Top 27 Side Hustles for Teachers

May 12, 2021

The post Top 27 Side Hustles for Teachers appeared first on Millennial Money.

You wouldn’t trade being a teacher for anything. But when it comes to your paycheck… that’s a different story.

It can be very difficult getting more money as a teacher. Most public school teachers are bound by a pre-negotiated, fixed salary, while those who work for private schools face tight budgets. Simply put, it’s much harder to get a raise and switch jobs as a teacher than it is in the corporate world.

The good news is there are plenty of ways to bring in extra cash on top of your full-time teaching job. By starting a side gig or working a second job during your summer break, you can push your finances years ahead of those who only collect their teaching salaries.

In this post, you will learn the top ways to do just that.

Best Side Hustles for Teachers

1. Teach online courses on VIPKid

If you enjoy teaching languages, you should strongly consider teaching English online.

VIPkid is the “Global Classroom Connecting Citizens of the World.” Using the service, an educator legally eligible to work in the United States and Canada can get paid to virtually teach students English.

To teach an online English course, you typically need to have a college degree and a Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) certificate. There are many other sites to explore (e.g., Qkid, Skooli, iTutorGroup, and DaDa, to name a few) and it can be a great side hustle for a native English speaker.

2. Be a part-time tutor

If you wish to continue teaching in your spare time, being an in-person tutor can be a great way to earn an extra $30 or more per hour. If you line up 5 hours of tutoring each week, you can bring in an extra $600 to $1200 monthly—and that’s just with 5 hours of extra work weekly.

These days, there are plenty of opportunities to tutor students in subjects like math and science. To find gigs, check out Wyzant, which is an easy-to-use website that connects parents and students with local tutors.

3. Sell your curriculum on TeachersPayTeachers

If there is one thing that most teachers don’t like doing, it’s coming up with lesson plans. With that in mind, one of the best side hustles for teachers is selling lesson plans (legally) to other teachers.

TeachersPayTeachers (TPT) is a leading marketplace where educators can offer products and services to other educators. The site offers over 3 million free and paid resources for its members. To sell your lesson plans or other educational products, sign up for a seller account and explore your options.

This can save a significant amount of labor for colleagues while giving them more time to devote to students. So you’ll not only help teachers, but you could also potentially help students as well.

Udemy is another leading resource for selling online courses.

4. Be a virtual assistant

If you’re well-organized and looking for a non-school-related job, consider becoming a part-time virtual assistant.

As a virtual assistant, you can get paid to help individuals and companies with a wide variety of tasks, such as bookkeeping, proofreading, blogging, or data entry.

FlexJobs, Belay, and Upwork are some of the most popular places to find virtual assistant gigs.

5. Offer caregiving on Care.com

Since you already have a penchant for working with kids in the classroom, a natural transition might be to provide babysitting and childcare services outside of school.

Check out Care.com, where you can find a variety of gigs helping the elderly, people with disabilities, and families with kids.

If you love animals, you can also find pet care gigs on Care.com. You can get paid to walk dogs, feed pets, or just spend time with animals when owners aren’t around.

6. Work in an after school program

Schools often pay teachers extra to work after hours or on Saturdays. You could possibly make extra cash by helping kids get on the school bus, overseeing detention or Saturday school, or providing after-school homework assistance.

In addition to making money, you’ll get to know your students better. After-hours sessions are typically more laid back than dealing with an entire classroom, offering teachers and students better opportunities to connect.

7. Manage social media

For something more outside the box, consider helping brands and local businesses with their social media pages for extra money.

Social media management can be a lucrative side hustle for a savvy teacher who knows how to craft perfect posts. Take a look at businesses in your area that may need support with their social campaigns, and consider offering your services. This is typically flexible work you can do during odd hours.

You can schedule posts ahead of time using a platform like Hootsuite. That way, you don’t have to worry about posting throughout the school day. Your posts can run automatically, and you can check in on them in your free time.

Upwork is a great place to search for this kind of part time job.

8. Sell handmade items on Etsy

People with inherent creativity should put their skills to use and make money selling wares on sites like Etsy and Amazon Handmade.

These platforms are free to join, and they charge referral fees when customers make a purchase. Still, it’s not a bad gig because you get to host your crafts on a managed site that requires very little legwork.

Of course, you still have to create the merchandise and generate a profit from the sales. Consider starting small and scaling up as you see demand for a particular item or type of product.

9. Sell designs on Merch by Amazon

As a busy teacher, you may not want any part of dealing with actual merchandise but still want to leverage your creative spark. If so, Merch by Amazon is for you.

