Print On Demand is the Side Hustle for Single Moms

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Do you know any single moms looking to do print on demand as a side hustle? Maybe you’re wondering if it is a good business for your busy schedule? Print on demand is a relatively new business model rapidly growing in recent years and still less explored than others.

It’s one of the easiest businesses to start online today! If you’re clueless, consider understanding how you can set up your print on demand business. Ideally you want to go all in once you choose a side hustle to work on, you don’t want to waste your time. When starting out, you might have great uncertainty and worry about investing your hard earned money into a business. This is a completely normal thing to worry about for anyone, especially a single mom.

If you’re a confused single mom or reading for any single moms out there, here we explain 5 reasons why print on demand should be your first choice for a side hustle!

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1. Time

You need to juggle a lot throughout the day from getting kids prepared in the morning to heading to work, feeding dinner and putting them to sleep. Even if you’re a stay home mom, you will feel the stress of having to manage everything for your kids plus having to clean the mess they make every hour or so. You only have so many hours in a day and if you work a 9-5, you’ll be drained after dinner. Print on demand is the perfect side hustle for single moms even with a full-time job because you only set it once. Then wait for sales to come in!

With print on demand, you only need to upload designs once and market your products online via marketplaces like Etsy. You don’t need to handle physical products, packing or shipping. The fulfilment companies will do it for you! When things start to pick up, you will only need one hour each day to manage your orders all from the comfort of your own home. Initially it will take some time to set it up but later on you only have to oversee.

Quick Tip: Set a reminder at a fixed time slot every week or every day so you stay focused in early stages. It takes time to learn new things and you’re doing great already. Just put in the work and trust the process!

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2. Low cost to start

Not everyone is willing to spend their life-long savings to start their first business with great uncertainty of success. Single moms will have a tougher time to save or spend money as the sole breadwinner in their families.

Good news for you! Starting a print on demand store is almost free. You can make your own designs on Canva and have them uploaded to products completely for free using fulfilments like Printify. If you’ve decided to sell your products at Etsy, listing fees are as low as $0.20 per product which comes up to $2 for 10 products and other fees are only incurred if there’s a sale. Sale proceeds from Etsy will go directly to your account and Printify also charges the cost of the product once an order has been processed. You keep the difference!

If that’s too much to think about, selling on marketplaces like Redbubble is totally free with zero upfront costs. Redbubble goes based on royalty basis and you only get your 20% profit once you make a sale!

Essentially print on demand allows you to start a business with zero cost upfront. You only pay once there’s an order, no stock keeping and no loss incurred.

Quick Tip: You can start by testing your designs on Redbubble since it’s free to list and is a marketplace of its own. Progress later on to Printify or Printful once you’re ready to grow on Etsy!

3. Niche picking – you already have a niche

The older you get, the wiser you become. You know what you like and what you don’t, which makes it easier for you to choose your niche! Find out the best niches to get into for print on demand or come up with one on your own. It’s pretty easy and if you’re still stuck, consider doing keyword research with this free tool to find out what’s trending before diving into it.

Choose a good niche and make designs for anything in that niche. It’s as easy as that! If you love babies and want to specialise in the baby niche, design cute prints suitable for babies and choose baby products when uploading on Printify. These include jumpers, shirts and bibs. As a mom, you would know what designs sell best in this niche and that’s a leverage you have already against anyone else out there.

Quick Tip: You can venture into other niches as you progress. You don’t need to know everything to start out. Great things take time!

4. Anyone can design

We know you’re probably thinking if you are qualified to make designs… that will sell? With Canva, anyone can design even with zero experience. Practice makes perfect! You can find tutorial videos on YouTube and start making professional designs on Canva for free. I would highly recommend Canva Pro for the cool features including having your designs in transparent background. Plus there’s ton of premium images for you to use – look nowhere else!

Alternatively, if you are able to set out an initial budget to spend on your business, it also works to hire freelance designers to make your designs. You can get them off Fiverr from as low as $5 based on design complexity and their experience.

Quick Tip: When starting out, it’s best to replicate and innovate best selling designs you can find and/or make some research on what’s currently trending with a keyword research tool.

5. Most on Etsy are women, you can relate to it

If you hadn’t known, the shopping world is dominated by women. Etsy is mostly visited by women with most sellers being women themselves. It’s not rocket science to know what works and what doesn’t. You would need to know what women like, what they crave for, the little cute things. Just stay up to date and know what’s currently in trend to milk the cow!

Starting your print on demand business on marketplaces like Etsy is a whole lot easier than going all out on your own ecommerce website.

You can gain the same exposure with print on demand fulfilments like Printify and Printful, while minimising risks of failure. If you’re doing it right, you’ll build a good following on Etsy with repeating & potential customers that will follow your brand even to your next big move. This experience will set you up for greater manageable success once you have your own ecommerce website with your own established brand.

Bottom Line

We all underestimate how hectic one’s life can get when you’re a mom, let alone a single mom. Never to dismiss all the things to love about being a mom though! Your journey does not have to be a hard one, it can be rewarding whether you’re employed full-time or staying at home. Making extra on the side passively is entirely possible with print on demand. Time is the most precious asset you have, imagine enjoying having all that time for your kids.