7 BEST Online Side Hustles For Teachers [+ HOW to start!]

Are you a teacher wanting to start an online business or side hustle but unsure what, how and even if it’s the right move for you? Have you ever thought about whether you can transform your teaching skills into a profitable online business, and how much time, freedom and even profit that could lead you to?

If so, you’re certainly not alone – a report from the US shows 59% of teachers turn to side hustle to supplement their income, citing low relative pay as the biggest reason why.

You’ll be glad to hear your specialities in teaching make you an excellent candidate for starting an online business. You may not know this, but your skills and knowledge are very in-demand! Moreover, the digital world we live in today means teachers have never had better options for starting an online business. I do not say this lightly – there’s never been a better time to combine your expertise as a teacher with online business!

Why It’s a Great Time For Teachers To Start an Online Hustle

• Low teacher salaries and the rising cost of living
  The average UK starting salary for teachers is £28,000. You’ll know this doesn’t go very far with the inflation and cost of living of today. If you’re looking for a way to supplement your income, or even replace it for a much better pay, online business is one of the best ways to do so!
  
• Better work/life balance
  It’s no secret that teachers don’t just work during their contracted hours. Many will plan, prepare and mark through their weekends, evenings and holidays as the norm. Let’s not even get started on the stress levels in teaching (78% of teachers describe themselves as chronically stressed). If you don’t want that kind of work-life balance for the rest of your life, the good news is you don’t have to! There are ways to achieve a healthier work/life balance, as you’ll read on to find.
  
• Transferrable, high-in-demand skills
  One of the best things about starting an online business as a teacher is the number of transferrable skills you can carry over! From experience engaging educational material, understanding the best ways to deliver lessons, and how the educational system operates on the inside, your skills are high in demand, and make for an amazing bridge into the business world.
  
• The rise in parents taking their children’s education into their own hands
  It’s undeniable – the stats show home education is on the rise worldwide since the 2020 pandemic, and there is growing dissatisfaction with the public education system. What does this mean for you? It means a market ripe and ready for more online tutors, more unique educational resources and space more influencers and authority figures in the online education niche.

So now we’ve established there’s vast potential for teachers looking for an online side hustle. But what are your options? Here, I’ve narrowed down 7 of the most profitable, best online side hustles for teachers:

Side Hustle #1: Online tutoring

This may perhaps be the immediate idea that comes to peoples minds when they think of side hustles for teachers. And indeed, this is a fantastic way to make some extra cash on spare evenings and weekends.

And you’re in luck here, because there is a high demand for online tutors. Particularly for bilingual tutors, tutors preparing children for exams, even tutors who can teach children in different countries! You may even find there’s demand from adult students too, such as those seeking help with English/ESOL exams, or other higher education subjects.

Another advantage is if if you’re already teaching for your day job, you may not have to go out of the way to research, plan and prepare lessons and educational material as you’ll already have them. This makes online tutoring a fantastic hustle that doesn’t require a lot of front-end effort to start up.

Side Hustle #2: Sell digital learning material on Etsy and/or TPT

If you’re a teacher and have ever been on the lookout for a very specific kind of learning material… chances are you’ve stumbled across the infinite world of digital printables on Etsy, TPT, Tes and the like. It’s a vast world out there, with potential to sell all kinds of material, from worksheets, flashcards, exam notes, lesson plans, posters, even digital storybooks.

Selling educational resources on platforms such as Etsy can be incredibly profitable – lucrative, even. And once your products are up? You don’t need to worry about stock or shipping, because your online platform will automatically deliver the files to your buyer.

How much money each product can make you will vary depending on how comprehensive your product is, how much demand there is and how niche it is – but a quick search on Etsy can show you flashcards can sell from anything from 99p all the way to £10 for larger sets.

The best way to create digital educational material to sell is on Canva. Even if you’re not design-savvy, there are hundreds of free templates to help you get started and with the Canva Pro membership, you’ll have access to thousands of graphics and images to make creating beautiful, engaging educational material a breeze!

Side Hustle #3: Start an educational YouTube channel

If you’re more of a visual person, a YouTube channel may be a great move for you! There are plenty of options – from reading children’s books or singing songs like Savannah Kids, educational videos explaining concepts, like Homeschool Pop or Amoeba Sisters, or delivering full-on lessons or lectures just as you’d do so in a classroom, like Ninja Nerd. You can really capitalise on your area of expertise on here as there’s truly a demand for every educational age group.

Not only can you make money from people simply watching your videos, there’s more options too! Many of these YouTubers go on to funnel viewers to purchase digital educational resources such as lecture notes or study guides, member-only groups or 1-1 tuition. This idea has potential to be a very lucrative side hustle, and can be used in conjunction with the next side hustle for teachers on the list…

Side Hustle #4: Start an educational blog

Starting an online blog is an amazing platform to position yourself as an authority figure sharing your knowledge and proving to people you are a great option for their needs! The options for making money through your blog are limitless, including running ads, promoting products for affiliate sales, selling products or courses or using it as a platform for brand sponsorships.

