Welcome to the Teachers Need Teachers podcast, where we help new and beginning teachers
navigate through those crazy first years of teaching so you can maintain your sanity and
personal life. Here's your host, him Lapree. Welcome to the Teachers Need
Teachers Podcast, the podcast for teachers who don't want to just survive teaching,
but actually thrive. So it's no secret that teachers are underpaid, especially when
you consider how much work we put in and what we have to put up
with. Even if you live in an area with a low cost of living,
you're still probably living paycheck to paycheck and need a second source of income.
With summer break coming up, it's actually the perfect time to start a
side hustle because you have more time and the mental energy to start something new,
and who knows, maybe this new endeavor will actually produce enough money to
replace your teacher's salary. Well, I'm going to be covering fifteen side hustles
that teachers can start right away, so you can start getting that extra money
that you desperately need and make sure you stay until the very end. For
my current side hustle, which is a little unusual now, of course,
we could also have the conversation about how teachers should be paid more, but
that's for another video. So these ideas go beyond just getting a jobby job
at Starbucks or at the mall, because those are obvious. And in this
list, I'm first going to start with the side hustles that require you to
trade hours for dollars, but you're going to start making money right away.
And then I'm going to go to the ones that take a little bit longer
to make money but produce for current income even while you're teaching. So the
third side hustle for teachers is a little bit obvious, and that's tutoring.
So you'll already teach, and you know how to teach, and you know
how to deliver a lesson, so tutoring seems like an obvious choice for a
side hustle. So this could be tutoring online or tutoring in person, and
you can offer tutorings for the particular age or grade or subject that you teach.
You're just anything that you're really good at. If you want to do
this in person, then you can advertise your services at local Facebook groups or
on apps like next door. You can tell people that you offer tutoring and
how much you charge per hour, or you can just have them DM you
if you don't want to display your rates online. And this is really nice
because you can help the people that are in your neighborhood and you can just
go to a library or a Starbucks or something like that to do this kind
of tutoring. Another option, obviously is a tutor online. There are places
like vip kid or cheg, tutor dot com why Isn't and also tutor me,
and these obviously are places where you can sign up as a tutor and
then parents will sign up their student to come and get tutoring from you.
And what I really like about that option is that you can also set your
hours, so maybe you can tutor during a time that's not so convenient for
someone that's local. And if you tutor online, then you can work with
someone who's maybe at a different time zone, but it can be for them
to meet at seven East Coast time and you're at four o'clock West Coast time.
Now, obviously, your rates differ depending on where you live, and
you just kind of have to see what people are willing to pay. I
don't recommend starting too high in terms of your rate but at the same time,
you don't want to start too low because it sort of devalues what you
can do. Another really popular option with teachers is teaching on out school,
and here you can create an actual course and curriculum and kids basically sign up
for it if it's something that they're interested in. But it doesn't even have
to be that academic. You could lead a book club or something themed.
You could do something like a craft so out school you can be a little
more creative and explore things that are more within your interest and get kids excited
about that too, So that's something that's also another option for tutoring. Now,
the next few have to do with being a freelancer, and basically that
means that you were going out and getting clients, or if you have a
website, they're coming out and seeing you, and you're just going on a
client by client basis, And pretty much all of these you're going to find
work on the same platforms. So I'm going to save those after I tell
you what the different side hustles are. So the second side hustle is freelance
writing. This is just like it sounds, you're basically going to be writing.
You can be writing blogs or sales copy for web pages. You can
also be writing articles or other types of publications. So this is for teachers
that like to write or it's something that they feel comfortable with. And even
if you don't like to write, you can also supplement this by using AI
and then personalizing it in your voice, and that can also help you produce
more writing. What I love about this option is that you can write about
pretty much anything that interests you, but you can also be niche or subject
specific, so you can write for a travel blog or an educational website,
things like that. So the third side hustle is freelance graphic design. So
if you were someone who is artistic and you're really good at making digital assets
like logos or banners or just things like that that most of us who aren't
artistic at all really struggles to make, then this is perfect for you.
I know that when I was creating worksheets, I really needed things like clip
art and other types of graphics to use on my worksheets, and it would
have been really helpful if I had the money to hire a graphic designer.
