If you have considered selling on TPT for extra income, a few other questions might quickly come to mind. The questions are buried deep down in the souls of side hustlers everywhere…is it worth it? Will this work? Should I be spending all this time on this? How long before I even know? When should I give up? Wouldn’t you just love to know the answers before spending hours on your product, clicking cluelessly through your email marketing, fumbling with product photography, and all the other things you have to learn when taking on a side hustle?
Let me give you my answer to those questions as I trudge through the ‘origin story’ you will one day hear me sharing as a millionaire side-hustling teacher…okay, I don’t need millions.
🤝Nice to Meet You
If you’re still here, you might want to know who I am before hearing anything I have to say. I’m Sarah, and I’d love for you to come with me as a virtual fly on the wall of my living room office. If this sounds fun, subscribe to my email list. I share much juicier details in that more intimate space. You’ll also get notified each time a new mockup debuts.
Watch what I do below.
Is Selling on TPT Worth It?
My short answer is yes, but it might not be financially ‘worth it’ at first. I guess it depends on how you define the phrase ‘worth it.’ I will share more about the first-year financials later, so be sure to stick around for that, but let me explain why it is worth it even if I didn’t make any money. This side hustle has taken hours and hours of my time, but I regret nothing about giving it a try. I have had this itch to try it out for a while now. I have been experimenting with a side hustle since 2020 when the circumstances forced me to teach 100% online. At that time, I learned I am more tech-savvy than I thought!
Read more about how Make A Scene Mockups came to be.
So, yes, TPT has been worth it to me. I define ‘worth it’ as giving me something in return for all my work. And even though I don’t make enough to retire right now, pursuing something outside of teaching, mothering, and wife-ing has done wonders for my self-confidence, stress levels, and overall happiness. When I decided to pull the trigger, start a store, and go ‘all in,’ I was in the middle of a professional slump. It was 2022, and I had worked through three of the most challenging years in my teaching career, and if you do the math, you’ll note – those started before 2020. If I’m being honest, my entire career up until now has been a bit slumpy, but those more intimate details I only trust with my email list-eners (they ‘listen’ from my email list..get it?)
And that’s the short answer. It has been very much worth it to me, even if I made zero dollars. I’ve been hitting it hard for a year now (except for last Fall because I got a little stuck in discouragement), but I have still enjoyed this 2 million, ¼ inch piece jigsaw puzzle called ‘Selling on TPT.’ I have spent almost 15 years focused on all the problems in my classroom and the school system in general. There are so many frustrating things I can’t change about my day job, but I am happy to have found something that takes my mind off those problems and onto new ones. TPT gives me something else to figure out and problem-solve.
We really want to know, ‘How much do you make selling on tpt?’
I won’t share numbers here on the internet with strangers (you have to get on my email list for all the juicy details, of course 😉). But I will say this: I didn’t make what I wanted to make my first year, but I did make what I expected. As I’m sure you’ve heard, as I have, it takes some time to have consistent, significant sales. It takes the right amount of unspecified time doing the right amount of unspecified things…and those things aren’t easily spelled out for you, because each niche, product, and business is different.
There are so many factors contributing to your success. You need a good product, eyes on your product, and those products have to look and sound good when those eyes reach it. I’m probably leaving ALOT out in that process, but that’s what I’ve learned this year.
Tips for selling on tpt from the ‘first-year hustler’
I want to be clear here – I am coming to you as the hope…not the how. There are many awesome people out there that will give you the how. I want to provide a fun, honest place to share my experiences in teacherprenuership. But here are my top tips (for what they are worth) if you are considering a teacher side hustle.
Tips for selling on TPT #1 –
Get clear on what you want. This applies to your business just like it does your classroom management. If you don’t know how you want your kids to walk down the hall, you are not likely to experience success taking your class down the hall. You haven’t even defined a successful trip down the hall. You will constantly look at your line, asking yourself, “Am I okay with that?” And before you know it, it will be complete chaos because kids can smell indecision and they prey on it. Get clear on what you want not only for your class but for your business. And that might take a few tries, but just keep lining back up and trying again.
Tip #2 –
Find someone more knowledgeable than you to learn from. There are so many people out there. Do some research, ask around, find someone you trust, and jump into their information with both feet.
Tip #3 –
Do most of what they say, but trust yourself. They know more than you, so you should listen and seriously consider and appreciate their advice and knowledge. But when it comes down to it, this is your business. This is a good time to fine-tune your ‘gut instincts’ if you haven’t already.
Tip #4 –
Just do 20 minutes. Get up every day and do 20 minutes of work. When you think about your big projects like that, you’ll eventually get something done and be motivated by that, and experience some traction. You can do anything for 20 minutes, and that’s better than nothing. I say this a lot about working out. I can do it for just 20 minutes….often I end up doing more, but I am only obligated to 20 minutes.
Best of luck, my side-hustling friends! If you want to watch someone fail their way to the top, join the ‘list’-eners by subscribe to my email list. Click here to subscribe to my email list, where I’ll share teacher side hustle failures, successes, and encouragement….you’ll even get notified when I list my new mockup designs at 20% off!