8 Great Business Ideas for Educators

Educators sometimes face the dilemma of not being able to find a teaching position, or they may want to get out of the classroom. Many want to set up a business to earn money during the summer or supplement their income. Then there’s the opportunity presented by the growing education technology sector and the growing home-schooling market. The hard part is leveraging your skills as a teacher to begin a related business.
However, the good news is that the world will always have a need for good educators, and education-related solutions, products, and services. Here are 8 great business ideas for educators.

Take Advantage of EdTech

Edtech is the use of both software, educational theoretic, and physical hardware to improve performance and facilitate learning by using, managing, and creating appropriate resources and processes. The Edtech market is thought to be worth £45 billion globally.
However, know that you don’t have to create an educational app to get in the field, though that may be an opportunity. The language learning market alone, for instance, is huge. You could access this market yourself in a variety of ways, and the sector has a relatively low barrier to entry.
You could do something as simple as posting educational videos on specific subjects. This could allow you to earn a steady stream of advertising revenue from social media sites. Or you could post lessons and lesson plans for sale to other teachers. A third strategy is creating content for existing EdTech sites, whether you’re writing scripts for their presenters or recording a lesson for them.
Another approach is supporting educational technology tools. You might test citation generation software or run through a lesson plan to make sure the system works correctly before it is turned on. You may be able to find work in tech support or tutoring students who are struggling with the educational tools.

Support Writers

There are many ways that you can earn money by supporting other writers. One is to offer writing lessons to aspiring writers in different fields. You could charge a higher rate to adults who need to improve their technical writing or business communications. Another option is to edit the articles and books others have written. This is a great way to earn income if you’re an English teacher.
You could also work with young students who need to improve their writing skills. You could even tutor secondary school students who need to polish their essay writing before they head off to university. Writing is one of the most valuable skills for any career, and parents will be ready to pay to make sure that their child skills have every advantage, so this is a field where you can expect to see a lot of demand.
While there are websites that can point out errors in spelling or grammar, these tools cannot help someone refine their arguments or determine the best resources to cite in a school paper. So, know that you don’t risk getting replaced by AI anytime soon and you should enjoy a steady stream of clients.

Help Preschool Children

Society is starting to appreciate the amount of learning that occurs before children walk through the school door. This is why we’re seeing a number of apps and services aimed at preschool children.
There is a growing list of apps intended to teach everything from pre-literacy to numeracy to social skills. And parents are often willing to spend quite a bit of money to keep kids entertained if they’re learning, too. Educational bedtime stories are a selling point for parents who want to get more out of their bedtime routine.
Another option is designing or selling educational toys. This requires a lot of research, but there’s an incredibly large market as well. This could be anything from a new game to teach a specific academic subject to meeting the needs of under-served special needs students. Or you could simply help sell existing educational toys. You don’t have to work in a toy store; you could sell the toys directly to nurseries and schools, or find products that speech therapists and occupational therapists will want to use with their patients.
Another thing you could also do is review different educational toys through a blog on YouTube. You could give your opinions on different toys and tools and whether they can actually help children. You’ll also be able to recommend certain tools for certain needs, and even get an endorsement from those you believe in.

Become a Tutor

This is a classic business opportunity for teachers. However, the internet and a variety of apps are disrupting the traditional tutoring market.
For example, there are now websites that connect students with potential tutors around the world. They also often hold their lessons online. This saves students and tutors time and eliminates travel costs. On top of this, there are tools to help tutors plan their lessons, schedule lessons and manage their finances.
The only thing that’s required to become a tutor is having the knowledge others want to learn. The internet makes it easier to find potential students around the world. This has the side benefit of making it easier to tutor on the side, no matter when you have the time. You could teach kids on the other side of the world in the hour or two you have before you go to work, or tutor kids online after your own children go to bed.

Move into Educational Leadership

If you’re tired of the drama in the classroom, you could earn the necessary credentials to move into administration. You might consider getting a master's in education so that you have the skills required to manage other teachers. Then you’re equally prepared to work as a school principal or head of a tutoring centre. If you need more information on which types of credentials you’ll need, Exeter has a piece on the benefits of getting a master's degree in education. You could also become the head of a preschool or oversee an adult education program. You may even want to head an employee training program in a large corporation.

Assist Future College Students

We’ve already brought up how many future college students need to improve their essay writing skills. Many of them need assistance applying for college, too. You could help them determine the right schools to apply for, get their paperwork in order, and navigate the application process. You could mentor them as they transition to university life and give guidance on how to manage their time and choose classes. Or, you could help them navigate scholarship and funding options open to them.

Support Home Schooling Students

The high cost of private school is causing many to consider home-schooling instead. We can also expect more families to move to home-schooling so that they can keep their children close to home and prevent interruptions.
Home-schooling families may use books or access their curriculum online, but they will usually need more assistance. Most are already relying on tutors to teach subjects they aren’t qualified to teach themselves. Home schooling presents a unique opportunity for teachers who want to become entrepreneurs.
Home-schooling coops teach groups of students together the subjects that are hard for parents to cover. For example, a common home-schooling coop plan would include science, physical education, language and music lessons taught to the entire group.
This is an amazing opportunity for tutors; you get a set schedule, and you can charge more because you’re teaching an entire group of children. Furthermore, many of these families will hire you to teach additional lessons to their children. Home-schooling students often visit libraries, museums and other events together. This creates the opportunity to get paid to give the entire group science lessons, whether it is in meteorology, chemistry or archaeology. Or, you could help parents determine which home-schooling curriculum is right for their children.
Depending on your skillset, you could give home-schooled children independent academic assessments. Their parents will then know where they need to invest more time and ensure that their children do not fall behind.

Teach Your Hobby

If you’re already a teacher, you may be able to earn a living by teaching others about your hobby. It might be knitting, medieval history, martial arts, cooking or fishing. The key here is to find something you love that others will pay to learn more about. One benefit of this approach is that you get paid for doing something you love.
The challenge is finding a steady stream of paying students. Note that you can take the online content route, posting how-to videos related to your hobby. You could be paid to create this content for publishers or publish it yourself and earn ad revenue. Another option is offering content to subscription services. This could take the form of sewing patterns you upload and others pay to download, or you could simply share recipes with subscription services that pay you for it.
Educators have long worked as tutors or childcare providers. However, there are many new ways they can monetise their talents. Make sure that you look at all these options in detail, and go for those that are better aligned with your career goals and plans.