But there are a lot of businesses out there that are more than willing to
pay if you're really good at graphic design. Somewhat related to graphic design is
freelance photography. So if you are really good at taking pictures, or you're
always taking pictures and people are saying how great they are, maybe you have
a professional camera and you just do photography as a business. You can actually
make some money doing this. So you could do something specific like take pictures
of families and dogs and pets. If you want to get into wedding photography,
then you can offer your services for free just to get some experience because
it's very involved, and then you can start your own side hustle with a
wedding photography business where a lot of the money is being made. Now,
if you just want something that's small and also that has some recurring income,
you could sell your photos to stock photo sites like deposit photos or Adobe stock
or Shutterstock. Those sites they'll pay you for your photos, and so that
could be something that could just be like really easy because you're taking pictures anyway,
and then you're just going to make some money on the side. Now,
if you're good at making TikTok's or Instagram reels, or just good with
Instagram TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest, all of that, then a great side
hustle for teachers is to do social media management. So this basically means that
you're going to take somebody's account and you're going to create the photos and the
videos for them, or they can create videos, and you're just going to
make it more splashy and fun and appropriate for whatever platform that they need social
media management for. Now. You only want to do this if you actually
like social media. So if you're someone like me who just can't stand posting
on social media even though I know I need to be better about it,
and it's not the job for you, but someone like me would need someone
like you. If you're good at social media and you could be my social
media manager. Are you really good with numbers? Are you really good with
money? Then maybe virtual bookkeeping is a side hustle for you. So for
this one, you're going to help businesses with their bookkeeping and keeping all of
their accounts and things like that in order. So many small businesses need help
with their business finances, but they don't have enough money to hire a full
time accountant. And so if you have experience with bookkeeping, maybe you did
this before or you know someone who does and they can kind of help you
out, and that would be a really good one because you're always going to
be in demand. A lot of people need bookkeepers. If you're really good
with technology in terms of video and audio editing, then you can do that
as your side hustle. So if you have the skills and the experience,
and more importantly, the software to do that, then you can edit videos
for YouTubers like myself, or you can edit audio for podcasters or maybe people
who do voiceovers. This one is really good if you already have that experience,
because a lot of people don't have time to do that. There are
a lot of people who are now starting podcasts and they don't have the time
to edit out all of the ms and ows and random sounds that come onto
their podcast. So if you are good at that and something that you actually
enjoy, then definitely consider doing that as your side hustle. Now, for
all of those freelancing jobs, some of the best places to find work are
on Fiber five r rfiber dot com, where you can go and post what
skills that you offer, what kind of jobs that you offer. Usually when
people start out on fiber, they start pretty low in terms of how much
they charge until they get enough reviews and then they can start charging more.
So actually, with a lot of these freelance jobs, you're going to have
to be flexible in terms of charging less than the beginning, and then you
can gradually go up in terms of how much you charge based on your experience
and the reviews that you have. People really want to make sure that they're
not getting ripped off, so you have to build some trust there and that's
how you do that. Another option is called upwork. On upwork, again
you can post your skills and the types of jobs that you're willing to do,
and then people will be searching for these and a lot of times those
are more recurring jobs. Sometimes on upwork, someone will just hire you for
one particular job. Maybe it's like a big one, like they have four
hours of video that they need to edit, or maybe it's something where they
want you to edit, like their podcast once a week, and so that's
just guaranteed money that you know that you're going to get. Another good site
is called freelancer, and so there you can also do the same thing as
upwork and fiber, where you can post all the different skills that are capable
of doing and these are remember freelancing online skills, and then you can find
jobs and people can find you there as well. I'd also look at some
more unconventional places to find work. You can go into Facebook groups. I
am in several business and entrepreneur Facebook groups, and a lot of these business
owners are looking for people who do these types of freelance jobs. They're looking
for editors, they're looking for bookkeepers, even virtual assistance, graphic designers.
They all need help in some way, and so you can go on there
and you can post what you are willing to do in our available to do
and then they can just scoop you up and book you for those jobs.
Another option is also on local Facebook groups, so ones that are within your
town. You can also post your services there for any of the businesses that
might need your help. Before I move on to the next side hustles,
I want you to know that I made a resource with all of these side
hustles lists so that you don't have to take notes. So be sure to
go into the description and click on the link to grab that resource. So
the next side hustle, if you're someone who's outdoorsy and you like pets.
