Best Side Hustles for Teachers 2024: Make Extra Money on a Busy Schedule

The best side hustles for teachers provide flexibility to work around a busy schedule or can be done over the summer when school is out of session.

We recommend online and app-based side hustles for the most flexibility, such as online tutoring, taking online surveys, and pet sitting through an app like Rover. If you want a summertime side hustle, consider coaching a sports team or working as a camp counselor.

Let’s dig into the best side hustles for teachers to see which one makes the most sense for you.

Key takeaways

• The best side hustles for teachers include online jobs, app-based jobs, and flexible in-person jobs.
• You don’t need much, or any, experience to get started with certain side hustles, including pet sitting, delivering food, and taking online surveys.
• Freelance and contract work can provide excellent flexibility, and you can set your own rates and make money online. You could also take advantage of skills you already have, such as writing or proofreading, to find higher-paying freelance gigs.
• Depending on your schedule as a teacher, you could consider doing a full-time side hustle over the summer to help supplement your income.

8 of the best online jobs

You can usually do online jobs remotely, without the need to commute anywhere or meet anyone in person.

1. Freelance tutor

What it is: Teachers can find online tutoring gigs through social media groups, websites, or apps. You could find opportunities for either group tutoring or one-on-one sessions. Many online tutoring gigs, such as those through VIPKid, involve teaching English to international English learners.

How to get started: Look for tutoring opportunities in online groups or sign up with tutoring-specific sites, such as VIPKid and Wyzant. You’ll need to check time commitments and teacher requirements to make sure you’re eligible for a particular tutoring service.

Read our full VIPKid review.

2. Online course creator

What it is: You can turn your lesson plans into an online resource for people to buy. This could make sense if you already have lessons that work well in your classroom and that you think might benefit other educators. If you’re especially creative in how you teach a particular lesson, other teachers could learn from your ideas.

How to get started: Research the types of courses and resources that are sold online by other teachers and see if any of your current material could be a good fit. You can check out websites that sell educational resources online, including Teachers Pay Teachers.

3. Freelance writer

What it is: Freelance writing is usually flexible and can be done in between other responsibilities. The type of content you’d write depends on the client, but you could look for opportunities writing corporate communications, emails, blog articles, or press releases.

How to get started: Build a writing portfolio by finding and applying for entry-level freelance writing opportunities. If you already have a writing portfolio, you can apply for more advanced gigs.

You can find loads of writing jobs by using online job boards, such as Fiverr, as well as joining writing groups on Facebook and subscribing to newsletters. If you want to stand out from other applicants, it helps to have expertise in specific areas, such as personal finance or science.

Read our full Fiverr review. 

4. Freelance proofreader

What it is: If you have an eagle eye for spotting typos and grammatical errors in your students’ work, you might already be an accomplished proofreader. Becoming a freelance proofreader means you’d do the same type of thing for different clients and companies.

How to get started: Build up your writing or editing portfolio to show that you have proofreading-related experience and skills. This could include your teaching work if you teach a subject that requires editing students’ writing or teaching grammar and punctuation.

You can then apply for proofreading jobs. You can often find proofreading opportunities on various online marketplaces and websites, including Upwork and Fiverr.

Learn more about how to make money proofreading.

5. Freelance bookkeeper

What it is: A freelance bookkeeper manages financial accounts for another entity, often a business. This job requires some mathematical skills, but it’s also a role you can learn about and teach yourself, even if you don’t have much of a professional background in the field.

Bookkeeping responsibilities could involve tracking expenses and payments, including payroll. You also might have to help present financial reports and answer finance-related questions.

How to get started: Learn how to manage financial accounts by getting some hands-on experience, taking courses, or both. Depending on the specific job, you might not need any official qualifications, but it likely wouldn’t hurt to explore different certification courses to help boost your experience.

6. Virtual assistant

What it is: A virtual assistant provides remote administrative support to clients. Responsibilities could include customer support, taking calls, managing schedules, data entry, managing social media, or doing research.

You likely already have experience with managing schedules and dealing with “customers” (i.e., your students or their parents), so a virtual assistant role could be an easy transition.

How to get started: Look for virtual assistant jobs online and adjust your resume according to each specific role you apply for. In many cases, virtual assistants don’t need much formal education or any type of certification (having a high school degree could be enough), but it depends on the job.

Learn more about how to become a virtual assistant.

7. Survey-taker

What it is: You might not have the energy to fit in a time-consuming side hustle that takes a lot of effort. Fortunately, you can take online surveys basically whenever and wherever you want. It’s as simple as downloading an app on your phone and answering some questions about different topics.

The best part? You can get paid in gift cards or cash, depending on the survey company.

How to get started: Join any online survey site for free and fill out your profile to start taking surveys. We recommend popular sites like Survey Junkie, Branded Surveys, and Swagbucks. You can join and use multiple sites to help increase the number of available surveys.

