We’ve all heard cliches like ‘Teaching is a calling’ or ‘It’s a work of heart.’ And, truth be told, it really is. Most of us entered the profession when we were young, bright-eyed, and bushy-tailed. We hoped to change the world one child at a time, and many of us don’t regret it for a single second.
However, at the end of the day, teachers still need to eat. We’d be billionaires if passion, hard work, and dedication paid the bills. But sadly, they don’t, and many of us have to look for ways to supplement our income.
Teachers don’t exactly have spare time in spades. It’s a job you don’t leave behind when you go home every day. So it makes sense to find a side hustle that ties in with your expertise and uses the resources and knowledge you have accumulated over the years. A 2019 survey showed that as many as one in six teachers work a second job. Considering how work and time-intensive teaching is, this has led to another growing pandemic – teacher burnout.
Ultimately, teachers should be paid more. But realistically, this won’t happen any time soon. So while we hold our breath, here are some ways you can channel your expertise into a side hustle that can go a long way toward helping with those bills.
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Ways To Channel Expertise Into A Side Hustle
Tutoring
This one is a no-brainer. Whether you are specialized in a high school subject or are experienced in teaching younger children the foundational skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic, plenty of parents out there will happily pay for your time and expertise to secure some one-on-one time with their kids. You can do it from home, go to homes in your neighborhood or offer lessons online. Either way, it’s a great side hustle that can easily fit in with you.
Test Prep Coaching is a similar side hustle. Again, your knowledge of testing practices and experience with the curriculum are invaluable to students preparing for SAT, ACT, or GRE exams.
Teaching Online Courses
Online learning may have blindsided us, but it is here to stay. And thanks to platforms like Teachable, Udemy, and Coursera it’s relatively easy to create and present your own course. Perhaps you have a creative hobby, can teach fundamental art skills, or even just want to delve into a topic that excites you – it’s easier than ever to share your knowledge and earn a passive income while you are at it. Teaching an online course is also a great way to expand your horizons by exploring different methods and technologies to enhance your teaching.
Start An Online Store
Starting an online store is an excellent way to make money off things that take your time and effort anyway. You spend hours creating beautiful resources like anchor charts and flash cards. Unique, well-made products will sell well if they are adequately marketed. And who better than a resourceful, creative teacher to make sure their online store gains followers thanks to the wonders of social media? There is even a market for digital products and handmade crafts. Platforms like Teach Simple make it really easy and handle all the admin for you.
Teach Simple uses a different business model than most marketplace platforms – a subscription membership. They are also developing apps, software, and other tools for teachers to use as part of that subscription, making membership more valuable. As a result, you, as the contributor, make more money. Teach Simple is investing a lot of resources to make this much more manageable than other platforms. Their team will upload all your products for you and handle all the marketing (ads, content, influencers, social media, etc.) Teach Simple doesn’t have “per-product” pricing. So, every month, half of the reoccurring revenues from their memberships go to their contributor community base. Teach Simple uses their portion to bring in more users via advertising, product development, and other means so that they can get more customers for you.
Curriculum Development And Lesson Planning
This is yet another way to make some money from something you have to do anyway. Some may be fortunate enough to find a side hustle with an educational company that needs experienced teachers to help them develop a curriculum. However, there are also plenty of online platforms, that let teachers create and sell their resources to other teachers. It’s a win-win situation. The teacher who sells their resources makes some extra cash, and the teacher who buys them saves a whole lot of time. These marketplaces only offer space for your resources in exchange for a percentage of your sales, but they are a good option if you want to have your products available in multiple places. unlike Teach Simple, they don’t invest in any marketing or app development.
Teach English As A Second Language
Many young people do this when they finish high school or college. They set off for exotic lands and teach English to the local children (adults too). But you don’t need to leave your house to do this. The beauty of online technology means you can teach English as a second language to people around the world from the comfort of your own home. There are also many people already living in the United States who want to learn English. The only thing I find strange about this idea is that a qualified teacher is not eligible to do this, regardless of the amount of experience they have. Yet, someone just out of high school can. That’s because you need to complete a TEFL course before you can do it. Full-time, the course runs for about a month, but you can do it online over a more extended period to fit in with your schedule.
Freelance Writing And Editing
This side hustle is exactly what brought me here, writing this very article. Years of teaching lead to excellent communication skills and writing experience earned through lesson planning, resource design, feedback reports, etc. If you have a flair for writing, it’s pretty easy to use your experience as a hook. Many clients want writers with experience in a particular niche, and education is one of them. A simple search on LinkedIn or Indeed can lead to many opportunities. Or sign up with a platform like Clear Voice, Upwork, or Writer Access, where you can grow a steady client base while they manage the admin.
Start A Podcast
Teachers have plenty of interesting stories to tell. Some are hilarious, some sad or serious, but most are very entertaining. It’s also a great way to reach people with similar interests, discuss issues that affect teachers daily, and share tips and ideas. Once you build a big enough audience, it’s easy to monetize. And who says it has to be about teaching? It can be about anything that you are passionate and knowledgeable about.
The Tip Of The Iceberg
This is just the beginning. This list focuses on your skills and expertise as a teacher. But there are so many other options out there that don’t have anything to do with teaching. Viable alternatives include old favorites like being a delivery driver, babysitting, and dog walking to more modern options like being a virtual assistant or renting a room out on Airbnb. Either way, it’s important to remember that teaching is a labor and emotionally-intensive job already. So try to do something that helps you get ends to meet but doesn’t leave you spread so thin that you burn out. It’s a genuine risk in our industry, so make sure that you take care of yourself.
