These top business ideas for housewives cost less than N100k to start

Chacha Wabara

5 years ago

Being a house wife is perhaps one of the most difficult ‘jobs’ on earth especially for former working women who now become solely dependent on their husbands for every financial need.
It is more ideal to be a stay-at-home mum who makes good money.
By the end of this article, we should know the jobs/businesses to do to make money as a stay-at-home mum.

Stay-at-home mum status

There are a number of reasons why some women decide to sacrifice their professional careers and become stay-at-home mums; usually, taking up the responsibility of being the primary caregivers to the kids is a foremost reason. In some cases, it could be for health or psychological reasons, while at other times, it could be that your job search has yielded nothing at that time therefore, you have no other option but be a stay at housewife. Yet again, your hubby may be of the old school and not want you slaving under anyone and coming home at ungodly hours.

What then do you do as a graduate or a professional? What jobs or businesses are available for you to do that would give financial satisfaction? The answer is one and the same: you have to engage in something you are interested in and have passion for.

Coming up with a list of lucrative business ideas stay-at-home mums can implement is no mean feat, but the key factor during consideration is looking at windows of options available for the average sit at home mum. The underlying conditions that would guide this factor are: capital, space availability, the educational status, and the background/mental orientation of the individual.

There is no business that is ‘beneath’ anyone. It all depends on packaging and understanding yourself and what you want out of the business.

Making and selling pap

This product is gotten from different types corn and millet which are milled locally. It has a sour taste that makes people love drinking it often. It is usually combined with beans, akara or moin-moin during meals.

Start-up Capital required: N30,000

Target customers: These days pap is mixed for different types of people: Children with special needs and development delay have pap made with guinea corn , millet, crayfish, etc. which can be easily consumed by these babies. There are a lot of children with special needs in Nigeria who have trouble swallowing generic baby food products and parents are desperate to find food suitable for their kids.

People who are particular about hygiene are also potential customers, together with Nigerians in diaspora who miss it; these people would provide a huge market as they are willing to pay a lot to get pap. All one needs to do is supply your products to local supermarkets and make proper arrangements to export your pap to anywhere around the world.

The most important factor to this success of this business is proper packaging; ‘funkyfy’ your business and Nigerians would go crazy about it.

Possible Risk: Pap is easy to find in the market as many women sell it. It also goes bad if not prepared properly and can all go to waste without being sold in the first place.

Likely Profit: Profit margin is as high as N40,000 monthly for a start.

Payback period: One is likely to get their capital within a month barring any issues and given the right market.

Making of health foods and meal prep

Nigeria is currently agog with weight loss and this applies to both men and women. A considerable number of women are making money from the comfort of their homes packaging health fruits, vegetables, delicacies, meal planning diet food, coconut oil, etc. Most career women have no time to cook or eat healthy, so you would get a lot of customers by meal prepping for them and sending in fresh food to last them for the week.

Start-up Capital required: N100,000

Target customers: Women who are overweight, health enthusiasts and career men and women.

Possible Risks: Lack of creativity on your part and lack of interest of clients in your food, storage of food, delivery problems, hygiene and excessive expenditure.

Likely Profit: Food is still cheap and there is a lot of gain. Let’s say you have 10 customers who pay you about N25k weekly, it will total N250,000. Even if you use 100k for cooking and transportation of the food to your different customers per week, you’d have profit of N150,000 which would be N600,000 monthly as profit.

Payback period: within a duration of 3 months barring all unforeseen circumstances.

Making of beads and wire work

It is a business that is becoming popular in most major cities in Nigeria, and the market is still massively huge per targeting. You can buy few of the materials needed for the business, and start producing jewelry of different styles for commercial purposes. It is a business that picks up slowly but when people start knowing the quality of work you produce, more customers will patronize you.

Start-up Capital required: N15,000.

Target customers: Women of all ages.

Possible Risk: Lack of creativity and zero marketing skills.

Likely Profit: The business is so profitable, that with just N1,500 worth of materials used in producing an ornament, a profit of N3000 to N4000 can be achieved depending on the type of design produced. On average, more than three pieces can be completed in a day depending on how complex the work is.

Payback period: Within a duration of 1 month barring all unforeseen circumstances.

Fashion and design business

Starting a fashion and design business is highly recommended. If you have a passion for creating brand new designs and you are able to turn ordinary fabrics into world class designer outfits, then this business is definitely for you.

Start-up Capital required: N80,000

Target customers: Men and women of all ages

Possible Risk: Getting clients at the onset could be tough as most people will find it difficult abandoning their familiar designers for a new one. Lack of creativity, zero marketing skills, dissatisfied customers are other risks.

Likely Profit: Your profit is the fee you charge and this depends on the type of design chosen, the materials used, and the status of the client.

Payback period: Within a duration of six months.

Freelance writing

This is one way of making money that is unending, exciting and stable. If you have the time and also a flair for writing, all you need are clients and opportunity. Freelance writing is a new major source of income if done the right way. You can do this via blog writing; the thing about blogging though is to get the right niche. You could be a freelance writer for companies and other blog owners. Being a research writer can get way more than blogging but to write academic submissions, you have to be ready to sit down, research, read and do serious work.

Start-up Capital required: N60,000

Target customers– Companies, blog owners, men, women, students.

Possible Risk: Blogging once in two months won’t get you anywhere. If it is your means to get money, you have to put in a lot of effort into your blogging. Almost everyone blogs but NOT everyone gets money from it. You also shouldn’t expect to start making money from day one; it is a gold mine that you have to cultivate to reap the fruits eventually. Give it six months and you start seeing results .Get writing jobs as a freelance writer takes chance and luck, you need a lot of patience as there are many other writers.

Likely Profit: Writing product reviews, putting up ads on your sites and AdSense, as well as other advert platforms can aid you in earning money in dollars which could be up to N400,000 for a small-time up and coming blogger. As a freelance writer for companies and other blog owners, having these writing gigs from 5-6 places a month could get you over N200,000 or more monthly. For a seasoned research writer, you could make well over 1Million Naira monthly. For a starter though, making 60,000naira is a big win and you’d be sure to grow within six months.

Payback period: A period of 8 months.

In Conclusion

Being a stay-at-home mum need not mean that you have to be financially dependent on your spouse. With the execution of any of these lucrative business ideas, you would be on your way to being a work-from-home mum as well and while it is rewarding to watch your children grow under your care, your feeling of self-worth also gets a boost.