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Looking for ideas for side businesses for teachers? You’ve probably heard that teachers are some of the most underpaid members in society. That’s not surprising: teaching has been considered an extremely noble profession for centuries, but it’s also a job that requires very little formal education and has little room for growth.
But even with these limitations, there are still plenty of ways you can make money outside of the classroom using your teaching skills. Here are 13 side businesses for teachers!
13 Side Businesses for Teachers
You’ve probably heard that teachers are some of the most underpaid members in society. That’s not surprising: teaching has been considered an extremely noble profession for centuries, but it’s also a job that requires very little formal education and has little room for growth.
But even with these limitations, there are still plenty of ways you can make money outside of the classroom using your teaching skills. Here are 13 side businesses for teachers!
1. Online classes
Online classes are a great side business for teachers and a natural second job for teachers. You can create your own class and sell it to other teachers, or you can use a platform like Udemy to teach an existing course.
If you want to create your own class, there are plenty of ways to do that. For example, you could join Outschool and start teaching students online.
2. Teach students in your home
Teach students in your home in an in-person session, like face-to-face tutoring is one of the easiest teacher side hustles in our roundup. It’s a pretty easy transition to transition from teaching in school to teaching students in your home as a tutor. You won’t need to gain any additional skills or learn anything new to start this teaching side hustle.
Teaching students in your home is an excellent way to earn extra income, as long as you have the space and time for it.
You can also make money by teaching online or on the go. If these options don’t appeal to you, look into becoming a substitute teacher at local schools and colleges so that when their regular teachers are out sick or away on vacation, they can call upon someone like yourself who already has experience working with kids (and won’t mind being paid less than regular teachers).
3. Online Tutoring
Tutoring is a great side business for teachers. Take it online and connect with an unlimited number of students over the web.
You’re already trained in helping others learn, so why not put your skills to good use? There are plenty of opportunities for tutoring online and offline. You can tutor students one-on-one or in groups, at their homes, or even in classrooms. Companies like Cambly are examples of places you can go to make money online tutoring.
4. Substitute teacher
Substitute teacher jobs are one of the many ways to make extra money as a teacher. Substituting jobs are available in many areas and pay from $15 to $25 an hour. You’ll need a teaching credential, though, as well as the ability to pass a background check and have your own car.
Substitute teachers fill in for full-time teachers who can’t make it into work for one reason or another–illness, vacation days and personal time off are common reasons why subs are needed.
In addition to being able to teach the subject matter of your choice (assuming that you have a degree related to it), substitute teachers must have excellent communication skills so they can interact positively with students while assuming the role of authority figure during their absence from school grounds
5. Graphic design services
Graphic design services are a great side business idea for teachers. This teacher side hustle is great if you have experience in graphic design and know how to use Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign, then you can provide your services as a freelance designer.
You can create logos and banners for small businesses that don’t have the budget for full-time designers on staff. You could also offer website design services if your school has internet access at home (or if it’s available at all).
Graphic designers often work remotely so they can be anywhere in the world while getting paid!
6. Web design services
If you’ve got a background in web design, this is an easy side business for teachers to start. Web design is the process of building websites and other online platforms. This can be a lucrative way to earn extra money for teachers.
I dabbled in web design (with no coding experience) back in the day. It’s not unusual to make hundreds to thousands of dollars for one web design client, which may take a few weeks to complete. You can teach yourself the skills you need to do web design if you’re not already skilled in this area from places like:
- YouTube
- Skillshare
- Udemy
For me, I was already creating websites in my website flipping business. So, I decided to take some clients on the side to build and design their websites.
There are many different types of web designers: front-end developers, back-end developers (or “coders”), UX designers and more.
The skills needed to be a good web designer vary depending on what type of job you want to do.
For example, if you’re interested in creating graphics for your site then Photoshop would be important; if it’s more about coding then HTML5 or JavaScript would come into play more often than not!
The best part about starting this type of business is that there are tons of opportunities available right now because demand has increased so much over recent years due largely in part due growth rate within industry itself which means less competition overall than most other industries out there right now.”
7. Photo editing services
In terms of side gigs for teachers, photo editing is an untapped opportunity a lot of teachers can probably do.
If you’re a teacher, then you probably have a lot of free time on your hands. What better way to fill that time than by earning some extra cash? The easiest way to make money as a side business is to offer photo editing services.
- You can charge by the hour or by the project (for example, $50 per hour or $500 for an album).
- You can set up a website where people can see all of your work and contact you through email or phone number listed on it.
- Offer services like photo restoration, photo retouching and photo manipulation
8. Blogger
Blogging is a great way to make money from home and it can be done in your spare time. Learn how to make a money-making blog and be on your way to connecting with an audience online and earning working from home.
