For a new mother (and mothers of several children), maternity leave can be a wonderful time. However, it can also be emotionally and financially demanding. To help meet their bills during maternity leave, more mothers are learning how to earn money.
Although it may seem ideal to dedicate all your energy to your newborn during maternity leave, few mothers are able to achieve this.
High living costs and other factors may necessitate finding ways to earn money while on maternity leave.
Combining a full-time job with raising a child can be challenging. Nonetheless, even a small income before returning to your regular work can help alleviate some of the financial strain.
Why Earning Money While on Maternity Leave May Be Necessary
In an ideal world, mothers would have ample time to spend with their newborns before returning to work.
Spending time with your new baby, learning to bottle-feed or breastfeed, and getting as much sleep as possible will keep you busy while on your maternity leave.
20 Ways to Earn Money While on Maternity Leave
Modern mothers must find their own solutions, even as I hope that paid parental leave becomes more widely available to the British public.
Here are a few ways to earn money from home if you can take unpaid maternity leave without losing your job.
1. Open a High-interest Savings Account
If you have savings that you don’t need to access during your maternity leave, a high-interest savings account can be helpful. While it won’t replace lost income, it might ensure that you profit from your savings.
You can maintain emergency savings without sacrificing all of your earnings by opening an interest-bearing savings account.
2. Reduce Your Spending
Make sure to review your budget afterwards. The amount you spend each month affects the amount of money you need to earn, so it matters.
Try making some financial cuts if you don’t have paid time off or a partner who supports your bills.
There are several areas where many of us can cut back on our expenses. Getting dressed, eating out, and having fun could be a great place to start.
Reducing any of your variable or recurring expenses will help you have a smaller deficit while on maternity leave.
Naturally, the fact that having a baby increases your overall spending makes this goal challenging.
A baby budget is still necessary, even for the most frugal parents. Your finances will be affected by formula, diaper supplies, rising insurance premiums, and other things.
This is why it’s crucial to minimise your budget wherever you can. Every little bit counts towards the goal.
3. Work as a Virtual Assistant
Working as a virtual assistant (VA) allows you to set your own hours, making it an excellent choice for a mother on maternity leave.
You can tailor the work to suit your skills and interests because virtual assistants have the freedom to choose whatever tasks they’re willing to complete for clients.
Working on projects like data entry, customer support, email management, social media management, and more can be part of being a VA.
Due to its flexibility, working as a VA might be a viable option for earning money while on maternity leave. You are free to choose your own hours and work from home (or work for as long as the baby lets you!).
4. Manage Social Media Accounts for Clients
One area in which a virtual assistant’s schedule can be filled with work is social media management. Whether you are an expert in Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok, or all of the above, there are clients who need your skills.
Since many businesses now rely on at least one social media platform to attract customers, social media managers are essential! In addition, you can work relatively flexible hours and take on as much work as you want.
5. Earn Money by Freelancing While on Maternity Leave
It’s likely that you’ve heard rumours about at least a few people who are successful freelance writers. If you so wish, writing can become your full-time career or just a side project.
Even one or two freelance writing clients could help offset any lost income while on maternity leave. One approach is to write blog posts or social media content.
If you’ve worked as a journalist, you might also write for newspapers or magazines.
6. Consider Working as a Freelance Bookkeeper
If you’re a woman who prefers numbers over conversation, you could start a freelance bookkeeping business. Bookkeepers are employed by businesses of all sizes to oversee their financial affairs.
Since bookkeeping isn’t as complicated as accounting, even someone with no prior experience can more easily break into the industry. You might be able to pick up the skills needed to work as a freelance bookkeeper if you’re detail-oriented and well-organised.
7. Start Your Own Proofreading Business
There are a ton of freelance opportunities available, one of which is proofreading. Proofreading could be the ideal maternity side hustle for you if you’re always spotting other people’s writing mistakes.
Similar to many other freelance tasks, you can start by looking for clients on FlexJobs or Upwork.
8. Write and Sell an E-book
This isn’t a suggestion you can just throw together in a few hours and start making a ton of money, but if you have writing skills and are willing to put in some serious work, writing an e-book to self-publish could earn you some extra cash.
Perhaps you could work on this while your baby naps during the day. It’s going to be a harder way to make money, though, as it takes a lot of initial work with no guarantee of financial gain. But who knows—you never know what kind of book you could write on children’s literature, new motherhood, or any other subject—you never know what might appeal to readers.
9. Taking Care of Additional Children While on Maternity Leave
If you are able to provide childcare for other families, you can probably earn money throughout your maternity leave. You should prioritise your own child, of course, but it doesn’t mean you can’t manage one or two more children.
Go ahead and take maternity leave if you believe you will have the energy to properly care for one or more children during that time. Care doesn’t have to be provided full-time.
You could just provide a friend’s children with a few hours of after-school care. Alternatively, since you probably don’t get out much anyway, offer to watch couples in your neighbourhood on their “date nights” for a few months.
10. Get a Part-time Job That Includes Childcare
This one might be challenging. Nevertheless, you could search online and in the classified ads for part-time work openings.
