Are you a passionate teacher looking for a side hustle to increase your income? I hear you, I’ve spent the past decade exploring various options that align with my love for teaching while providing extra earnings. In this blog, I want to share the side hustle I stumbled upon.
From selling lesson plans to tutoring online, babysitting, creating courses, being an au-pair, virtual assisting, dog walking, voice acting for children’s books, graphic design, guiding tourists, empowerment coaching, running an Etsy shop, teaching languages to adults, housesitting, recording guided meditations, and countless other endeavors, I’ve done to earn some extra money next to my teacher’s salary.
Some were incredibly enjoyable—I mean, who knew I could get paid for reading children’s books? Others were out of pure necessity… 🙈
Are Side Hustles the New Normal for Teachers?
I’ve always had a strong desire to make a positive impact on the world. Seeing my mom as a teacher, I realized that teaching was the closest I could come to truly making a difference. And I fell in love with it – I still do!
However, let’s face the reality. With salary freezes, budget cuts, and the soaring cost of living, many teachers struggle to make ends meet. Of course, I didn’t enter the teaching profession with dreams of becoming rich (I’m not naïve), but I didn’t want the financial concerns to force me to quit either. So I did what many teachers do – utilizing my skills and knowledge beyond the classroom to earn some extra money.
“I’m not here to just pay the bills and die, I want to live life! Unfortunately, that requires money – more than we as teachers are getting paid.”
Nowadays, there are countless ways for teachers to earn extra cash and relieve some financial stress. However, I was looking for something that would allow me to continue working with families, have a sense of fulfillment, and be easy to combine with my teaching job. So I stepped out of my comfort zone; tried various things, laughed, cried, loved, and hated several of them, until….
The Teacher Side Hustle Job You Might Not Have Considered
One day, while scrolling through Facebook, an intriguing advertisement caught my attention: “Become a Sleep Consultant and earn $6k per Month.” It sounded too good to be true, so I kept scrolling. But the idea lingered in my mind, and curiosity eventually took over. After browsing some websites, I decided to reach out to an established sleep consultant and learn more.
I said: “So, you mean I can help families teach their little ones to fall asleep independently and get paid for it?” It seemed unbelievable, until a couple of months later I graduated as a certified sleep consultant and secured my first client, and then the next and the next.
Let’s face it, the most challenging part of any side hustle is finding clients. As a teacher, though, I had a vast market at my fingertips—parents who already trusted me!
Balancing Teaching and My New Side Hustle
If you think about it, as a teacher you are already juggling multiple roles in a single day: referee, mentor, counselor, drama director, classroom DJ, therapist, coach, and more – you just never got paid for it! 😅
I still remember in my first year as a teacher, when, after a day of teaching one of the parents of my thirty 6th graders called, asking, “We don’t know how to get him away from the Nintendo. What would you suggest?” Can you imagine? I was only 21 years old, and they asked me for advice? Similar situations kept coming, from behavioral issues in older students to answering nutrition and sleep questions for the Nursery and Early Years classes I taught.
The thought of making some extra money while pursuing my passions outside of teaching seemed too good to pass up. So, with a mix of excitement and nervousness, I decided to give it a try.
I dedicated evenings and weekends to studying and once I got my certification, I started sleep consulting as a genuine side hustle. After school, I would head home, have dinner, and spend evenings and weekends writing sleep plans and supporting families. Let me tell you, this experience taught me invaluable lessons in time management and setting clear boundaries.. 😉
As my income from sleep consulting surpassed my teaching salary, I decided to take Fridays off and focus on expanding my sleep consulting business. Not much later I turned both into part-time jobs. Then I got hired by Nights & Naps, where I now help other teachers become sleep consultants, enabling them to create a business (and life!) they truly love.
Success Story: Real-life Example of a Teacher Who Found Financial Success
Meet Shannon Buhera, a successful sleep consultant who has not only been an inspiration to me but also to countless others. Shannon’s remarkable success in the field is coupled with her sincere desire to help others thrive. Her journey serves as a powerful reminder that as teachers, we hold incredible potential to make a significant impact and achieve greater heights for ourselves. In Shannon’s words:
“I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur but I thought, “would there ever be something I felt more passionate about than teaching?” Then in 2019, I had my daughter, Anashe. As challenging and exhausting as motherhood can be, I absolutely loved it. I knew then that I was meant to continue to work with children and families but in a different way.
When Anashe was 3.5 months old she started waking constantly throughout the night, needing to be nursed or given a bottle to get back to sleep. My husband and I were sleep deprived and unsure of what to try next. I turned to the internet and felt completely overwhelmed with the amount of conflicting information. I read a book about baby sleep I found at my local used book store and gave that method a try and when it didn’t work I felt so discouraged. I kept hoping and praying that “maybe tonight will be the night that she finally sleeps through the night!”
When nothing changed, my husband and I kept saying, “We can’t go on like this anymore!” That’s when I started diving deeper into Sleep Science and Sleep Training. I eventually saw a program to become a Sleep Consultant. I enrolled to find solutions to help my own daughter with the hopes of maybe turning it into a little business eventually.
I worked through the program and I learned that her sleep being so fragmented wasn’t good for her happiness and even her development. But I also knew I wasn’t interested in “Cry It Out”. Through all the books and articles and lessons in my certification, I learned there are so many other options to reach the same goal of improving sleep.
Once I was far enough in the course I created a plan to solve my daughter’s sleep challenges. 3 nights (!). That’s how long it took for her to start sleeping through the night. 11 hours! After that, I was sold. Sold on Sleep Science and the benefits of Sleep Training. Sold that this was something that I truly enjoyed learning about and believed in it’s extreme value and importance.
My daughter started waking up happier and my husband and I woke up well-rested and ready to show up as our best selves at home, at work and for our daughter. And soon after I was ready to start helping other families do the same thing. That’s how Nights & Naps was born.
One year later, I quit my teaching job because I had fallen in love with being a Sleep Consultant and being a “momtrepreneur”! Oh, and I was pretty damn good at it, too!”
Final words…
Is it really all sunshine and butterflies? Of course not, just as in life (and during any school year 😉), we all go through ups and downs. However, if I’m being completely honest, my biggest regret is not having discovered this opportunity earlier.
If you’re interested in helping families achieve a restful night’s sleep while ensuring your own financial stability, whether it’s part-time or full-time, don’t let another school year pass by! Download this free guide full of advice and recommendations on how to begin your journey on becoming a successful pediatric sleep consultant and launching a profitable small business!
Free Download: 8 Key Steps in starting your own successful business working virtually for yourself from home!
