending problem.
This is why I have made it my business to broadcast as much information as possible about what I know concerning making money from home.
It’s been my prayer that from what I share, a mom or two will come away encouraged and armed with a way that resonates with them in making money from home.
In today’s blog, I’m sharing the 5 ways I’ve trusted God to provide as he enables me to make money from home.
A Disclaimer
Before I share the 5 ways, allow me to give a disclaimer.
None of the ways I’m sharing will bring in money instantly. They will each take time and hard work to get to a place where they will bring in a steady income.
I’m grateful that the Bible prepares us for this because there are many scriptures about waiting patiently on the Lord. A typical example is Psalm 40:1.
“I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry.”
From my experience, God will not guide most of his children on the easy path of instant results. He is working on our character, building us up to handle his blessing with humility once he enables us to begin to enjoy the fruit of our labor.
If you pick any of the ways I’ve shared, keep at it for at least a year or two before concluding that it won’t work.
Thankfully, I have proof of concept that these are working. The one you gravitate towards will work for you too. Only ensure that it is the one God has led you to as you pray and wait on him.
Allow me to add this. Work on one at a time. Don’t do two or three at ago. I started with one at a time.
I would start one. I then focused on starting the next one once the previous one was established and didn’t need my attention like it did at the beginning.
Starting more than one hustle will lead to overwhelm, lack of effectiveness, and possible burnout. Keep in mind that just being a mom is already a full-time job of sorts.
If you begin any of these as a side hustle while working full-time, the venture will also be overwhelming if you focus on more than one.
Be wise, therefore. Choose one and stick with it for a while before starting the next.
Let’s get into the 5 ways I make money as a stay-at-home Christian mom.
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I Started a YouTube Channel
4 years ago, I began a YouTube channel dubbed Recipes and Hospitality with Clara. You can find it here.
Starting the channel at the time was long overdue. A friend had urged me repetitively to start because he thought I had a lot to offer with the kind of recipes and style of cooking I had adopted over the years. He felt others could benefit from my content.
Fear kept me from starting. I was very new to the online space. With the wide learning curve that awaited me, I didn’t even consider starting a YouTube channel for a long time.
God used the pandemic season to thrust me into the online space. In the process, I started a YouTube channel.
I mentioned earlier that any profitable venture will take time before any money comes in. That’s exactly what happened with my channel. It took almost 2 years to get monetized.
Your channel should have at least one thousand subscribers to qualify for the YouTube Partner Program. You must also attain four thousand watch hours within a year.
Thankfully, one can monetize a YouTube channel in other ways including affiliate marketing by promoting products you love to your audience and receiving a commission as a result. One can also get some income by selling merchandise and having channel memberships among others.
To succeed faster on YouTube, ensure you have content helping your community or audience solve a problem. Ensure your channel is not necessarily about you but about your viewers.
Original content is also a big plus on YouTube to ensure success. Invest in learning and perfecting your craft on YouTube and learning about the platform. This will shorten your learning curve significantly.
I watched channels such as Think Media and their Podcast. Watching these channels helped shorten my learning curve significantly.
I’m still growing in mastering my audience’s needs and the YouTube platform. I’m grateful though that YouTube has contributed to our income as a household.
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I Started a Blog
Three or so years ago, after my YouTube Channel gained momentum, I got serious about consistently posting on the blog.
Thankfully, I already had a website. (something I’d recommend for all moms who are involved in a business of any kind) I got serious about posting content on it.
Blogging is not easy. YouTubing was hard. Blogging was harder, especially for me as a mom and with all I was already doing.
Because I enjoy writing, I have kept at it, scheduling time once each week to write a blog post. If you don’t enjoy writing, blogging can be harder for you.
In the day and age we live in, available tools online can make writing easier. Ensure your post is original to be pushed out to others on Google.
For both platforms, consistency is key. For YouTube, I needed to capture the process of making a recipe that would probably take care of a meal that day.
For blogging, I had to sit down, research, and write. It typically takes me about 4 to 5 hours to complete a blog post. This means writing, editing, and getting the right photos for the blog. I also need an additional hour to publish it. A recipe blog takes me slightly longer than this.
I’ve mustered the process but it still isn’t a walk in the park. I still have to put in the work.
Just like a channel, your blog will need at least one year, or two, for your blogs to get picked up by Google so they can rank.
Ranked blogs make monetization possible through ads, selling your products through links, receiving a commission on qualifying sales of products you’ve linked in the blog through affiliate marketing, and connecting with your audience for future engagement.
Some of our recipes and other Christian articles such as our No-meat Pilau Recipe and our Why Waking up Early is Biblical are ranking on Google already and we’re grateful for this.
Just as it is with starting a YouTube Channel, be clear about why you started your blog. Select a niche that will enable you to answer your audience’s questions.
Pat Flynn said that the riches are in the niches.
My niche revolves around budget-friendly cooking in a challenging economy. The broader niche is ensuring I’m ministering to the godly woman holistically so she might be a blessing to those around her. My narrower niche fits in the wider niche.
