The common advice is to pursue one of the two “holy grails” of military spouse career choices: health care or teaching. For those of us who aren’t interested, or that isn’t working for us, what can we do?
To fit into the military lifestyle, the best military spouse careers should be:
- Location Independent (work from home) or Highly Portable
- Provide a Good Income
- Low Startup cost
- Flexibility in day-to-day responsibilities
A fabulous answer? Online entrepreneurship.
Building Your Business Online
It is easier than ever to start online businesses. You don’t need to know how to write code, invest thousands of dollars, or have any special skills to get started (seriously). All you need to do is recognize a specific need/problem that people have that they will pay money to fix. To brainstorm ideas for an online business, consider:
- What do your friends ask you for help with (how to crochet, plan parties, style outfits)?
- What skills could you offer that would be of value to businesses (writing, design, legal services, customer service, etc.)
- What could you teach other people?
There are thousands of answers to what kind of business you can start. Business is not complicated. You simply have to find a way to help people, find people who need the help, and sell to them.
Offering a product/service online has awesome benefits for military life:
- The next time you have to PCS, you can continue operating your business at your new duty station without interruption.
- If you need to scale back your day-to-day activities to deal with a deployment, sick child, field exercise, etc you can do what you need to do. You’re the boss.
Here are a few more business ideas to spark your imagination:
- Social Media Manager for Businesses
- Write an Ebook to Sell Online
- Sell Handmade Goods
- Business/Life/Finance Coaching
- Resell Vintage Clothing
Are You Ready To Launch Your Own Portable Career?
Being an entrepreneur and owning your own business isn’t easy but you are completely capable if you are willing to put some time, effort, and ACTION into it. It takes time to build your business, and the income isn’t guaranteed. That said, the rewards are SO worth it.
Kaye Putnam (@marketingkaye) is the founder of the Successful Military Wife. Her goal is to educate & empower military spouses to create their own massive success by starting businesses & building a personal brand. You can connect with her on Facebook and Pinterest as well!
Working lunch image by By Rob Pearce via CC by 2.0
So glad to see her blog! Can’t wait to read more to get my blog to the next level!
Just wanted to say Kayeis performing an amazing and truly valuable service by encouraging and helping fellow military spouses. I am a lawyer and a military spouse and most days those identities feel mutually exclusive. I have recently decided to try to become a freelance attorney and build an online business. I am just at the beginning of my journey, but and trying to be hopeful that I can be successful in my career field while living the realities of Army wife life!
Feel free to visit my website! I just launched it and plan on making additions!
Congrats on launching your newest venture! I can totally understand how you’re feeling…did you check out MSJDN? We did a post about milspouse attorneys, you should check it out!
http://nextgenmilspouse.com/lori-volkman-and-msjdn-military-spouses-jds-unstoppable/
Yes thank you! I am a member of MSJDN! They are doing amazing work and I hope to be a part of their efforts!
THANK YOU for this article! I am a 10 year Navy spouse and I am trying to run two businesses while we are in our current duty station of Pearl Harbor! I have my Bachelors degree in Computer Information Systems and Web Development and am a profession freelance web developer. I am also a rep for a direct sales company called “Damsel in Defense.” Having a relocation-friendly career is a MUST!
Two businesses? Way to go!
Wanda, Christine, & Megan, THANK YOU for commenting! I hope to be able to help a lot of military spouses. Because we deserve to be what we want “when we grow up”, too. 🙂
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