Some places might be able to provide childcare so you can work and earn money at the same time. This can give you a break.
Perhaps a gym could watch the baby while you man the front desk. If your local library is in need of part-time assistance and would let you bring the baby along, that is another option.
Although you never know until you ask, it won’t work everywhere. Try a “work-from-anywhere” job if it doesn’t work out.
11. To Generate Passive Income, Develop an Online Course
A growing number of people are making money through the sale of courses they have created. Consider your skills and whether there is a way to monetise them for a while.
One excellent technique to get passive income is through selling online courses.
You start by conducting the necessary research, getting ready, writing or recording, and doing any other creative process steps. Once everything is in place, you can continue to sell the course indefinitely.
These books on passive income could serve as a source of inspiration for creating your own online course.
12. Create a Shop on Etsy
Etsy is a great platform for creative people to showcase their talents to the world.
Perhaps you could offer your well-known crocheted hand towels or create hand-drawn greeting cards. Alternatively, if you’re skilled at creating eye-catching printables, those work well for selling on Etsy.
An Etsy shop can be ideal, even though you might want to take your products to festivals and local craft fairs in the future when you’re on maternity leave. Making crafts that can earn you money doesn’t require you to leave your home.
13. Work Part-time in Online Customer Support
Would you like to respond to emails regarding deliveries or product enquiries? Perhaps you could learn how to make money doing customer service while on maternity leave by starting a small side business.
In the modern economy, online customer support is an invaluable asset. Most of us don’t want to spend much time on the phone.
When it comes to business enquiries, we would much rather communicate with you by email or chatbots.
You can find something to suit your needs if you search online for remote customer service jobs. In this way, you can continue to work from home while taking care of your child.
14. Offer Your Services for Cooking or Catering (on Your Own Schedule)
You might be an amazing cook for a select few dishes or a bread baker. You may be able to market and sell your best food products while you’re on maternity leave.
This work could involve a lot of promotion, but it’s easy to find potential customers thanks to social media. It is possible to handle all aspects of event catering, including bread and cake preparation, from the comfort of your own home.
Make sure to first research the regulations pertaining to food-related businesses in your state and locality. Based on the kind of kitchen you have and your culinary skills, determine if you meet the requirements.
15. Provide a Washing Service
Offering an in-home laundry service is a fantastic way to earn money while on maternity leave, provided that you don’t detest the thought of having mountains of laundry to fold.
All you have to do is register on the site, select the jobs in your region that you want to take on, and then work like crazy.
Adding little touches, such as neatly folding everything and tying a ribbon around it, may encourage repeat business.
16. Market Images for Stock Photo Services
Selling images on stock photo websites is a lucrative venture for both professional and amateur photographers.
Photographers can sell their work on websites such as iStockPhoto and Shutterstock.
Photography is a great art form that can help you to discover your creative side. When you have some free time, you can use the images you have already taken or capture new ones while spending quality time with your baby.
17. Open a Store Selling Printed Goods
Have you ever considered opening a print-on-demand (POD) store as an additional source of income while on maternity leave? This involves using an online storefront, submitting your designs, and letting them handle the printing of orders.
Prominent YouTubers sometimes use POD stores to produce clothing, coffee mugs, and other items featuring their images and phrases.
If you have any original ideas for humorous or intriguing products, create reproducible logos or images.
POD shops are fantastic for mums on maternity leave as they require no inventory and allow you to work whenever you want. The business largely runs itself!
There are many POD platforms, such as:
18. Start a New Mums-Focused Online Fitness or Health Business
Are you passionate about fitness or health?
Perhaps you specialise in a particular area of health that affects new mums like you. Could you launch a health-related website?
An online business focused on health or wellbeing is one of the best ways to earn money from home. This could involve sharing things you love, offering your own course, or publishing inspiring content about your personal fitness or health journey.
Don’t overstate your qualifications, and be sure to back up any claims you make. You don’t need to be a medical professional to make claims about health, but you should always be honest about the services you can offer.
19. Work as a Health Coach for New Mothers or Expectant Mothers
If you have expertise in areas related to living a healthy lifestyle, consider starting a health coaching business. Perhaps you would specialise in working with new mothers, or maybe you would accept a wide range of clients.
Again, ensure you only take on work you are qualified to do. Perhaps you could host a few clients for one-on-one sessions in your small home gym each week.
Alternatively, you could create exercise plans or offer online coaching for specific individuals.
20. Use Your Own Blog or Website to Promote Amazon Affiliate Products
One more tip: you can monetise your blog by promoting products sold on Amazon. This is known as affiliate marketing, where you share products in articles that you enjoy or recommend.
You earn a commission when customers visit Amazon through your affiliate link and make a purchase.
It can take some time to build a following before you start earning with affiliate marketing, but once you do, it can be a very passive source of income.
You can boost your income and learn how to earn money while on maternity leave!
It is possible to make money whilst on maternity leave; you just need to decide where to focus your efforts. You won’t have unlimited time and energy, so you need to choose one or two sensible money-making ideas.
Use these tips to make the most of your maternity leave while maintaining your financial security.