Is to be a pet sitter or dog walker. Now, this can be
really fun if you want to get out and get exercise. I mean,
if you have the days off, you're not working during the week, so
you can actually make a lot of money walking people's dogs or just taking care
of their pets in general. Also, a lot of people take vacations during
the summer because school is out, so this could be the perfect time for
you to swoop in and take care of their pet. You can go on
places like rover or wag orcare dot com and you can advertise your services there
and you can get a lot of people to sign up to have you take
care of their pets. You can also if you have multiple people in the
same area, you can just hit one job right after the other and make
a lot of good money that way. Are you handy, are you good
at keeping things clean? Do you have a green thumb? Then you can
help people around their house and this is a great side hustle if you have
those skills. So you could do gardening or landscaping if that's something that you
enjoy. You like working with plants and you're really good at it. Some
people, they're really particular about having their law and be really green. And
if you're someone who is really good at that, or maybe you even have
like your own driving a lawnmower, you can bring it over to someone's house
and you can take care of that for them. Also, if you're someone
who is very clean, and maybe you're like Monaco from Friends and you'd like
to clean all the time, maybe even clean other people's stuff, then you
could be a house cleaner and they actually make decent money depending on how much
you're willing to charge, or if you sign up with an already established cleaning
company. Now, are you good at assembling furniture or hanging things on the
wall? Are you good at building things too? If you're just basically handy
in general, then you can sign up for something like task Rabbit or Angie's
List and they make really good money. So you can make starting between twenty
five up to sixty five up to eighty or ninety dollars an hour, depending
on how many jobs you get in your level of experience. So if that's
you, this is a perfect side hustle for you. And let's not forget
things like rides sharing or delivery services. Now this one, you can start
right away just doing something like uber or lift, DoorDash, Uber eats things
like that. People don't want to have to leave their house, or people
are at work and they forgot their lunch and they need something delivered to them.
Or maybe there's someone who's elderly and they can't make it to the grocery
store and so you can go and do the shopping for them. Either way,
this is a great way to make money because like some of the other
jobs, you can also stack multiple jobs at once and you can make a
bunch of money while you're already in the store. So maybe if you're doing
something like DoorDash, you could go and shut for one person at Walmart and
shot for another person at the same time, and you're making money in the
same trip. So again, this is something that you can do in your
spare time. You don't have to commit to certain hours, and you can
start making money right away. Another fun way that I've made money in the
past is with a site called Respondent. Now, on Respondent, you are
going to be doing surveys or you're going to be doing one on one calls,
usually on something like Zoom, where you're going to be asked questions.
It's basically people who are doing a study or a survey. They're trying to
get more customer information to improve their product. I've made up to one hundred
dollars for just sixteen minutes of my time telling someone what I thought of their
website, and it was really easy money. It was a great thing to
do, and it covers a lot of different interests. So they have one
specifically for teachers, and they also have ones just for the general public,
like if you have certain illnesses, or if you own a house, or
if you like natural cleaning products things like that. You can sign up for
ten of these a day and you won't get all of them, but you'll
get enough to make some nice money on the side. And it's really not
that hard at all. So with all of those side hustles that I mentioned,
those are ones where you are trading time for money. So that's okay
for a while, but at some point you might get tired of that because
after you're working, because if you continue doing this into the school, you're
you're pretty tired at the end of the day. So these next options are
more slow to make money, but once you start getting the ball rolling,
it's going to be recurring money. So the next side hustle is personal training.
Now, I know this seems like you're trading time for money if you're
doing one on one clients, but personal training could also mean that you were
just creating workouts for people and you're printing amount and sending them to your clients.
And a lot of times people add nutrition and meal plans to this,
and that's something that you could quickly make and set a certain amount, so
it's not like you're spending thirty minutes for a certain amount of time with them.
You're just creating this for them and you're sending it off to them.
You could also record videos and make your product more appealing because then people want
to know how to do a particular workout or a particular lift or something like
that. They can refer to that and it makes the experience more rich for
them. Also, this could be really fun because if you decide to do
one on one clients, you would work out with them, so basically you're
getting paid to work out, which is pretty cool. The next side hustle
will depend on what kind of a social media following you have, and it's
affiliate marketing. And the reason why I say social media or some kind of
platform like a blog or YouTube is because basically, you're going to be selling
other people's products. You're going to be promoting them and getting other people to
buy them. A lot of times, you're going to be putting some kind
of a link in a description or in a caption so that people can click
on it, and when people click on it and they buy that product,
you get a cut of that commission. Or you could do something like Amazon
affiliates, where you put your Amazon affiliate link. When people click on it,
you get a portion of that, but also whatever else they put in
their cart, you get a portion of that too. So you may be
doing something like beauty reviews or sunscreen interviews and you put your Amazon affiliate link.
Someone will click on that link and add that sunscreen to their cart.
