Offline Sources of Income Ideas for Stay at Home Women

Some women who are either constrained to stay at home to take care of the kids and the needs of the whole family are not contented playing just plain housewives.  They also want to have a source of income either for personal necessities or, due to the rising cost of living, to augment the family earnings and contribute to the household’s financial needs.

In looking for means to earn a living at the comfort of home, a lot have resorted to searching means to earn online but if one lacks the skills and the technical knowledge, this is not an easy task.  As someone equipped with just an ordinary computer know-how  the earnings from online sites mostly does not compensate for the time spent plus the risk of being scammed.  Hence, if you are not a computer wizard and wants to earn within the confines of your home, engaging in offline activities would bring in more cash than trying to find it online at this stage.   You may also however make use of the internet  in these offline activities.  And to those who have no inkling where to start here are some ideas to take a crack at.

Make use of your skills.  Like, if you are good in baking, bake products you are good at and offer samples to friends and acquaintances and let them know that you accept orders.  Compute total cost and expenses, consider your labor, add a reasonable mark-up then set the selling price.  Offer discounts for volume orders to boast sales. 

You may also make most of a talent that you do extremely well.  A friend who has a knack for convincing people is earning by looking for seller or buyer of whatever item one  wants to dispose of or in need.   She uses free classified ads websites for advertising and then do follow-ups and negotiations mostly by phone with the client and her contacts and earn commission when the sale is finalized sometimes not only from the seller but from the buyer as well.    

Find something in your area for possible works that could be brought and done at home.  I have a neighbour who accepts consignment works for decorative handicraft products where she is supplied with all the materials and paid based on per piece completed products.  Normally this one requires a short training in the beginning.

Transform your hobbies or find a hobby of your interest and turn this into an income generating activity.  Examples are needle crafts where you may create an assortment of fancy pieces for various purposes and show these to friends as samples or take photos of your finished products and advertise these online.  If you don’t possess a skill that could possibly provide an income look for training centers that offers short courses on a variety of skills and select one that would appeal to you or you think you would enjoy doing.  Sometimes, there are organizations that offer free training for this purpose.

There are also skills that could be learned online, just do some searching and you may find something that you could do and offer your finish product for sale.  A friend learned how to bake a delicious brownie by searching the recipe and procedure online and is now earning from this activity.  

In our country, community stores locally called “sari-sari stores” are found almost everywhere and for a stay at home person this is also a good source of income.   Store owners buy merchandise mostly food and basic home needs by volume at groceries and sell these in the neighborhood with mark-up. They allocate a part within the house where to display the goods.  Customers are neighbors who either have no time for marketing or find it impractical to buy things at the groceries when they only had limited cash on hand to buy their daily needs.  One downside in this type of business is collection problems for credit sales hence, a cash payment is ideal but if it could not be avoided, be smart in determining whom to extend credit.

There are many other possibilities and the most viable is offering something for sale.  Just look around your neighborhood to find possible opportunities.   A delicious homemade ice candy had helped a widow’s daughter finish college.  How?  They live just across the street where a highly populated private school is located and the widow’s products had appealed to the taste not only of the students but those of non students as well.

You could engage in these activities within the confines of your home and although some aspects require that you have to go out of the house at times but this only means that you will be doing it for a brief period.  In between, squeeze in your online pursuits either for fun, stress therapy or additional resource to enhance your income on these offline activities like promoting your products or services on websites that offers free advertising.