How might I earn £1000 a month working from home?

[Mumblepot26]

Hello! Mumsnet Jobs team here. We've noticed this thread is fairly old now, and some of the information is out of date. We've put together this article of advice, tips and tricks to start working from home. We hope it's helpful!

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Hello, i wondered if any of you had any ideas about how I coud earn £1000 a month working from home?

I have spent 20 yrs working in the health service as a nurse then counsellor, just gone back after second lot of mat leave and realised I am done with the nhs, after child care I bring in £1000 a month, so I figure if I can earn this at home, I will be able to stay at home until kids in school. Any ideas ladies? (Working as private counsellor not an option at the moment as we don't have enough space)

[LaTrucha]

I always thought that kitting out a big rig as a house could be popular. Like a camper van with trucker kind of cool.

[porridgelover]

Fascinating discussion. Had not seen this discussed here before, but it's given me lots of food for thought...I read here recently about women underpricing themselves in the workplace.
I am guilty- what I do is health based (like the OP). I know there is a demand for private therapists; but I am terrified of putting myself out as an 'expert' (even though I am, I now realise).

I suppose that, like so much else, it's a matter of setting a high goal and going after it no matter what.

[naturalbaby]

Count me in to the Xenia fanclub talk please!

[Schoolworries]

I am trying to set my own business up. Very early days but Im getting interest already.

The problem we have is we are too "rich" according to tax credits to get any childcare cost help- the reality is we cant afford childcare as Im obviously making no money until Im set up and dh salary only goes so far.

I stayed up till 3am one night this week to work. Baby up at 5am.2 hours sleep is not a sensible thing to be doing when your in sole charge of baby next day.

So how do trapped people like me do it? People who cannot afford childcare? Xenia I dont understand how you afforded a nanny at 23 in the infancy of your career?

[Xenia]

Melanie, if it comes to anything I can invite every mumsnetter after it's converted as long as they don't all urinate in it....

There is another been done in London
www.telegraph.co.uk/property/9461916/From-public-loo-to-private-home.html
The pictures here are particularly fun to look at
www.telegraph.co.uk/property/9462068/From-public-loo-to-private-home-in-pictures.html

I only mention it because it just one of my random ideas and I don't even expect a reply. it's just an illlustration of how I try things all the time and most fail but enough stick to mean I earn reasonable amounts and have quite an interesting life.

School - it certainly wasn't easy. We both earned the same £7500 pa that year and the nanny cost 7500. However I knew by the time I was my age now I would be earning a lot sothat investment where we spent 50% of our gross wage on childcare (so in effect one of us was working at a loss) was more than worth it. So how did we eat? Every baby clothe was either free or from Oxfam, second hand high chair, no baby bath and all the stupid stuff people think is needed. We didn't sleep her in a drawer but almost..... Bought very little expensive food - eg orange juice was totally out, tap water in. Hair conditioner absolutel beyond the pale, no deoderant etc etc.. Cut your own hair. Cycled all over. In other words there are 5things you can do to spend less even if all your friends think it's essential to eat meals out.

I think sleep not money is the hardest thing. Obviously never tolerate sexism. That is the core of most succesful women's lvies.We always knew I would earn more. Before we married we agreed he would give up work if the nanny thing did not work out. BHe moved towns for my career. Women who earn nothing marrying much higher earning men where they are the little woman on pin money who marry up have a much much harder time of things.

*If you both are working then yo both get up in the night. I wiould go to sleep at 10. He woudl stay up with the baby to 12 or 1. That first one never really slept much (even now in her 20s).... then I'd take over for an hour or two - I breastfed but even if you do thei father can hold the screaming thing for 2 hours between 3 and 5am and plenty of non sexist men do even if they have work next day because their wife also has work next day and we never ever accept sexism.

[Trills]

even if you do thei father can hold the screaming thing for 2 hours between 3 and 5am

Sounds rather like "don't have children" would be a good piece of earning advice.

[Schoolworries]

Hi xenia. I see what your saying, but even if we used every last penny we could only afford 1 day a week of childcare.

dh is not being sexist though at all. He has to be up at 5am to catch the train and is not back until 7.30pm. That is the nature of his job, based in London. On certain days he is even contracted to stay in London until an unspecified time for marketing purposes.