But let's say that they also decide that they're going to buy a barbecue online
or a couch or something like that. You're still going to get a cut
of that, even though that's not what you were promoting. The thing about
affiliate marketing is that if you don't have an audience, it's really hard to
make money off of it. You really have to build up a following so
that you get eyes on the product and you have people who you're going to
be marketing too. So it can be a little bit hard if you're starting
from ground zero, but it doesn't mean that you shouldn't do it, because
after a while, you are going to get momentum, you are going to
get more followers, and you're going to make more money, and it's something
that is going to be recurring and almost passive in the future. Now we're
almost done here. The next one is selling on Teachers Pay Teachers or it's
now known as TPT or it's also known as i XL because they sold to
IXL. In any case, I'm sure you've heard of Teachers Pay Teachers because
this is a marketplace for lesson plans and materials for teachers. If you have
anything that you created and you've used in your classroom, this is a great
place to sell it. A lot of teachers need that graphic organizer or that
activity that you created. They're looking for that exact thing, or maybe the
teacher has a curriculum that they have to use, but they don't have something
that's going to help their students that are struggling where they don't have something that's
going to help their students that need more enrichment, and you have that something
they're going to buy from you. Now, it does take some time to
get going on TPT because again you have to sort of like build a following
and people have to trust that your product is going to be good, and
there's a lot of marketing things that you can do on there to get more
sales. But I put my products on tpt A a long time ago,
and I'm still getting regular sales every month, even though I haven't touched my
store in a long time. I just refresh my products as I go because
the products that I sell in my store, I actually use, and so
when I see that I want to refine it or make it better, I
just re upload it to you TPT. So again, if you're already making
material is yourself, this is a great, great side hustle that won't make
you money right away, but it's something that eventually will just give you regular
recurring income. And then if you are clan who is crafty and you like
to handmake items, or you just in general have things that you'd like to
sell. Been selling on a marketplace like Etsy is a great side hustle.
So on Etsy, if you've ever been on it, they sell everything from
furniture, handmade items, vintage items, you name it, they're selling it.
Well. I don't think they sell animals on Etsy, but they sell
things like crystals and stuff like that on Etsy. What I love about Etsy
so there's a built in audience. There are buyers on there that are looking
for exactly what you're selling. So you can sell things like principles if you
know how to make online planners, or you've made planners for your students,
if you are good at graphic designs, so you could do two side hustles
being a graphic designer. And you can make clip art, or you could
make signs or posters or things like that and sell them on Etsy. And
that's something that's recurring because you just put it on there, and when people
find your store, they justn't buy it while you're sleeping. Let's say that
you have a cricket and you make classroom decor or stickers or things like that.
You can sell that on there too, And while that one isn't so
much passive, you can still make money for something that you already know how
to do, and you already like to do. And the other thing that
they don't really advertise is also selling services. I personally sell terror readings on
Etsy, but I don't sell my printables on there because it's just not something
that I'm interested in doing. But I've made pretty good money doing that on
Etsy. So if I can get this started, and I'm not very entrepreneurial,
then I'm sure that you can do it too. Also, don't forget
that you can sell the same things that you put on TPT on Etsy,
because there are teachers on there that are looking for materials, something that I've
seen a lot of people sell on Etsy also or print on a man items.
So this means that if you make t shirts, or if you make
tote bags or stickers or mugs or things like that, it's so easy to
connect it to a service like print full and then it's connected to Etsy.
So when people order on Etsy, it's automatically sent to printful and shift your
customers. So all you have to do is just upload your design. So
those are fifteen, yes, fifteen side hustles that you, as a teacher
can start this summer. So you can start and making more money and supplement
your income. And the last few ones that I mentioned are ones that do
take some time to get set up, but remember that's going to become recurring
an income that you're still going to benefit from even when you start working on
it. So you could set up a store in Etsy with printal demand and
you can get it going with like one hundred different items and you don't even
have to really touch it for a while, and you're still going to have
some income coming in. So use are really great. But also I know
that some of you need like an infusion of cash right away, so some
of the things like freelancing or delivery services or even Respondent. Make sure you
check out Respondent because there's a lot of things for teachers on there. You
can start making the extra money that we desperately need. So I know that
this was a lot for you guys in terms of how many side hustles there
are, but I wanted to give you options, So be sure to go
to the show notes to grab that resource with all of these listed out for
you, including some websites where you can find work for each of them.
Because it's really important to just get started this summer or maybe even right now,
before the summer, you can start planning it out so that as soon
as school's out you've got a job ready to go. Thanks for hanging out
with me this week, you guys, I will see you next time.
Thanks for listening to the Teachers Need Teachers podcast. Love this episode. Head
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