Side Hustles for Educators — Dr. Luke Hobson

In early December, LinkedIn news published an article that started with, “Who has enough time for a side hustle?” The article was referring to remote employees being more likely to have a part-time job as compared to hybrid and on-site workers. According to LinkedIn, 31% of U.S. employees are balancing a side hustle with their full-time work. When scrolling through the comments though, many folks chimed in saying that being remote has nothing to do with it and it’s all about flexibility in a schedule. For many people, they mentioned about having part-time work on nights and weekends while others saying that they just found a way to make things fit in with their daily tasks.

For some, seeing 31% might be on the high side. But in my educational network, I’ve surrounded myself with people who work beyond their typical 9-5 and I thought this number was actually on the low side. So, I put it to the test. I asked you in my network, “Do you have a side hustle?” 578 of you voted and 56% said yes. By scrolling through the votes, you would see titles such as instructional designer, teacher, professor, learning experience designer, e-learning designer, and more. It’s safe to say that for those of us in the educational space, we want or need a second income.

I don’t talk that much about finances on this podcast as it’s a show about teaching, learning, and design, but it’s an area I’m extremely passionate about. As someone with 3 degrees and who naively took out student loans for most of my academic journey, I’m going to be paying these things back for now until forever. Simply put, a 9-5 will never cut it and rather than waiting for the government to do something about the trillion-dollar problem, which that is a rant for another day, I decided I’ll just work more. With every new part-time role though, I learned something along the way. It doesn’t make sense at all to rely on one income. Layoffs happen, people change, jobs shift, bosses come and go, etc. There are many reasons for why a role isn’t a permanent thing. If the worst thing happened and the 9-5 went away, what’s the backup plan? This really hit home when my alma mater had layoffs and I never in my wildest dreams that this would ever happen.

The forgotten part of this whole work harder mentality is that for many folks, myself included, side hustles bring a tremendous amount of joy and fulfillment. Don’t get me wrong. I love my fulltime role, but my true passion is teaching. It’s why I’ve been teaching courses since 2014. I fell in love with it and truly had a new sense of purpose when teaching students about instructional design. It made my worlds come together in a whole new way and I wouldn’t give this up for anything.

I saw many of your comments on the poll saying that you want a side hustle, but don’t know where to start or what to even do. Now is a good time to say too that I really don’t like that wording. It feels so bro-ish and discounts the value and joy a second position can bring. Just know that when I do say side hustle, it does mean another opportunity, part-time role, source of income, etc. Anyway, let’s say you work in education, and you want to start a side hustle. What are your options? I’ve seen folks take a few different approaches with this so, let’s go over a few options:

Adjunct Positions

When I worked at SNHU several years ago, almost every single person I knew that worked there also taught as an adjunct. It’s a great source for a second income and once again, teaching is so fulfilling. Being able to learn online and with asynchronous courses provides flexibility for the students, but also, it provides a tremendous amount of flexibility for the instructors. I found that when I started teaching, it was easy to fit these courses into my schedule with nights and weekends.

The other bonus with this type of opportunity is that it’s recurring. I’m assuming if you do find the right position for you, this will be available for you several times a year. When I taught at SNHU, the courses were offered 6 times a year, meaning, I always had a second role. Some adjunct positions are offered in a more semester-based model. One of my close friends teaches at multiple universities to ensure that he always has a second steady income.

Presentations and Workshops

If you have expertise in a specific area or field, you can market your services for presentations and workshops. There are always professional development opportunities out there, you just need to search them out. I’ll often see on LinkedIn posts from those saying that they are looking for speakers and are requesting proposals or contact information. Many organizations are still hosting these via Zoom, which provides more possibilities and flexibility. If you are considering this path, I’d highly suggest to listen to my episode with Dr. Tom Tobin as we discussed alternative academic careers.

Consulting and Client Work

This one is bit unique in nature. I’m always shocked when I hear from folks that their backup plan is to do consulting when they’ve never been hired as a consultant before. It’s more difficult than I think most people realize. The same can be said when it comes to finding clients who want your services. Yes, there are plenty of opportunities for client work, but how many of those are quality leads? You want to find the right organizations who will compensate you fairly for your time. Some of my friends have experienced true nightmare situations with clients and it becomes incredibly messy. If you want to go down this road, you need to think critically about these opportunities. You can check out my episode with Christy Tucker as we discussed what to know about free-lance work.

If you want to know where to find clients, it’s through networking. That’s the real answer. Yes, there are websites where you can bid on gigs like Fiverr and others, but for all my friends who are free-lancers, there opportunities all come from their networks. Which is a reminder for you to make some new connections today!

Digital Courses and Coaching

It feels like we are in a new era of Edupreneurs. These are educators who market their expertise through digital products and services. I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see how many of these folks enroll in Instructional Design Institute because they want to know how to create the best courses to sell to their target audience. It’s easier than ever to create online courses through entrepreneur friendly websites like Kajabi, Teachable, Thinkific, etc. or to just set up a coaching page via Calendly and Stripe. I’ve even seen some folks do this in a super simplistic yet effective way that gets the job done like with Jason Gulya and his AI services. The technology is there to help you setup a new gig quickly.

The massive factor with this though, and specifically on digital courses, is that I beg you to be realistic. There are many people out there who promise the ability to quit your job and to take this on full-time and that it’s some sort of magical dream. For all that is holy, please don’t do this. It’s a disaster waiting to happen if you have this type of mentality. It takes a ridiculous amount of time to build up your brand, trust, credibility, and so on. None of this is some overnight fix. There are many, many, many other factors to consider when selling digital products that I don’t have time to cover in one episode. But that’s my PSA for you on this matter. I have many friends in this space, and I think I’ll bring some of them on the show to better inform you about how to appropriately start up this venture.

P.S. Don’t forget to check out Dr. Nicole’s new course: Making Online Content Accessible for All!

And that folks are a few ways that educators are starting side hustles today. Are you doing something else? Feel free to share what you’re up to!

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