Teachers are embracing the gig economy as a way to earn a little extra money during summer vacation. But which side hustles are best for teachers, given their well-earned need for some downtime over the summer months?
We took a look at the ideal summer side gigs for teachers. To make the cut these gigs had to pay reasonably well, allow for a lot of schedule flexibility, and be fun–or at least occasionally fun! Even teachers need to let their hair down for some summertime enjoyment!
Here are our ten favorite summer side gigs for teachers:
1. Rent Baby Gear
BabyQuip connects traveling families with Quality Providers at their vacation destination who rent, deliver, and set up baby equipment that helps families enjoy all the comforts of home while on vacation. Think Airbnb, but for baby gear. As a Quality Provider, you’ll load gear like portable cribs, strollers, car seats, and bins full of toys into the back of your car and then deliver it to families at local hotels, vacation rentals and private homes. You select the gear you want to rent and set your own rental prices and delivery fees. It’s one of the best side gigs for teachers!
BabyQuip helps you build your website, drives business to it, and handles your rental transactions and payments. Quality Providers earn, on average, about $600/month. This is fun and rewarding work! Your customers will love you; expect an occasional hug. Best of all? You get to see the smiling faces of babies who are super excited to see you show up with toys. Oh, happy day!
If you sign up to get started early in the summer, you may even have your first baby gear orders by the last day of school! Your baby gear career doesn’t need to end in September either. Teachers can rent gear year-round with this flexible side gig.
2. Clean Baby Gear
Did you know that BabyQuip also offers baby gear cleanings? Yep! And did you also know that you can build a successful baby gear cleaning side gig? Double yep! BabyQuip Cleaning delights local families by cleaning and sanitizing their prized baby gear; everything from car seats to strollers and high chairs. We’re guessing as a teacher, you may already have some potential customers!
3. Rent Your Car
Got a car sitting idle in your driveway? Flying away on a well-earned vacation? Turn your car into extra cash by renting it out through Getaround or Turo. Both platforms allow you, the car owner, to rent a vehicle, truck, etc. to a guest in need!
4. Get Crafty
Have a secret craft or creation you typically don’t have time to do during the school year? Well go for it during the summer and turn it into some serious cash! You can list your homemade creations on Etsy, the e-commerce website that focuses on homemade and one-of-a-kind gifts, and more! Sounds like a win-win to us!
5. Play with Rover
Rover is another fun, flexible gig economy platform, connecting dog families with dog lovers who can make a side income as dog sitters or walkers. Think about it: boarding dogs overnight, pet sitting during the day, or taking groups of playful dogs out for walks around the neighborhood–if you love dogs, it doesn’t get much better than this! You get paid to play with adorable dogs.
Dog sitting can be a great side gig for teachers. While earning a little extra cash hosting dogs in your home you can still catch up on summer reading, or accomplish all the other tasks on your to-do list that were simply impossible to get to during the hectic school year. Dogs can have a calming effect on you too. We all want our teachers cool, calm, and collected when that first school bell rings in September. Signing up for Rover is easy peasy.
- How to Find the Best Side Gig for Stay-at-Home-Moms
- 8 Ways to Build Your Side Hustle & Succeed At It
- How to Get Started Renting Baby Gear
6. Keep on Teachin’
Some teachers might want their summer plans to keep them far from the classroom, but if you’re the kind of teacher who can’t get enough instructional time with students, online tutoring is a good work-from-home option. Teachers are great tutors, which is sort of stating the obvious.
It’s easy to get started at Tutor.com. Fill out the application and take a test to demonstrate your mastery of the wide-ranging subjects offered, including Physics, Calculus, Foreign Languages, Statistics, Sociology, and Essay Writing. The income potential isn’t as high as some other side gigs for teachers, but there’s a lot of flexibility which might be worth it. According to Glassdoor, tutors are making somewhere between $11 and $14/hr. (More challenging subjects tend to pay a little more.)
7. Focus on ESL
On that note, are you a teacher with a knack for teaching English specifically? You may want to look into VIPKid as a summer side gig for teachers. It’s a platform that allows you to teach English online! You get to set your own hours. So pick and choose when you want to work; which may be great if you plan to take a few trips in the summer. Also, you’ll be teaching one-on-one, so no need to create huge lesson plans.
8. Run Errands
Teachers are skilled at more than just, well, teaching. TaskRabbit connects helpers with customers who need assistance with varying tasks like restyling a home, moving furniture, running errands, or delivering items. As part of the signup process, Taskers must undergo a background and identity check. As long as you weren’t robbing banks last year as your summer side gig, this can’t be any harder than the background checks required to be a teacher.
9. Take Care of Others
If you’re a teacher, it’s safe to assume you’re good with kids and people. So why not try Care.com? Care.com is an awesome platform matching caregivers with families in need of a reliable babysitter, nanny, or even adult companion! You simply create a profile and add your availability. Users will reach out if they are interested in setting up an interview! You can highlight what your strengths are, your expertise, etc. Be warned: we think teachers are probably pretty popular!
10. Hit the Road
This is probably not a surprise, but ride-sharing with Uber or Lyft is another awesome option for summertime side cash and side gigs for teachers. These apps dominate the ridesharing industry so you’re guaranteed to pick up lots of passengers with either platform. This is something you can easily turn on or off so flexibility abounds. You’ll probably meet some interesting people too!
Whether renting baby gear or running errands, the gig economy offers great options for teachers (and really just about anyone) to change it up, earn a summer side income, and even have a little fun.
Kaylee Garcia is the mama to one sweet boy and one sweet girl, and wife to an awesome husband. Kaylee and her son (he’s only 4!) have completed over 20 trips via air travel (thank you, Alaska Airlines!) on over 40+ airplane rides! They love sharing travel tips with other families since they’ve learned a lot in the last 4 years. Kaylee enjoys spending time with family, researching baby gear, and exploring the Pacific Northwest.
I’m a teacher and have tied out several of these options in the past!
Great ideas – passing this info along to my teacher friends!
My husband teachers summer school (he’s a high school chemistry teacher). The hours and pay are fantastic, and it leaves ample time for a side hustle, too. Great suggestions!
All good ideas! Enjoyed reading.
My mother-in-law is a teacher. I’m sure she’ll appreciate this article to stay busy over the summer break.
Awesome ideas! So many extra side gigs for teachers I never knew about!