Should You Ever Pay Money to Get Started as a WAHM?

There are plenty of jobs available for a work at home mom, but often the trouble is sorting out which jobs are scams and which jobs are legit.  You likely know you shouldn't pay money upfront for a kit like the infamous envelope stuffing kit job that was making its rounds across the web a few years ago.

But what about other types of jobs that are legit such as direct sales?  Should you pay upfront to get started?

You'll Likely Need to Pay Something

While it's nice to think that you can just decide to start working from home without investing any money, that rarely happens.

You'll need to invest some money in your business. 

• Most direct sales jobs require that you pay anywhere from $99 to $300 for a starter kit. 
• If you're a blogger or a writer, you need a website. 
• If you're a tutor, you'll need to print out flyers advertising your services.
• If you're a daycare provider, you'll need to pay for a license and baby proofing supplies.

You Decide How Much You Want to Spend

While paying some money to start your business is necessary, you have control of how much you will spend. 

You can reduce costs by bartering services with someone else.  For instance, if you're a blogger who needs your blog set up and designed, you could barter your writing services for another person's web services.

If you want to more aggressively market your business, you could go through free social media channels first before going on to paid advertising.

You could practice the waiting principle.  That is, don't buy something for your business until you absolutely need it.  Try to barter or borrow before you spend the money.

Simply put, there are ways to save on business start up costs, but most home based businesses require that you spend at least some money to get started.  Don't get discouraged, though.  There are plenty of strategies like bartering, borrowing, and waiting that can help you when you start your business, even if you don't have a lot of money to invest.