Make an extra $500 per month

Side business ideas from the classroom

Are you a teacher looking to earn supplemental income? It’s time to turn your classroom into a business. Think of your skills and talents as opportunities to start a side hustle. Even if you never started a business before, your entrepreneurial traits are already there.

Your gifts are in management, organization, planning, communication, selling, the ability to adapt, and assessing, to name a few. Everything from curated bulletin boards, lesson plans, and room decorations can make you money. There are nine side business idea types that can earn you passive income, residual income, or both. When done correctly, you can easily make a minimum of $500 per month.

How easy it is to start a side business?

Long gone are the days of needing excess startup funding to start a business. Unlike brick and mortar, online companies have lower overhead costs. An internet connection, a website and hosting service (or selling platform if not ready for a website), business license, insurance, and of course, products or services is enough to get you started. Because there’s an increase in e-learning, homeschooling, and parents taking an active role in their child’s education, your target audience isn’t hard to find. Social media and forum groups make it easier to communicate with them.

9 Ways Teachers Can Get Additional Income

There are way more than nine ways to make more money. The possibilities for side business ideas are endless. As a teacher, you can offer a variety of products/services. Your offerings can be segmented by subject, learning types, academic level, or grade.

Ways to turn your experience into extra earnings:

1. Tutoring Service: Use your subject expertise and offer either one-on-one or group sessions. Tutoring services are always in demand. Plus, you can package your sessions in different ways.    
2. Writing: Once you know what your audience prefers, you can sell books, ebooks, workbooks, guides, audiobooks. Books can lead to other opportunities as well. Blogging is another avenue to explore. Use them to build a customer base or to sell other products/services. 
3. Video Series: If you aren’t afraid of being in front of the camera, how about craft-related tutorials? Crafts are an excellent way to get students to learn more challenging subjects. Videos can be live, pre-recorded, or sold as both.
4. Consulting: Most parents are willing to invest in their child’s development. Whatever your expertise is, turn it into a consulting service. Helping parents with special needs children, social etiquette for kids, and assisting parents to deal with toddler tantrums are good ones to consider.
5. Subscriptions: Once you’ve been selling products or services for a while, turn them into a subscription model. The only thing is that it has to be valued so that subscribers entirely use the service.
6. Coaching: Homeschooling communities are always looking for innovative ways to teach their children. Offer coaching on lesson plan ideas, study guides, testing techniques, curriculum, and daily activity planning.
7. Summer Camp: Not ready to do business year-round. Since most parents work during the summer, camps will always be in demand. If you have a hobby, use them to teach others and gain a new audience.
8. Kits: The Craft/DIY sector has been on the rise for the last decade. Since millennial parents are more hands-on with their kids, a board game, flashcard, or card game kits would be good learning tools.
9. Speech Training: You’re communicating in the classroom all the time. Teach others presentation skills, public speaking, or how to build confidence through speaking.

Disclaimer: Before choosing any of the above as a business, be sure to review contract agreements with the school district to make sure there’s no conflict of interest. I don’t recommend starting a business that conflicts with your place of employment.

How to earn an extra $500 in a month?

Meeting a monthly sales goal involves planning and strategy. Think about what product type you want to sell. Next, price your product or service. Then, consider your skill set, time, materials, and how much you want to make in profit when price setting. Also, think about what monthly expenses might incur.

To find out how many products you need to sell to reach your monthly goal, divide the desired monthly amount by the product price. Starting a business means there’s a cost to get started. For further explanation, read the startup cost blog. 

Passive income vs. Residual Income

Digital products are created once and duplicated often. Passive income is money received without physically being present to receive it. However, passive income isn’t predictable. An example would be downloadable products or a book. When digital products are on your website or Amazon, anyone can order at any time. Just because you made book sales this month doesn’t mean you’ll make sales the next month.

Residual income is the same as passive income, except it’s predictable. An example would be a subscription model. Subscriptions can either be monthly, quarterly or annually. Whichever period you choose, you will receive the same dollar amount each time until the customer decides to cancel their subscription.

Keep customers in mind at all times. Businesses are competing for people’s attention through ads, emails, and social media posts. Customers want products and services that will solve their problems. If listed on a website, make sure the wording is easy for customers to understand. Communicate your value proposition (what you do better than competitors). Lastly, make sure the flow of your site is easy to navigate (FAQs, checkout process).

Happy Teacher’s Appreciation Week

You fill many roles inside the classroom and constantly meet demands from the administration, parents, students, and the community. Making an extra $500 per month is easy with a combination of skills, strategy, planning, and effectively reaching a target audience.