Dear Deb:
I am working with a woman who has 6 kids. She has worked as a maid for the last 16 years, but can’t anymore due to back problems. She doesn’t know how to do anything else, plus she needs to make a reasonable income to support her family.

I am confident that if she is successfully raising 6 children on her own she has many other skills. The question becomes which does she enjoy and which are marketable. Have her describe her average day, week, month – you may find that she does other work, whether selling crafts at a swap meets, taking care of an elderly family member, sewing, or cooking for large family functions. Any of these skills are transferable to other jobs.

A second option is to determine if she has any supervisory skills. Again, if she has managed 6 kids, you may find she is a natural. Propose that she work as a supervisor for a maid service, or the Housekeeping Department of a hospital, motel or senior care facility.

If she currently has a number of satisfied customers (and referral for more), perhaps she would like to train others to clean while she runs the business, supervises and does customer service. As the business owner, she would get a percentage of each maid’s fee and would only clean when they don’t show up. Initially she may want to ask her older child to help until she can find enough business to support her family on the management fee only. I hope this helps!

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