8. Online influencer

What it is: An influencer builds an engaged audience and uses their platform to find money-making opportunities. You might make money through partnering with companies and advertising their products, participating in creator funds, setting up subscriptions to your platform, or any combination of these strategies.

Your social media accounts don’t have to be about your teaching life, but there are plenty of influencers out there who create content that focuses solely on teaching and resources for teachers.

How to get started: Grow your audience and engagement on your social media platforms. Depending on the platform (including if you’re a blogger), you might need to build tens or hundreds of thousands of followers before you can start making money. It could also help to have niche or unique content if you want to monetize YouTube channel videos, make money on TikTok, or run a successful blog.

6 of the best app-based jobs

App-based jobs are side hustles where you can make money using apps that offer gig work or give you a way to build a platform.

1. Housesitting

What it is: Staying in someone’s house and taking care of it while they’re away. You might also have to take care of pets as part of housesitting.

This side hustle likely makes more sense during the summers when you might have more time off. Note that you typically don’t earn money for this type of side hustle, but you can save on lodging expenses if you like to travel. This could be an easy way to take cheap summer vacations to appealing locations.

How to get started: Create an account with an established housesitting company, such as TrustedHousesitters, where you can find opportunities to housesit worldwide. For example, TrustedHousesitters has listings in Australia, Europe, South America, and Asia, to name a few.

Read our full TrustedHousesitters review.

2. Pet sitting

What it is: Caring for another person’s pet while they’re busy or away. This could involve responsibilities like dog walking, caring for pets in your home, caring for pets in their home, or housesitting.

Schedules can be pretty flexible for pet sitters, which means you might be able to pick up gigs after you’re done working or on the weekends. And if you’re a teacher who loves pets, it’s like getting paid to have fun.

How to get started: Create an account with a pet sitting app, such as Rover. Then fill out your profile with your preferences and start looking for pet-sitting opportunities.

Learn more about earning money with Rover.

3. Rideshare

What it is: Driving for a rideshare service, such as Uber or Lyft, as an independent contractor. Your primary responsibility is to take passengers from one location to another using your own vehicle.

There aren’t any hourly requirements as a rideshare driver, so you can drive whenever you have some spare time. If you want to keep some sort of schedule, you might set aside a few hours each evening during the week, and longer blocks of time on the weekend, to work around your teaching hours.

How to get started: Have a valid driver’s license and a reliable vehicle. Then you can create an account and go through the application process with a popular rideshare service in your area.

4. Food delivery

What it is: Delivering food or groceries that people order online. This often involves picking up orders from restaurants and grocery stores and then dropping them off at the addresses provided.

Similar to driving for a rideshare company, delivering food or groceries is determined by your schedule and what opportunities are available. Given the flexibility, you might be able to easily teach full time and do food delivery on the side.

How to get started: Have a reliable vehicle and a valid driver’s license. Then create an account and go through the application process of any food-delivery service that’s available in your area, such as:

• Uber Eats
• Instacart
• DoorDash
• Postmates

Note that you typically have to pass a background check to be a delivery driver with some companies.

5. Room rental

What it is: Renting out an extra room or multiple extra rooms in your home for money. This all depends on your living situation and whether you’re comfortable with roommates, but renting out a room could be an easy way to make good money on the side.

If you have responsible guests or tenants, you might not have much to maintain the space, which is helpful for a full-time teacher.

How to get started: Use a hosting platform like Airbnb to rent out spare rooms on a short-term basis. Another option, depending on the rules where you live, could be offering long-term contracts to renters without using Airbnb.

6. Space rental

What it is: Renting out extra space you might have in or around your house that other people can use for storage. This could include renting out a parking space for an RV or trailer, or letting someone store boxes or sports equipment in your garage.

You typically don’t have to do much other than create your listing and approve any prospective renters, so this is a great side hustle opportunity for making passive income as a teacher.

How to get started: Create an account with Neighbor to start listing extra space you want to rent out.

Read our full Neighbor review.

5 of the best flexible in-person jobs

In-person jobs generally require you to interact with others in person.

1. Sports team coach

What it is: If your school offers after-school coaching options, this could be a good opportunity to make some cash on the side. A gig as a coach for recreational youth sports in your city might also make sense, especially if you coach teams that play during the summer.

How to get started: Look for youth sports coaching opportunities online and in your local community. You typically need some experience with the sport you want to coach. For young kids, coaching shouldn’t be too complicated.

2. Camp counselor

What it is: In most cases, this gig involves working at a summer camp when kids are out of school. This might be an ideal situation for you if you don’t usually have anything lined up for the summer and don’t mind continuing working with kids.

How to get started: Look for camp counselor roles online in your area, or elsewhere if you don’t mind traveling. You might find your experience as a teacher helps you qualify for more advanced roles or higher pay since you have experience working with kids.