Merch is a platform that lets you create and sell designs to companies that need fresh material for t-shirts, mugs, prints, and other accessories. As an artist, you’ll receive a royalty any time someone uses your work.

10. Coach a sports team

A teacher who has experience playing sports and working with kids should consider coaching local sports teams. You can bring in extra money coaching nearly any type of youth or high school sport (e.g., softball, basketball, gymnastics, field hockey, lacrosse, football, baseball, or hockey).

Check with your principal or school board to inquire about openings. The team will be glad to have the extra support, and you may even get some good exercise yourself in the process.

How much you make largely depends on your experience, the school’s budget, and the level of commitment you’re making.

Just keep in mind that some levels of sports can be very competitive. As a coach, you will need to commit a significant amount of time and dedication. This is not something you should take on solely for money-making purposes.

Students, parents, and supporters can be very demanding of school athletic programs, especially when scholarships and kids’ futures are on the line.

11. Drive for Uber or Lyft

Say you get out of school at 2:30 or 3:00 most days. Why not spend the rest of the afternoon getting paid to drive for rideshare services like Uber or Lyft? These services are flexible, and you’ll have fun taking a break from being around kids all day and chatting with other adults.

This is also a great job to do on nights or weekends. You can use your own car and work on your own schedule. Plus, you can get paid directly through the app in a completely seamless and automated way.

12. Deliver food and other goods

If you’d rather decompress from the school day by yourself, consider driving for delivery apps like Grubhub, DoorDash, and Postmates.

These apps connect drivers with local businesses, providing opportunities to pick up orders and deliver them to customers.

If you happen to be friendly with a local restaurant, you could look into being their dedicated delivery driver for a few nights per week. With cash-paying delivery jobs, it’s not uncommon to make $100 or more each night.

You can also make money beyond restaurants by delivering packages, office supplies, and other miscellaneous items.

13. Offer proofreading or editorial support

Companies often look for freelance writers and editors to help with proofreading and editorial support for the content they put on their websites. It’s the perfect side hustle for an English teacher. Plus, there’s an entire marketplace for online proofreading jobs that can help you find gigs quickly.

Disclaimer: Proofreading and editing can be difficult and time-consuming. But if you enjoy the work and have a knack for it, it’s definitely worth a shot.

14. Review music

Music teachers, rejoice! Now you can get paid to listen to emerging music and rate what you hear.

Music Xray is one service you can use to listen to music and offer your opinions. Simply listen, rate what you hear, and collect rewards. It’s that easy.

You don’t need to be a professional musician or have a background in music to participate. But it certainly helps if you’re a music aficionado.

15. Take jobs on TaskRabbit

One of the best ways to make extra income is to take on a household task, like painting a fence or assembling furniture. The job is usually over in a couple of hours, meaning you don’t have to dwell on it or stress about it, which is probably a welcome relief for many teachers!

To get started, download the TaskRabbit app and sign up to be a Tasker. This app connects you with local community members who need jobs taken care of. You can build a profile, chat with someone before taking on a job, and get paid right through the app. Best of all, you get to keep 100% of your earnings, plus tips.

16. Sell photography

Take a look at any corporate website and you’ll find one thing in common: Almost all the photos are stock photos pulled from sites like Shutterstock.

All you need to be a stock photographer is a halfway decent eye for design, a smartphone, and possibly a photo editor, and you can make money with photography. Most sites require you to submit a few samples and get accepted. But once you’re up and running with a profile, you get royalties any time someone downloads your work.

17. Offer tech support

Some people have a natural ability to work with computers and troubleshoot smartphones and printers.

Those with this skill set should look into providing tech support for friends, family, and community members. All you need is an interest in technology and the ability to work with people. You can charge hourly, from $25 per hour and up, or per project. It’s up to you.

Again, TaskRabbit and other one-off job boards are good resources for finding this type of work.

18. Shop for Instacart

Shopping for groceries through Instacart is another way teachers can make extra money.

The Instacart app lets customers make purchases at local grocery stores. Shoppers can then connect with buyers, go into stores, and hand-pick items. So you can get paid to buy groceries and deliver them to people around town.

This is a great thing to do when you’re out and about on a Saturday or Sunday, running errands and getting ready for the week ahead. As an Instacart shopper, you might even be able to pay for your weekly grocery bills while shopping for others. Not a bad deal!

19. Take surveys for money

After a long day, most teachers just want to sit and unwind. Now, you can relax and get paid in the process by using survey sites like Inbox Dollars, Swagbucks, Survey Junkie.

You as a teacher can also earn rewards for watching videos, reading emails, searching the web and participating in focus groups voicing your opinion about the products and services you use.

