Eight years ago, kindergarten teacher Becky Powell was growing restless on maternity leave.
A friend suggested she use her son’s naptime to make some extra cash, and pointed her toward an educational resource platform called Teachers Pay Teachers. There, Powell started making worksheets for her fellow teachers to buy and download, working largely from her couch or “kitchen table,” she says.
Teachers Pay Teachers is an Etsy-style marketplace for educational worksheets, activities and lesson plans across just about every grade level and subject matter. Powell’s store, called Sight Word Activities, specializes in teaching literacy to kindergarteners, first-graders and other young students.
At first, revenue was slow. But within a couple of weeks, Powell started earning enough to cover small bills around the house. After four months, she made enough to pay off her and her husband’s monthly student loan payments.
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Over the years, the 10-hour-per-week gig became a six-figure hustle that Powell and her husband Jerome run together. Last year, Powell’s Teachers Pay Teachers store brought in $125,500, or just over $10,400 per month, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.
Her husband, a full-time computer engineer, manages another store on the platform called Editable Activities that brings in roughly $50,000 per year.
“I have worksheets that I created eight years ago that still yield thousands [of dollars] in passive income every year,” says Powell, 41, who lives in Beaverton, Oregon. “Even when I find myself not able to create … the sales still come in.”
Here’s how Powell and her husband grew their side hustle, and what they’re able to do with their extra cash.
Turning classroom materials into Disneyland trips
Powell’s classroom is the perfect lab for her small business, she says. She can identify what concepts students struggle…
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