The 41-year-old kindergarten teacher in Beaverton, Oregon, brought in $125,500 from the practice last year, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. She posts booklets of worksheets designed to help teach reading and writing to young students to her store online on Teachers Pay Teachers, an Etsy-style marketplace.
Powell's store, Sight Word Activities, currently has 427 different listings, ranging from free downloads to $30 bundles with 20 booklets. When she first started her side hustle in 2015, she says, she made enough money to pay her monthly car insurance premium (about $60) in a matter of weeks. After three months, her additional income was able to cover her and her husband's monthly student loan payments.
Her classroom is her laboratory, she says, and her talent for teaching children about vision helped fill the gap on the website. She picks up her side job each summer to allow her to maintain a more flexible schedule during the school year.
Jerome and Becky Powell run separate Teachers Pay Teachers stores, but they say all their money goes to the same place.
becky powell
Powell points out that you don't have to spend a lot of money to get started. Teachers Pay Teachers has both free and paid tiers for sellers. “Basic sellers” keep 55% of sales, while “premium sellers” pay $59.95 per year to keep 80% of sales.
Powell pays for the subscription, as does her husband, Jerome. Jerome is a full-time computer engineer who also manages her other Teachers Pay Teachers store called Editable activity. His store brought in an additional $51,800 in revenue last year, she says, and his search engine optimization expertise helped Ms. Powell launch her store.
Here, Powell talks about what it takes to start a worksheet side hustle, why her side hustle has been successful so far, and how her confidence as a first-time entrepreneur has helped her grow as a person. Masu.
CNBC Make It: Do you think your side hustle is replicable?
Powell: Yeah, I think so too — especially when you have a combination of passion and knowledge. [education] market.You need these things to identify gaps [in learning] And train your intuition.
What does that mean? How do you build that intuition?
It's one thing to have a career [a specific] market. Really knowing that is another thing, so you have to research it. You need to find and interview consumers in that market and get to know the market so intimately and intimately that you can see the holes.
Combining all of these together prevents you from creating something that could, could, or should work. You'll see that it works.
You started a business without any experience in starting a business. Did having a successful side hustle help you build your confidence in and out of the classroom?
I majored in education, so I had no business or sales mindset. That's not my area. Jerome helped me understand SEO, marketing, and how to put myself in the consumer's shoes. That's why it's such a perfect balance.
But I had to overcome the mindset of, “What do I know? I'm not in the business.” I now feel more confident in my abilities and my desire to teach others.
I've helped eight friends and colleagues open their own stores on Teachers Pay Teachers. I have never charged them a fee and never will. I get excited when the people I coach experience success.
There are many people who have side hustles, but very few of them bring in a six-figure income per year. What do you think is the key to your success?
My husband always told me, “Wealth is found in niches.” He should find one area that he is really good at and hone in there.
For me, it wasn't just that [how to get kids to learn] Words of sight. There, we were thinking about hands-on activities and readily available tools to engage them. I dug deep into the idea, fleshed it out further, and dug deeper until I finally hit gold.
So it's not just a niche. It's about finding your niche within niches.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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