Blogging is the perfect example of online jobs for teachers to make extra money.
You can blog about topics that you’re an expert on, or topics you’re passionate about. If you enjoy writing and have something unique to say, then blogging may be the perfect side business for teachers!
Blogging platforms like WordPress are free and easy to use, so there’s no excuse not to give it a shot!
9. Freelance writer
Start a freelance writing career. You can find jobs on Upwork, Fiverr, Problogger, and others. Freelance writing can be one of the best side jobs for teachers. You should have strong written communication skills and have a writing niche like parenting, food, business, travel, etc. and you can launch a teacher side hustle, freelance writing on the side.
Here are some tips to start and excel in freelance writing:
- Be sure you have a good command of the English language.
- Look for opportunities to write and publish your work, whether it’s on your own blog or website (you can even set up a paid membership site) or in other people’s publications like magazines, newspapers, and websites.
- Offer to write articles for others as a freelancer; this will give you experience in working with clients and getting paid for writing skills that could lead to more lucrative opportunities down the road–or even just help make some extra cash! You might also consider writing guest posts on other people’s sites if your schedule is too busy for regular work as a freelancer (i.e., if you’re still teaching).
10. Virtual Assistant
Virtual assistants are people who provide administrative and organizational support to other businesses. They can be hired on a freelance basis, or they may work full-time for one company.
The role of a virtual assistant is similar to that of an executive assistant, but it requires less in-person interaction with clients because everything happens over email and phone calls.
VA work is an opportunity for supplemental income for teachers. Find clients, do the work, and get paid, taking on as many or as few clients as you like. VA’s like Kayla Sloan make $10K/month doing virtual assistant work! The sky’s the limit.
The best way to become a virtual assistant is by learning the skills necessary for this type of job…
- How to manage calendars
- Screen calls
- Take notes during meetings
- Schedule travel arrangements
- Proofread documents
- Create presentations
- Set up video conferences between clients/employers and their teams
It’s also important that you know how each software works so that if someone asks you about it later on down the road when working with them again–you’ll have no problem answering questions about what happened back then!
A good 2nd jobs for teachers is authoring ebooks and one of the side businesses for teachers that I personally do! You can check out my ebooks here.
You can write on any topic you are knowledgeable about, like:
- Crafting
- DIY home decor
- Car repair
- Gardening
You can use your blog as a platform to launch an ebook, or you may want to create a standalone website and sell ebooks directly through it.
You could also go through third-party vendors like Gumroad, Amazon Kindle, or Apple iBooks.
12. Course Creator
Create a course on a topic you are passionate about and become a course creator. This side business for teachers can be a path to full-time income, believe it or not. For example, Michelle Schroeder-Gardner has a course around affiliate marketing and at the time of her launch was making around $50K/month from course sales, alone. This is not unusual from successful course creators.
Start by using e a platform like Udemy or Skillshare to host your course, if it’s not already hosted there. You can also use platforms like Teachable or Thinkific.
Market your course on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Create ads that target people who are interested in the topic of your course (for example: “Are you looking for ways to make money as an artist?”) and make sure they can see them by using hashtags related to art or craft businesses (#artistswhobusiness).
Create an email list so you can stay in touch with students who sign up for one of your classes–and offer discounts when they purchase multiple classes at once! This will also help build up an audience for future courses (or even products).
13. Content Creator
Content creation is a good idea for side businesses for teachers to have. It’s an untapped opportunity a lot of teachers and educators don’t now about.
You can create content for your own website, or you can create it for clients. You could even sell your content on social media or other platforms like podcasts and videos.
Content creation is a great way to make money if you already have something valuable to share with the world–whether it’s an expertise in teaching or some other skill that people want access to.
You can make money through your teaching skills outside of the classroom
Teachers make extra money and there are plenty of opportunities you can make money through your teaching skills outside of the classroom.
Teachers know how to help students learn. This is a skill that many people find useful and it’s something that teachers do all day long. If you’re curious about more side businesses for teachers as ways for teachers to make extra money from home, read about these online careers to make a lot of money or these remote weekend jobs to make extra money.
Wrap Up
You might ask yourself how to make money as a teacher outside of teaching in the classroom. Hopefully, these 13 teacher side hustles ideas gave you some inspiration of what direction to take making extra money as a teacher.
If you’re looking for ways to make money as a teacher, this list is a great place to start. We’ve covered 13 different ideas that can help you earn extra cash or even launch your own business.
Some of the best options are online classes, teaching students in your home or tutoring others–all of which require little startup cost or time investment on your part compared with other options like starting a blog or freelance writing gigs.
And if all else fails? Just keep teaching!
