Wouldn’t it be nice if teachers were paid what they were worth? I know. Me too. But, seriously, all is not lost. You absolutely can have a fun side-gig while also teaching. Here are a few of my very favorite side hustles for teachers that I feel are actually things you can look forward to doing.
You won’t find me recommending you deliver food, teach English online for $10/hr, or anything else that I see so many teachers doing to make ends meet. You’re better than that. You’re worth more than $10 (or less) an hour.
Now, if that’s you and you LOVE what you do, fantastic! But if you’re looking for other ideas of side hustles for teachers that you actually look forward to while teaching, and which can ACTUALLY make you money, you are in the right place.
Let’s jump in!
*This post contains affiliate links to places I truly believe in*
Artistic/Crafty Side Hustles for Teachers
I’m sure it isn’t surprising to you that my very favorite side hustles for teachers are creative and artistic in nature. That’s definitely me and that’s part of who I am. I would much rather be creative than just about anything else. In this first list, you’ll find ideas of side hustles for teachers who are artistic & creative.
Digital Content Designer/Creator
Are you a Canva junkie? When you see things, do you often enjoy understanding how they were created? If so, you may be interested in digital content design. As a digital content designer, you have TONS of options of what you want to focus on. Maybe you love making Instagram post templates or maybe you love designing Pinterest pins.
Digital content designers often sell their templates and ideas freelance on Etsy, but others can be hired part-time on job-search websites OR you can even develop your own business to sell from. It all depends on if you want to start your own template design business or work for someone else.
Jewelry Maker
Do you love making jewelry? Do you have a fun, eclectic, style or do you have an eye for what looks good? Jewelry-making is a fairly low-cost startup business especially if you can find bulk beads/gems/pendants from thrift stores, clearance aisles of local craft stores, or online.
Jewelry can easily be sold online or in-person at local craft fairs. It is something that many women & lots of men buy for themselves anyway and can be easily personalized for different clients and depending on the difficulty of the piece, cost can vary widely.
Digital Art Printables
Digital art is a MASSIVE market on download websites like Etsy, TeachersPayTeachers, and others. Digital Art requires that you have a good eye for design as well as a unique style. Content can be created on places like Canva or with apps like Procreate.
All sorts of designs sell well, but the most popular are digital art for rooms (kitchen, bathroom, baby room etc.) especially coordinated ones, or coordinated classroom art.
Crafting ANYTHING
What else do you love making? Maybe it’s something you knit, maybe you absolutely love painting mugs, creating pottery, making stickers, flipping furniture or sewing baby hats. ANYTHING can be sold on Etsy, craft fairs, or through your own personal website.
All you need is a good startup inventory (make a bunch of stuff) so that people can browse several ideas and options.
Educational Side Hustles for Teachers
You truly enjoy teaching and know that there are TONS of people who would love to learn what you know. These are great side hustles for teachers who LOVE teaching!
TeachersPayTeachers
TeachersPayTeachers (TpT) is the premier place for digital classroom resource downloads. There are TONS of niches on TpT including classroom decor, organization labels, curriculum, interactive digital lessons, student worksheets, teacher planning, movie guides and SO much more.
If you are someone who knows how to make attractive classroom resources, TpT may be the place for you.
Private Tutoring/Lessons
Think of all of the people you could teach with your specific skillset. Maybe you want to teach music lessons, cooking classes, tutor high schoolers in math, or offer private pottery lessons. Whatever it is, it is easy to set up your own personal studio.
Please research the legal aspects of this offering with your school district (districts often have stipulations over what/who/where you can teach privately, especially if it is content you are also hired to teach or you want to teach students who also attend your school.)
Digital Course Creation
All sorts of different digital platforms can help you develop, market, and profit off a course you want to teach. To do this, you’ll just need some basic video editing skills, knowledge of how to design/develop supplemementals, and an easy-to-follow teaching style. Wondering what it looks like in action? Click here to visit my course website!
Techie Side Hustles for Teachers
If you are someone who enjoys working from home and has a specific skillset in technology (either formal or self-taught), you might enjoy a more technology-focused side hustle. These are all perfect side hustles for teachers who love working from a computer, solving problems, and working for other people.
Virtual Assisting
Virtual assisting is a newer job that is becoming very popular! It requires that you have a broad range of skills from word processing, managing websites, creating web pages, crafting spreadsheets, etc.
The more skills you can offer, the better chance you have of getting hired. Tons of online businesses are looking for part-time virtual assistants (think bloggers, small businesses, independent online retailers, private studios etc.)
Digital Content Manager
Digital Content covers all sorts of different things, including a business’s social media channels, blogs, podcasts, webinars, etc.
A digital content manager sorts through and organizes all of these things, determines when they will be released, creates digital promotional content (Pinterest Pins, Facebook Posts, Instagram Stories, etc), and is the final editor for Youtube videos, podcasts, and other digital content.
This is one of the great side hustles for teachers who are both techie, organized, and creative. It’s also a big plus if you have experience in design programs like Canva.
Web Designer
Web designing is another one of the great side hustles for teachers who are very creative, organized, and who know everything about building websites from scratch. Web design is a massive market and, depending on how you offer your services, can be incredibly flexible on hours.
Being a web designer part time requires that you have a very broad digital skillset, high creativity, skills in brand design, and some general marketing ideas/experience.
It is more time-intensive than the previous two options because it requires you to set up your own business as well, but it can be very profitable.
Blogger
Although blogging is such an easy thing to start, it takes a fair amount of work to build it up to profitability just on its own. Lots of people host affiliate links on their blog, write for others, and use their blog to drive traffic to their brand or business.
Blogging can be very profitable if you host lots of advertising (and in turn have TONS of traffic.) But, if you are someone who loves writing (and can do it very consistently), blogging is definitely a side-hustle you should look into.
Misc Side-Hustles for Teachers
These are the other side-hustles for teachers that just don’t fit in the other categories, but I think you’ll LOVE.
Pet-Sitting
Are you an animal lover? Pet-sitting is one of the best and easiest ways to make money (especially during breaks and over summer vacation). Because you are already a teacher, you have built-in credibility and trustworthiness.
Note that you must have a clean record and be ultra-responsible (obviously). But, being able to spend some extra time cuddling puppies or making $10/day to feed a fish (takes 30seconds) are all necessities for people going out of town. If you can stack up your schedule with several different clients, you can easily make several hundred dollars a week.
Dog-Walking
Dog walking isn’t an ultra-glamorous side hustle for teachers, but it IS fun! If you are a very fit person who runs/takes long walks daily anyway, bringing along a doggie companion seems like a no-brainer (especially if that dog’s owner pays you $20-30 just to take their furry companion on your daily route).
What was your favorite of these side hustles for teachers? What questions do you have about starting a side-hustle as a teacher? Leave a comment below?
Are you considering leaving teaching for a while to pursue a side-hustle? I did! Read about my experience here.