3. Notary public

What it is: A notary serves as a neutral witness of the signing of important documents. Depending on where you live, you might need a notary for writing wills, for certain real estate transactions, or for actions involving certain bank documents.

You can often set appointments for notary duties ahead of time, which makes it a good side hustle choice if you’re a teacher. You can set appointments around your teaching hours.

How to get started: Notary public requirements vary by state, so it’s best to check your state’s requirements on how to become a notary public. You typically need to be at least 18 and a resident of the state where you want to work. You also might have to complete a training course and pass an exam.

Learn about how to become a mobile notary public.

4. Babysitter

What it is: To work around your teacher schedule, you could watch kids at home (or at the kids’ homes) in the evenings or on weekends.

How to get started: Create a profile with a popular babysitting website, such as Care.com, or find opportunities with friends, family, or through local Facebook groups. You don’t necessarily need any certifications for most sitter roles, but having some first aid and CPR training is helpful.

5. Tour guide

What it is: Someone who gives tours to visitors or tourists around different places of interest. It could be helpful if you already have extensive knowledge about a specific area.

Teaching history in schools could translate into a better tour guide experience for visitors in a certain area or city. For example, if you already know everything there is to know about Colonial Williamsburg, then you might be the perfect tour guide for that area.

How to get started: Search online for tour guide jobs if you want to see what’s available in your area. If you have a specific area in mind, include the location in your search terms.

Keep in mind that you might also be able to take advantage of providing virtual tours through Airbnb or other platforms.

How to choose the best side hustle for teachers

Consider these factors to help you choose the best side hustle for teachers:

Time and flexibility

Teachers lead busy lives, which means it’s important that any side hustle you pursue can fit into your schedule.

If you want a side hustle that you can do throughout the school year, you likely need to find something you can do in the evenings, weekends, or whenever you have spare time. Taking online surveys and doing freelance work are two types of side hustles that can provide loads of flexibility for your schedule.

Keep in mind that it could also make sense to try out a side hustle during the summer when most teachers take a break from their full-time jobs. With more time to invest, you could pick up a job as a tutor, camp counselor, coach, or another position that requires a larger time commitment.

Earnings

More lucrative side hustles aren’t always the best fit, as they could take a lot of time and effort. So if you still want to earn some decent extra money in your free time, choose a worthwhile option.

Note that not every side hustle has to become successful enough to replace your full-time teaching job, even if that might be the dream in some situations. If you’re able to make enough extra cash on the side to pay off some bills or save for a vacation, you’re likely doing just fine.

Effort

What’s the point of working all day as a teacher and then putting in more time and effort on a side job that doesn’t pay much? It depends on the situation, but you might want to reconsider your choice of side hustle if it’s simply becoming too draining and difficult for you to continue.

If the outcome isn’t worth the effort, take a step back and see if you need to change your side hustle approach. But keep in mind that some side hustles can take more effort in the beginning before they start to pay off.

For example, you might have to build up your freelance portfolio as a writer or grow your audience as an influencer before you can take advantage of more worthwhile money-making opportunities, which can take a lot of time and effort.

Interest

For some people, side hustles are all about extra income, which makes sense — there’s nothing wrong with that. But you might find it’s easier to do a side hustle if it makes money and you also enjoy it.

Your interest in a side hustle can be the deciding factor on whether you continue doing it or not. So if you’re thinking about which job to do, consider the types of things you already enjoy doing and see if there’s any overlap.

You might already enjoy working with kids, so a role as a babysitter might be a good fit. Or, if you’re detail-oriented, you might like the idea of being a virtual assistant.

FAQ

Best side hustles for teachers: Bottom line

We recommend online and app-based jobs as some of the best side jobs for teachers if you need flexibility with your schedule. Since the majority of these types of side hustles, such as freelance writing and pet sitting, can be done during your preferred time frame, you don’t have to worry about interfering with your full-time teaching role.

We also recommend looking into in-person jobs if they seem flexible enough to do in your spare time or if you plan to invest a lot of time in a side hustle over the summer months. For example, a camp counselor could be an excellent side hustle if you’re not involved in summer school and want to continue working with kids.

For more ways to help pad your income, check out these creative strategies for how to make money.

Methodology

We chose the best side hustles for teachers based on the ability to work after school hours, either online or in person. We also valued the ability to create your own schedule, although we did not exclude all options that require set time commitments. We did not include all possible side hustles for teachers.

Some side hustle ideas that weren’t included on our list, but could still work for many school teachers as a side gig or second job, include:

• Selling items on Etsy, eBay, Amazon, or another similar online marketplace
• Doing personal training
• Offering translation services
• Developing apps
• Planning events
• Doing affiliate marketing
• Providing services on Fiverr or Thumbtack