20. Sell ideas on Quirky

Quirky is a website that pays you just to think of a great idea for an app. You don’t even have to design it yourself.

If this sounds interesting, head over to Quirky to learn how you can post ideas and connect with people who can turn them into finished products. Once the wheels are in motion, you’ll be eligible to earn a percentage of the royalties from the revenue your idea generates.

21. Answer questions online

If there’s one thing a teacher tends to be good at, it’s answering questions.

These days, there are a variety of ways to get paid for answering questions online. JustAnswer connects people with experts on certain topics. As an expert, you can get paid to provide written answers or chat in real-time with people who need help sorting out an issue.

Another cool site is FixYa, where you can get paid for helping people figure out solutions to problems like tech issues and car repairs.

22. Write a novel

You may just be the writer of the next great novel—but you’ll never know until you put pen to paper and get your idea out!

You can self-publish your novel through a service like Amazon Kindle Direct and receive a cut every time someone downloads your material. You won’t get the marketing and editorial support of a publishing house… but you also won’t have to deal with the competitive world of traditional publishing.

That said, Kindle Direct lets you retain your publishing rights. So if your book takes off, you could still approach traditional publishers for a more lucrative deal later on.

23. Become a real estate investor

One major benefit to working in education is that most teachers have a reliable, steady paycheck. This is attractive in the eyes of a mortgage lender.

Another benefit is that teachers are usually located in the same area for most of the year, an ideal situation for a landlord.

If your cash flow and budget are in order, consider purchasing an investment property and renting it out to tenants. If you buy something close to where you live, you can easily keep an eye on it and maintain it.

By the time you’re ready to retire from teaching, you might find yourself with several properties paid off in full.

Check out our step-by-step guide on how to invest in real estate.

24. Offer your friendship

The world is full of lonely people. Now, you can get compensated for providing just a few hours of companionship on rentafriend.com.

People rent friends on this site for all sorts of things. You could attend a ballgame, go out for dinner and a movie, or just hang out and drink coffee. Plus, you’ll be doing a great service by helping someone feel a little bit less alone, even for just a few hours.

Besides, you never know—you could wind up actually hitting it off with someone and forming an actual friendship.

25. Rent your house on Airbnb

If you own a large house or apartment, you can earn a few extra dollars by renting out your free space on Airbnb or VRBO. The more often you do this, the more cash you can bring in to pay down your mortgage or pad your investment account.

The only real downside about using a site like Airbnb is that you have to let a stranger into your space. Most people choose to set up a dedicated room or part of the house for Airbnb guests to make the process easier.

Some people are earning thousands with Airbnb every month by renting out their houses and rooms in highly-trafficked locations.

26. List your car on Turo

Consider putting your car to use while you’re not using it with the Turo app. Turo lets you list your car in a public exchange, where others can rent it for a fixed period of time.

Of course, this may be tricky during the school day since you probably don’t want strangers coming onto school grounds to pick up your car. However, it’s something you can do at night or on the weekends, or during school breaks when you don’t need your car.

27. Earn passive income through investments

Last, but certainly not least: Take whatever spare money you can scratch together and start investing, even if it’s just a little bit here and there. This is the best way to grow your net worth.

You can invest through brokerage firms like Vanguard, Schwab, or TD Ameritrade, each of which offers brokerage accounts and tax-advantaged retirement accounts.

Even if your teaching job offers a solid pension, investing your extra earnings in the stock market will streamline your path to financial freedom.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can teachers earn extra income at the end of the school year?

Teachers often struggle to make ends meet during the summer, depending on how their pay is structured.

One way to make ends meet is to take on a summer job, working at local establishments like bars and restaurants, walking dogs, or helping businesses grow their social media presence. Most of the above gigs would work during summer break.

Are teachers allowed to work side hustles?

Most school systems don’t restrict how teachers can earn money on the side, as long as it doesn’t interfere with their full-time job. However, it’s a good idea to check your contract for exclusivity clauses. If you’re unsure, don’t hesitate to ask an attorney so you can avoid potential complications or union issues.

What is a side hustle?

“Side hustle” is a fancy term for a side job. It’s simply a secondary source of income in addition to your full-time career. These days, it’s common for teachers and non-teachers alike to work side hustles to earn extra income.

The Bottom Line

As a teacher, there’s no reason to feel underpaid. You may just need to get creative about how you bring in extra cash.

Check to see if you’re eligible to take on a side job or two and get to work bringing in more money. When the cash starts rolling in, pay off any debt you might have, and start investing your money so that it can continue to multiply.

Before you know it, you’ll be the most financially stable teacher at your school. Class dismissed!

The post Top 27 Side Hustles for Teachers appeared first on Millennial Money.

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