How do you expect me to side hustle after work when I have children at home?
I’ve heard this sentiment and frustration from many teachers.
It’s a fair point.
As a mother or a father, priority number 1 will always be your children.
When presented with the choice of side hustling after school or going straight home to care for your children, you will always choose your children. As any good parent would.
Fortunately though, you don’t have to choose.
You can do both- care for your kids and side hustle.
That’s what this post is all about. Helping you be mega mom or mega dad!
Below are 10 legitimate and practical side hustles that can be done at home.
Perfect for the teacher that’s also busy being a parent.
Let’s jump in!
1. Blogging
If you enjoy writing and have something of value to write about, than this is a great side hustle.
There is very little barrier to entry to start a blog. All you need is access to a computer, and you can write from the comfort of your own home.
Most people don’t realize that you can make money with a blog. In fact, I only found out that you can monetize a blog a couple years ago when I started this blog.
Bloggers make money through display advertisements, affiliate marketing, and selling of products or services.
The earning potential can be in the thousands per month, depending on your niche and how much energy you put into it.
Understand though that blogging is a business, and just like most businesses, revenue will not come over night.
Most bloggers who are successful don’t see any type of money for their first year or two.
The return on your effort though can be great, and if you love what you’re writing about, it never feels like work.
If you’re interested in trying out blogging, this is the course that I took to get me started. I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone looking to start their own blog.
2. Sell Crafts on Etsy
If you enjoy making things with your hands, crafting is a great way to earn side income.
Crafting means that you physically create a product that you sell to customers.
It might be something you made out of wood, pillows you sew together, special bottle openers, anything.
The personal touch of these items make it a great gift, and if it’s unique, people will want to buy it.
I think you’d be surprised by how many people search etsy to find custom made items.
In 2019 alone, there were 50 million active buyers on etsy. That’s a HUGE market! So yea, needless to say there is money to be made here.
The best thing about crafting is that the earning potential is unlimited. The better your product and the more you market it, the more you can make.
Check out these awesome creations by a 6th grade teacher.
I.G. – @cro_shayyshayy
3. Tutoring
If you’re interested in leveraging your skills as an educator, private tutoring is an excellent way to make extra money.
Some teachers choose to tutor at their students home or a public place like a library, but if you have a working space at home you can have students come to you.
The amount you charge for tutoring is up to you and you keep 100% of the profits.
The average rate for tutoring can differ drastically depending on your location but generally tutors charge between $30 – $60/hour.
I myself have had a lot of success tutoring students through private music lessons. I do my best to schedule my lessons immediately after school so that I can bang them out before heading home.
4. Baking
Are you a good baker? Have you been known to create delicious cakes, cupcakes, and pies?
If yes, then you may want to make money off of your tasty treats!
People are always looking for that little extra touch for their celebration, and specialty baked goods are the perfect solution.
Think of all those events that you’ve been to where you’ve seen custom made cookies or cupcakes on the table.
They make great party favors for bridal showers, kids birthday parties, and weddings just to name a few.
The best part is that you’re getting paid to do the thing you love.
I know at least 3 teacher friends that have taken up a baking side hustle business, and they are crushing it! They usually market their product on social media and some even create their own website.
Check out these awesome cookies from a teacher in my school district.
I.G. – @cupkates_16
5. Babysitting
This is by far the easiest side hustle on the list, but don’t get me wrong, the money can be great!
Plus, if you’re already watching your own kids at home, why not add one more and get paid.
Babysitting works great for teachers because many parents seek child care during school breaks and the summer when children and teachers are off but parents are still working.
The hourly rate for babysitters varies by location, but on average babysitter’s can expect to make around $15/hr. Rates can also fluctuate depending on the amount of children you are caring for.
If you don’t personally know anyone looking for childcare, sites like SitterCity.com and Care.com are the place to go.
They will connect you with families in search of babysitters and caregivers.
6. Proofread
Businesses will hire proofreaders as an extra set of eyes on their writing for websites, blog posts, courses, and more.
It’s honestly a pretty straight forward and and simple job that can be done from your couch.
Don’t worry, usually proofreaders don’t make large edits like rewriting sentences or restructuring paragraphs.
