**Oregon teacher brings in six figures making digital worksheets for fellow educators**
Becky Powell is a 41-year-old kindergarten teacher in Beaverton, Oregon, who has found a lucrative side hustle making digital worksheets for other educators.
**A six-figure side hustle**
According to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It, Powell brought in $125,500 last year by making and selling these digital worksheets. She posts her worksheet booklets, designed to help teach literacy to young students, in her online store on Teachers Pay Teachers, which is an Etsy-style marketplace for educators.
**Finding her niche**
Powell currently has 427 different listings in her store, Sight Word Activities. When she first launched her side hustle in 2015, she earned enough to pay her monthly car insurance bill in just a matter of weeks. After three months, the extra income also covered her and her husband’s monthly student loan payments.
**Combining passion and market knowledge**
Powell credits her success to finding her niche in the market and using her passion for teaching children to sight-read to fill it. Her classroom experience helped her identify the gaps in learning and envision her store’s offerings.
**Investing in her side hustle**
Powell notes that it doesn’t take any money to get started, as there are free and paid tiers for sellers on Teachers Pay Teachers. She pays for the premium subscription, keeping 80% of her sales, and her husband also operates a Teachers Pay Teachers store, bringing in an additional $51,800 last year.
**Building confidence as a first-time entrepreneur**
Despite the lack of entrepreneurial experience, Powell’s success has helped her build confidence in and out of the classroom. She has even mentored friends and coworkers in opening their own stores on Teachers Pay Teachers, without charging them.
**Key to success: finding a niche within a niche**
Powell believes the key to her success is finding her niche within a niche. She emphasizes the importance of drilling down ideas and getting more specific until she found gold at the very bottom.
Becky Powell’s story is part of CNBC Make It’s Six-Figure Side Hustle series, highlighting individuals who have found success with lucrative side hustles alongside their full-time jobs.
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I have been featured in numerous publications, both online and offline, and am a regular speaker at industry events. I am also the founder of Crypto University, an online educational platform that helps people learn about cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. In addition to my writing and teaching career, I am also an active investor in the cryptocurrency space. I have made investments in some of the leading projects in the space, and my portfolio has outperformed the market by a wide margin