He has offered to be in sole charge in evenings when he is home early but I am exhausted by then with our lively baby.

He has offered at the weekend to look after which I will be doing today but the weekend is not enough.

He does get up h the night too, but it is shakey. He is the only one getting paid and keeping the roof over our heads so I would rather he be the one on the ball.He is dealing with millions of pounds, one big mistake and his career in tatters. Sleep is vital.

Its hard these days for people like us in our 20's. Unless you earn an excessive amount of money already (unlikely with still young in your career, having student debt, having to pay x6 for our houses than people 20 years older than us did) or you have a wonderful network of family prepared to help out it can be very, very hard whilst you have a baby.

[Xenia]

Okay some other ideas.... fo some periods one of us looked after the chidlren entirely alone on Saturday whilst the other worked and on Sunday we swapped. That gets you about 16 hours to work if you really pack in the hours.

It was certainly have when we were spending over 50% of each net salary on childcare etc and had no help from relatives. In fact the house we bought then is just about the same ratio to the earnings from the same job now but that might just be random. Anyway people have to work from where they are now.

Certainly if one of us was back from work at 9 never mind 7.30 we might then spend 1 - 2 hours cleaning or dealing with the washing. I am not saying any of that is fun but sometimes it's worth it for setting up a business for the nexr 30 years.

Could you approach your local college and ask them if they haev any girls training to do childcare who might come in? You presumably are in the house so they can come and get you if they need you?

Also we hired a sixth former for 4 hours on Saturday mornings who was better than any nanny we ever had. I am sure because we could afford it we paid her well but there is no minimum wage under certain ages so you might get some pretty cheap childcare whilst helping a girl(or boy) get valuable work experience. That person might even be able to help with admin in the business too - you can stuff envelopes whilst the baby is strapped to sling on your front etc.

Anyway good luck with it. It is likely to do a lot better than my lavatory conversion idea.

[Schoolworries]

Thinking about it , Im still not sure how if you were literally only settng up you were earning £7.5k though?

Most people make nothing at all for a while as they are still researching their deal getting the brand together, sorting out the legal side and beginning to market or getting contacts.That takes a good 3 months minimum.

After that, Most people will be spending more than they earn for the best part of a year with their set up costs. Most people would have broken even by the end.

I cant see how you could literally be starting from absoloute scratch and could have started earning that much within the year. Especially as a steady income so you know you could afford nanny.

Soeaking of which, Also I dont understand why you would choose the most expensive childcare option of nanny if you couldnt really afford it.

[Trills]

Im still not sure how if you were literally only settng up you were earning £7.5k though?

As I understand it, they were setting up their own business while still holding down other (paid) jobs.

[Schoolworries]

I hope my last post doesnt come across as catty, as reading back it does. Which was not the intention.

I genuinely am baffled though, as I cannot see how you could make so much money from word go. If I could, I would be laughing. Easily afford childcare and a cleaner then. I just dont see how.

[Schoolworries]

X posted Trills. Oh, I didnt realise that part.

[Trills]

But then again Xenia seems to be blessed with a kind of stamina that I do not have (which I admit may be through lack of practise).

5:30-7:30 on a Saturday almost certain is a very good time to get work done, and if you try hard you could get 16 hours of productive work done on a weekend day, but I would be exhausted and broken and not producing anything worthwhile.

[Trills]

I'd like to reiterate to the OP that if you have children then you can't get a lot of work done while they are physically there.

If you want to avoid childcare altogether then you'll have to do all of the work while they are in school or asleep.

[lljkk]

is there somewhere online, maybe a bit like MN, but WITHOUT XENIA. Because I sometimes think I would some feedback about my going back to work dilemmas. But I wouldn't want to hear a word out of Xenia. Not a peep. Because she raises my blood pressure & never says anything of use to me.
I know I can't expect her to not post on an MN thread, so can anyone suggest other community websites where folk think about these things & don't mind brainstorming? I am thinking MSE, maybe?