They simply are responsible for spotting those little obvious errors such as spelling, punctuation and grammar.
The barrier to entry is minimal as you don’t need to be an English major or a professional writer. All you need is a computer, internet connection, and have an eagle eye for writing errors.
The average hourly pay for a proofreader is around $18/hour.
If you have no training whatsoever in proofreading, there are courses available to help you.
Once you got the skill down, you can post your services to platforms like Fiverr and Upwork. They specialize in connecting freelancers with potential clients.
7. Print on Demand DropShipping Business
Print on Demand dropshipping is a business model where products are acquired, produced and shipped individually after a sale has been made to your customer.
Products are sold without you having to physically possess and ship the inventory.
Basically, you design a product, market it, and the third party manufacturer/distributor takes care of the rest.
There are three major benefits to this type of business
- NO initial investment
- NO physical store
- NO inventory to keep track of
Since you don’t pay for the actual product until after you already sold it, there is very little risk.
An easy way to get started with this type of business is through Merch by Amazon.
In this program, you create t-shirt designs, amazon markets them, and if they sell, amazon does all the producing and shipping for you while you collect a percentage of the profits!
I tried out Merch by Amazon a couple years ago and I can tell you this is the real deal.
I only made a handful of sales (my designs sucked and I didn’t give it much energy), but the process was super easy.
In fact, my 17 year old neighbor was very successful, making a few thousand per month on Merch by Amazon.
I even read multiple success articles of people making well over 100k with ONE great shirt design.
It’s also worth noting that you do not need to be an artsy person to be successful. It’s mostly just copy and pasting free vector images with a few lines of text. Anyone can do it.
It may take creating multiple designs to start making significant sales with Merch by Amazon, but with no initial investment, what do you have to lose.
8. Make Youtube videos
You may have rolled your eyes when you read this one, but youtube can be a great source of income.
Before creating your first video on YouTube, decide what type of content you want to deliver: entertainment or informational.
If you’re unique, funny, or are simply able to solve peoples problems, you can build an audience on youtube.
Many aspiring Youtubers think that they need a fancy-shamncy set-up to get started. An expensive camera, expensive microphone, fancy lighting, etc. This is false!
All you really need is a smart phone and basic video editing software. That’s it.
One source projects that a youtuber can make $3-$5 per 1k video views.
Now this may seem like nothing, but if you build a large enough audience, that small amount of money can get very large, very quick.
9. Facebook Side Hustle
Do you have at least a small amount of interest in advertising? Are you familiar with Facebook? (Of course you are)
If yes, running ads on Facebook for businesses can be a gold mine.
Business owners are always looking to expand their reach and gain more customers, right?
Well, Facebook has an extremely targeted ad platform that allows businesses to sell directly to potential customers.
The problem is, many business owners don’t know how to do this or they simply don’t have the time.
That’s where you come in.
Learning how to run ads on Facebook is a skill that businesses will hire out.
It is not an exaggeration that business owners will pay 1-2k/month for this service.
The time commitment is usually about 3-5 hours/week once you get the ball rolling.
Now you may be thinking, wait, this sounds complicated. I don’t know how to operate facebook ads.
The FB side hustle course walks you through everything you need to know to get started running ads for businesses.
I know a fellow teacher/blogger that was earning 1-2k/month within 5 weeks of taking the course.
Definitely worth checking out.
10. Freelance Writing
If you enjoy writing and you’re good at it, then you may consider side hustling as a freelance writer.
What do you write about?
Well, if you are not interested in creating your own blog, you can get paid for writing blog posts for other people.
Online job boards can be found on sites like Problogger, with listings for short term and long term writing gigs on a variety of different topics.
Simply find the topics that you can provide the most value for.
Your earnings can range drastically and is dependent on the length of the article, quality of your work, and your reputation.
Generally though, you can expect to make $50-$200 per article.
The Bottom Line
The path to financial freedom is not easy as a teacher, especially when you’re a parent.
Teachers are underpaid and overworked. That’s the reality. It sucks.
Until teachers are paid more money though, side hustling is a necessity to achieve financial freedom.
Hopefully these 10 side hustles gave you some ideas on how to get started.
