While it’s possible to earn a comfortable living as an educator, it’s also true that many educators are grossly underpaid. The good news is that it’s possible for entrepreneurial educators to boost their earning potential significantly. Let’s take a look at some of the things teachers and other educators can do to earn more money.
1. Make an Upfront Investment in Pursuing Additional Education
In most occupations, education is a critical key to boosting earnings — and this is certainly the case in the education sector. Gaining more education is one of the most straightforward ways for educators to earn more money.
If you’re already working as a teacher’s aid in the USA or an education aide in Australia, the obvious first step to higher earning potential is to earn your bachelor’s degree. If you already hold a bachelor’s degree, the next step is to go for a master’s degree or Ph.D. Analysts at the National Center for Education Statistics have estimated that public school teachers in the United States can increase their earnings by 11.3 percent after earning a master’s degree; private school teachers typically enjoy an estimated 8.2 percent increase in earnings after obtaining a master’s degree.
In Australia, Payscale.com reports the average salary for individuals with a Bachelor of Education degree at $72,000 AU per year; in contrast, the average salary for individuals holding a Master of Education is significantly higher, at $88,000 AU per year. Those who hold a Doctor of Philosophy in Education (Ph.D.) enjoy even higher earnings, with the average being $132,000 AU per year.
The obvious conclusion is that you can maximize your earning potential as a teacher if you also maximize your academic credentials. If you want to just teach, without starting a side business, that’s the most direct approach to increasing your earnings. However, there’s a sizable amount you could earn if you want to start a side business that makes use of the skills you’ve cultivated as a teacher.
Related: The Impact of Classroom Furniture on Student Engagement and Academic Performance
2. Become a Social Media Influencer
Buzzfeednews reports that one entrepreneurial third-grade teacher in Texas is earning $50,000 per year as a teacher, and an additional $200,000 per year as a teacher influencer. While her side business income is better than is typical, there are many other teachers who are also earning varying amounts of additional income as “teacher influencers”.
How are they doing it?
There are several keys:
- They take advantage of platforms such as teacherspayteachers.com to make their lesson plans, educational worksheets, and other classroom materials available for sale to other educators, homeschooling parents, and the public.
- They raise awareness for their work by using their personal blogs plus online platforms like Instagram, Quora, Medium, Twitter, and Youtube.
- Well-known brands like Scholastic and Michael’s have been known to pay for sponsored content from teacher influencers. When opportunities arise to create sponsored content for big brands like these, they do so.
If you have a computer, an internet connection, a camera, and the motivation to spend some of your free time uploading your classroom materials and creating social media accounts, becoming a social media influencer could possibly increase your earning potential significantly.
3. Offer Online Courses in Your Subjects of Expertise
If you’re already employed as an educator, you’re no doubt aware that there’s public demand for the courses you’re teaching. You could offer an online version of each course online – or you could teach other subjects you’re knowledgeable about, even if they aren’t related to your current teaching job. There are numerous platforms available that can facilitate this, or you could bypass other platforms and simply offer courses through your own website. See our guides for additional information:
- How to properly create and publish an online course
- Here’s how much money you can make selling online courses
- Learn how to increase attendance at your online courses
Of course, these aren’t the only entrepreneurial ways you could be earning more money as an educator. Teachers have historically written books, tutored students, and started summer camps as other means of boosting their incomes; these are also options that could work for you. If you think creatively about how to expand your reach to share your knowledge with more people, economic rewards are likely to follow.