[Trills]

MSE is good for ideas on how to make money, yes.

I can't guarantee there won't be people on there who give advice you dislike though.

If you are planning to go back to work you might find it useful to practise dealing with people who say things that you don't like. Most kinds of work involve interacting with people who you haven't chosen.

[ValiumQueen]

I am a nurse and am about to go on Mat leave with my third child! There hardly seems any point me going back. Have considered childminding, but it is not a reliable income AFAIK. You are very lucky to have your counselling skills.

[lljkk]

Oh there are lots of plonkers on MSE, I know that. Just like everywhere else. But I'm not so used to them saying the same ol' same ol'. Xenia can keep MN to spout her perspective.

Think I will go for MSE because I will use my real name there & all the real specifics (wouldn't want to do that here, anyway). Still open to other website suggestions, though.

Browsing, I'm finding loads of thread on MSE that are sane & friendly & realistic,
like this one.

[Trills]

Bye then.

I think it's rather rude to say you want another forum not because it has a different population in general but because there is one specific person you want to avoid.

[Xenia]

Yes, I have often thought my older daughter will do well not because of lots of other thigns like good exam results but becauseo f the ability to keep going whatever happens. I wonder what gives some of that that robustness. I definitely need loads of sleep 8 or 9 hours a night now the children do sleep I get almost every night so it's not that I only need 4.

Perhaps schools and parents should teach a lot more stocism.

A lot of people have enjoyed this thread which in effect came how to so many women earn £1000 a day when others can hardly earn anything. It's a fascinating topic.

VQ - loads of reasons - you probabkly like your work. It shows your chidlren a good example of work ethic. It is usually more interesting to work than be at home. The children will be at school and then leave and you may well still want to work. Your husband may not always be around or fall on hard times and yours may be the only income. Thousands of good reasons to work.

As for no one can make money immediately that is not true. It depends on theb usiness. If you advertise today to tutor children next week you are making your £40 an hour or whatever profit from day one.

[SoSoMamanBebe]

Can you write? Can you write medical copy for websites or leaflets?

I write and charge £500 a day BUT I have loads of commercial experience. Download some tutorials/ audiobooks off ITunes and get yourself tuned in. I also have childcare.

[DolomitesDonkey]

I try to start at 5am to work on my business for a few hours before the "salaried job" starts - although frequently the children wake up. :( give it a few years and I'll have to drag them up. If they are with me then I just try and do stuff which doesn't require too much thinking, e.g., for me I can't write copy with them around, but I can schedule tweets for example or check adwords/analytics.

I work ft, have 2 under 2.2 and until last week was riding my horse 4 times a week (it died). I also have no family support and live abroad.

I found once having children I didn't need as much sleep as I thought I did.

Start-up costs can and will vary enormously of course. I've spent very little on mine and have been to free chamber of commerce tax meetings which have given me enough knowledge to do my tax returns until I'm seeing income. I'm "bootstrapping' and am not spending a 300 consultation fee until I need him/her to actually do something. Filling zeros in to a tax return I can do myself! ;)

If I weren't working ft I'd look at "hot-desking" so to be working in an office environment but on pay-as-you-go terms.

[DolomitesDonkey]

Btw, I think it's incredibly rude and distasteful to join this thread simply to say "I'm not posting if she's posting". Really? Are we back at school?

[Xenia]

It doesn't bother me. I think there are a lot of interesting posts on this thread (including even mine). I was interested to see how many things I have done which have failed over 30 years too and how that does not seem to put me off although I am not staking my life on the lavatory conversion deal!

All I can say to younger people on the thread is that having children under 5 is very very hard whether you work or not and how dead easy everything becomes once they are older or so I've found particularly when teenagers start sleeping in, a concept you can hardly imagine when you have babies. Also they can even help your business as they get older. Mine have been useful over the years, rather than a babysitting cost.

I would agree with DD about not being conned into spending money on things you don't need when you're starting up.

[Silibilimili]

Xenia, you island comes up in every
Single post of yours read. Do you live in a
Make believe world?
Lot of the stuff you say makes sense but a a significant amount is also 'bragging' or what seems to me like make believe.