I Work 1 Hour a Day: How I Made $500K in 2 Years as a Stay-at-Home Mom
Written by
Gabrielle Olya
Edited by
Gary Dudak
Commitment to Our Readers
GOBankingRates' editorial team is committed to bringing you unbiased reviews and information. We use data-driven methodologies to evaluate financial products and services - our reviews and ratings are not influenced by advertisers. You can read more about our editorial guidelines and our products and services review methodology.
20 Years
Helping You Live Richer
Reviewed
by Experts
Trusted by
Millions of Readers
Colorado-based mother and wife Gina Van De Voorde was a stay-at-home mom who returned to work to help with her family’s finances. While working a 9-to-5 remote job, Van De Voorde began looking into potential side hustles. She discovered print-on-demand (POD), and eventually opened her own Etsy store utilizing the the POD service Printify.
Although she had no e-commerce experience or graphic design skills, Van De Voorde continued investing time and effort into her store, sometimes working up to eight hours a day on top of her full-time job, with the goal of eventually being able to quit her day job. The hard work and dedication paid off — Van De Voorde has made $500,000 in two years from her POD shop, enabling her to quit her 9-to-5 and focus more on her kids and family. She now works as little as one hour per day.
Here’s how Van De Voorde was able to scale her business while working fewer hours.
Looking for a Way Out
Van De Voorde was driven to find a lucrative side hustle because she was unhappy at her day job.
“Like many people, I was looking for a way out of my 9-to-5 because I dreaded it every single day and was not happy,” she said. “I would scour YouTube daily looking for ‘side hustles’ or different business ideas. Finally, a tutorial for POD popped up and I opened my store that day, without really having a clue what it was. I just knew I could make it work somehow, especially since there were hardly any startup costs associated with this particular business model.”
For the first three months, Van De Voorde worked full-time at both her day job and her POD shop.
“I did quit my 9-to-5 before I was making steady, daily sales — however, once I quit, I was able to focus full-time on my shop,” she said.
Scaling Her Business While Scaling Back on Hours
Although Van De Voorde has been able to scale back on her hours drastically, it took a long time to get to that phase.
“Once I quit my 9-to-5, I still was working daily on my Etsy shop numerous hours a day,” she said. “It took me a good year to get to the point where I could scale back, and now I work a few hours a week. With POD, you have to front load and put in a lot of work upfront in order to build your shop and scale. Once you get it to a point where you’re making consistent daily sales, you can scale back and do what works for you.”
An Ideal Side Hustle for Moms
Now that her shop is making consistent sales, Van De Voorde has much more time to spend with her family and even homeschools her kids.
“I think POD is an excellent option for moms who want to stay at home with their kids, but still want to make an income,” she said. “Yes, it does require some research and time in the beginning, but it can be done around nap times and once the kids are asleep. YouTube and TikTok are great resources for learning this business as well.”
Her Best Advice
While Van De Voorde has achieved great success through her POD shop, she notes that it requires dedication and patience to get to that point.
“It’s important to manage your expectations, especially in the beginning,” she said. “There are a lot of videos that portray POD as a ‘get rich quick’ scheme, which it is not. It takes a lot of time and research to build a successful shop and [find] designs that people are actively searching for and buying.
“It is very possible to have a six-figure shop relatively quickly, but again, it does not happen overnight in most cases,” Van De Voorde continued. “The ones that have success are consistent in uploading and researching, and simply don’t give up. There were many times I wanted to quit because sales weren’t happening quickly enough, but you have to stick with it and keep learning every single day.”
More From GOBankingRates