If I niched further down to budget-friendly cooking, I would probably grow my audience faster. However, because I wanted to ensure I reached the hearts of my audience, I was willing to grow slower to attain this goal.
What are you passionate about? What are you doing that would offer real solutions to those around you?
If your solution is what your audience is desperately looking for to meet their need, they will most likely be willing to pay for the solution.
God will use your solution to help you make the money you need to meet your needs. Remember, a worker is worth his pay.
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I Developed a Product to Sell
Developing a product that one can sell to contribute to your family income is something that each of us reading this post can do.
God has made each of us creative. He’s made a way for us to meet the needs of others. This can be in the form of a solution packaged into a product available for sale.
I work with a Christian organization. Part of my work involves walking with women in discipleship.
Part of the discipleship process was doing Bible Studies with them on the Proverbs 31 passage of the Bible.
Several years later, through a series of events, I wrote a book based on the Proverbs 31 passage.
Through the book, I highlighted issues that face women today, the problems arising from these issues, and the Biblical solutions to these problems. I have included practical solutions to these problems in the book.
(This post may contain Affiliate links which means I earn a commission when you make a purchase at no extra cost to you.)
I’m grateful for the positive feedback from those who’ve purchased our book, A Woman of Noble Character, How Can I Become One? You can find it on Amazon here.
The hard copy can also be purchased here. For this one particularly, it’s best if you are in Kenya and its environs.
A book is an example of a product that you can sell. An apron is another product I have thought of selling. Women have sold soap, candles, branded mugs, T-shirts, journals, coloring books… name them.
Just as was the case with the other two ways, your product must have a solution to a real problem. It’s a real problem that you know your audience or customers will be willing to spend money to get the solution from you.
An experience with the problem and solution a product offers is key. Your audience will want the assurance that you know their problem well enough to provide a proven solution that works.
A cookbook is another product I’m currently working on. It will have budget-friendly recipes I’m certain will be useful to my community as they practice biblical hospitality at home.
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I Used My Skills
I’m aware that I might be talking to a woman who might still be uncomfortable starting a YouTube Channel or a blog. You might also not be clear as to what product to develop and sell.
This fourth way might be the best for you especially if you have a skill that helps you solve someone’s problem.
You might be skilled in braiding hair. This skill has saved me money because I plait my children’s hair.
I know a girl who makes money plaiting hair. Her cutting edge lies in the fact that she has the flexibility to come to her customer’s home to do it. She’s done my children’s hair when I’ve been unable to during the busy seasons.
My teenage daughter has been knitting woolen scarves. She’s sold them to friends and relatives, and others within our circles.
Our formal education, especially in our country, didn’t provide a conducive environment for us to acquire skills for life. Most of us have had to learn skills through the hard knocks of life.
Learning and perfecting a particular skill must be part of our lifelong learning as moms.
I’ve seen women learn skills such as editing videos, baking and frosting cakes, photography, virtual assistant work, and others that have come in handy in helping them make some money online.
What skill are you good at? Might it help someone else if you package it well?
Are you willing to learn a skill that can help you make money online? Which one?
These are some of the questions you might want to ask yourself as you think of how to make money online as a mom.
The last way I’ve made an income at home is limited to women who sense a calling towards helping others in their spiritual walk with the Lord and going to the mission field to evangelize and disciple.
These women are convinced that what they are doing is so important. They are willing to spend their time and resources on this.
Let me share it so you can check whether God might lead you to do this too.
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I Raise Supporters to partner with me
God called my husband and me to reach the youth with the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is our full-time engagement.
We talked to those in the body of Christ who believed in what we were doing and felt we needed to spend much of our time doing mission work.
We’re grateful that some started to support what we were doing, making it possible to spend more time reaching young people.
The Scriptures clearly state that those who share the gospel should eat from the gospel.
We understood that it is God’s will for us to receive support from his people.
The majority of those who support us have been directly impacted by the ministry we do. Others have resonated with what we do and chose to give towards God’s work.
We’ve shared with our supporters our vision, mission, and strategy for reaching the youth. We also keep them updated with a Newsletter, detailing what we are doing on a weekly and monthly basis.
I’m grateful that the first 4 ways of making money from home were born out of what we were already doing ministering to young people. (and women for me)
Apart from the support we receive from our partners, income from the other ways I talked about gets channeled back to reaching young people and women with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The reason we make money is ultimately to enhance the purposes of God in and through each of us. I pray you will be clear about this as you trust the Lord to make money at home.
In other words, making money should be about God and not necessarily you. This is the only way God can help you and me to maintain our focus solely on his will even as we make money at home.
Are you called to the work of the ministry? God calls the church to support those serving him in his work. This is one of the ways to raise finances to take care of your needs and those of your family.
These are the 5 ways I make money from home as a SAHM. I trust you are inspired to trust God to make money as a homemaker for his glory.
In our next blog, I will share more ways, especially shared by friends, of how they are making money from home.
I’m passionate about mamas being at home. I’m happy to share anything that makes this lifestyle easier for a mom. This includes making money from home to survive in a tough economy.
Recommended:
Buy Our Book on Biblical Womanhood Based on Proverbs 31 Here
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