Blogging has exploded over the last decade, and shows no sign of slowing down. Education in particular is a niche always in demand, and one that will never grow out of trend. Some successful education blogs include Exam Study Expert, Geographical, Chalk Academy and Little Learning Corner. Additionally, there is plenty of overlap with other niches you may want to write about, such as parenting or lifestyle. Blogging can make for a particularly fulfilling passion project that also pays the bills!

To start making money blogging, you’ll need to purchase and set up a blog and get familiar with the concepts of SEO and long form writing. WordPress is overall the best option for blogging, however it can be a bit overwhelming if you’re not very comfortable with tech, and in that case Squarespace is a good alternative.

Side Hustle #5: Self publish books related to your teaching area

Self publishing through KDP is an excellent way to monetise your teaching expertise. And the best part? Once you’ve done the hard work of uploading your book, you don’t need to take on ANY kind of printing, packaging or posting hassle. That hassle is all Amazon’s! Talk about passive income! 🤑🫰🏼

Before you get overwhelmed by the idea of creating an educational book from scratch, please know it does NOT need to be difficult, and it certainly does not need to take much time! In fact, you can create low content books (think workbooks, worksheets, children’s handwriting books, tracing books etc) and self-publish them on Amazon with just a few weeks (or days, depending on your enthusiasm!) of working on them.

And if you’re not so keen on a low-content book and would prefer something more long form, you can also use KDP to publish a lengthier book. I am real life evidence of how successful this can be – my book ‘It’s Not Common Cent$’ is a self-published KPD book and is a best seller!

Side Hustle #6: Develop and sell curriculums

This may seem like a slightly similar concept to selling on Etsy/TPT, but it is actually very different.

Curriculums are highly in depth, comprehensive outlines of educational areas. They tend to include lesson plans, activities, worksheets and any materials required to teach X completely. As such, they require much more thought, effort and time than creating a set of flashcards. However, due to this level of depth, curriculums generally sell at a much higher price point!

We already discussed the increase in home educating parents, but not every parent is confident creating their own lesson plans and curriculums from scratch. This makes a rise in demand for curriculums is inevitable, particularly for non-mainstream subjects.

Side Hustle #7: Create an online course

Creating an online course is a multi-component, time taking process. But it’s extremely rewarding. Once you have climbed that course creation mountain, you have a highly profitable asset you can sell passively for months (even years!) to come. And with a significantly higher price point than, say, e-books, creating a course has one of the best ROIs from this entire list.

When creating an online course, there are SO many factors you’ll need to consider, including:

• What is my course going to be about? What will students achieve after completing it?
• Who is my target audience?
• What is the best way to organise the content of my course (think modules, lessons, worksheets etc)
• How will I deliver my course? The best approach is video lessons supplemented with worksheets and an online community (such as a Facebook group). But what you choose will depend on your specific goals, abilities and the demands of your potential customers.
• How will I find people who are willing to buy my course? How will I market it?

And this is just scratching the surface. But like I said above, yes it is certainly a huge effort to get ready. However once you do breakthrough and complete this? You are looking at a huge amount of potential, profit and passive income straight in the eye!

Have some of these ideas piqued your interest? I certainly wouldn’t blame you. And if so, keep reading, because I am going to share more information about how Brown Girl Money can help you with starting up the online business of your dreams.

Skills you’ll need to start a successful online teaching side hustle

So I’ve shared some of the best ideas out there to monetise your expertise as a teacher. But those ideas are just the beginning. ANYONE can think up a fantastic business idea. But executing a fantastic business is a different ball game and requires a certain skillset. Some of the most important skills needs to start an online side hustle include:

• Marketing
  It’s 2024, girl. It’s noisy out here, there’s SO many people selling something and asking you to click on their links and everyone is a bit overwhelmed. So how do you stand out from the crowd? How do you get your business noticed? It’s through the magic of marketing ✨. Any new business that wants to thrive in this day and age needs a solid marketing strategy – whether that’s through social media, SEO, email – or all of the above.
  
• Business mindset
  You can have a million dollar business plan. But if you don’t have the right mindset, you will not be able to maximise your income. There’s no two ways about it – mindset can make or break your business. Cultivating an abundance mindset, affirming your success and surrounding yourself with a network of likeminded, ambitious women is one of the biggest secrets to succeeding in business.
  
• Confidence with tech
  If you’re going to start a successful online business… you’re going to need to be comfortable with the online stuff. The good thing is, as a teacher, you may already be comfortable with a lot of tech-related systems! But there’s a difference between comfort and confidence; and that difference can give you the edge you need in your online business.

If you want to start a side hustle but need a boost in confidence, skills and know-how, I’d love to help you along your journey. My utmost passion is to help women, especially women of colour like myself, to achieve financial independence by building smart, strategic businesses. This passion has led me to creating a whole community of like-minded, ambitious, hardworking women who share this same goal.

You can join this community by signing up to the Brown Girl Money email newsletter here (as well as getting my FREE Money Mastery Toolkit!) and by following me on Instagram here. I’d love to see you there!

Enjoyed this post? Pin it for later!