Online Business for Teachers | TPT | How to Make Extra Money, Work From Home, Digital Products

49: Can You Afford to Leave the Classroom? The Financial Reality Teachers Should Know

Thinking about leaving the classroom… but not sure if you’re financially ready?
In this episode, I’m sharing what I learned after leaving teaching and trying to figure out how to replace a full-time salary with business income.
This came up after a teacher friend (and mom of three) asked me how to actually make the transition. And I get it. When you have a family, especially young kids, the decision to leave teaching isn’t just emotional… it’s financial.
I thought I was prepared when I left.
My business was growing, I saw the numbers going up, and I assumed it would continue.
It didn’t.
So in this episode, I’m walking you through what I would do differently and what I think every teacher should think about before leaving the classroom.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
Why business income is not the same as a teaching salary
How to figure out where your money is actually going
A simple way to separate needs vs wants in your budget
Why I started paying myself based on my lowest income months
What to look at financially before you leave the classroom
Why giving yourself time to build your business matters
Who This Episode Is For
– Teachers thinking about leaving the classroom– Teacher moms trying to balance work and family– Teachers building a TPT or online business– Anyone wanting to replace their teaching salary with business income
Mentioned in This Episode
48: How I Manage the Money in My Teacher Business (Taxes, Profit & Paying Myself) (go back and listen if you haven’t yet)
If you’re brand new and need help getting your TPT store started, I have a free starter mini course. You can get it here:
Free TPT Starter Mini Course
And if you’re in that in-between stage and you’re trying to figure out your next move, you can book a strategy call with me and we’ll map it out together.
Book a Teacher Business Clarity Call
📧 Got questions or want to share your story? Email me at info@monica-lopez.com. I read every message and would love to hear from you.

48: How I Manage the Money in My Teacher Business (Taxes, Profit & Paying Myself)

In this episode, I’m walking you through exactly how I manage my business finances, not as an accountant, but as someone who has learned through experience.
I’m sharing what I did when I first started, what changed when my business started growing, and the simple systems I use now to stay organized.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
What I did when I made my first $500 in my business
The moment I realized I needed better financial systems
Why I opened an LLC and a business bank account
How I keep my business and personal finances separate
The simple spreadsheet system I use instead of QuickBooks
How I track income, expenses, and deductions each month
How I estimate and save for quarterly taxes (without surprises)
How I organize my money for:
taxes
business expenses
profit
owner’s pay
The difference between profit and paying yourself
Tools I Mentioned
I use a bookkeeping spreadsheet created specifically for TPT sellers.
It helps me:
track all income and expenses
calculate deductions
estimate quarterly taxes
You can check it out:
👉 Emily Bryant Bookkeeping
Remember:
The goal is to create a simple system that works for you
Even small changes like separating your accounts or tracking monthly can make a huge difference.
 
If you’re brand new and need help getting your TPT store started, I have a free starter mini course. You can get it here:
Free TPT Starter Mini Course
And if you’re in that in-between stage and you’re trying to figure out your next move, you can book a strategy call with me and we’ll map it out together.
Book a Teacher Business Clarity Call
📧 Got questions or want to share your story? Email me at info@monica-lopez.com. I read every message and would love to hear from you.

47: Why Most TPT Sellers Quit (And What Actually Grows a Teacher Business)

Many people start a TPT store or teacher business feeling excited about the possibilities. But after a while, some of them get discouraged when their store grows slower than they expected.
The beginning stage of a business requires a lot of time, energy, and learning. You’re figuring out how to create resources, how to design them, how to list them, and how to explain them so teachers understand how they can use them.
In this episode, I share the way I think about those early stages of business. I often describe it as the “baby stage” of a business. At the beginning, your business needs a lot from you before it can really start producing consistent results.
We also talk about a mistake I see many new sellers make — trying to build everything at once. Creating products, starting an email list, blogging, Pinterest, social media… all while their store only has a small number of resources in it.
Sometimes the most helpful thing you can do early on is simply focus on creating resources that genuinely help teachers and continue building your store.
If your teacher business feels slower than you hoped, this episode is meant to encourage you and help you understand what growth actually looks like in the early stages.
In this episode:
Why many teacher sellers stop working on their business
The early stage of a teacher business and why it feels hard
Why your store needs time and energy in the beginning
The mistake of trying to build everything at once
Why building a well-stocked store matters
If you’re currently building your teacher business or TPT store, this episode will help you understand why patience and consistency matter so much in the early stages.
If you’re brand new and need help getting your TPT store started, I have a free starter mini course. You can get it here:
Free TPT Starter Mini Course
And if you’re in that in-between stage and you’re trying to figure out your next move, you can book a strategy call with me and we’ll map it out together.
Book a Teacher Business Clarity Call
📧 Got questions or want to share your story? Email me at info@monica-lopez.com. I read every message and would love to hear from you.

46: Why My First Businesses Failed (But My TPT Store Finally Worked)

Have you ever wondered why some businesses work while others never really take off?
Before I started my TPT store and my teacher business, I actually tried several other business ideas. Looking back, I truly believe those businesses could have worked. But they didn’t… and the reason might surprise you.
In this episode, I’m reflecting on what finally made my teacher business work and how starting a Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) store helped me build the confidence I needed to grow something much bigger.
If you’re a teacher who has been thinking about starting a business, creating resources online, or building a TPT store, this episode will help you think about your next steps a little differently.
I also talk about some ideas I’ve been learning from Alex Hormozi about having a clear offer and a clear niche, and how those principles showed up in my business long before I even knew what they were.
You’ll hear the real story behind how my teacher business started and the three things I believe every successful teacher business needs.
In this episode, we talk about:
Why my first business ideas didn’t work
The fear of visibility that holds many teachers back from starting a business
How starting a TPT store helped me build confidence as a business owner
The importance of having a clear niche and a clear offer
Why niching down can help your teacher business grow faster
How to know if there is a real market for your resources or business idea
Why building a teacher business is a long game
Resources Mentioned
$100M Offers by Alex Hormozi
$100M Leads by Alex Hormozi
If you’re brand new and need help getting your TPT store started, I have a free starter mini course. You can get it here:
Free TPT Starter Mini Course
And if you’re in that in-between stage and you’re trying to figure out your next move, you can book a strategy call with me and we’ll map it out together.
Book a Teacher Business Clarity Call
📧 Got questions or want to share your story? Email me at info@monica-lopez.com. I read every message and would love to hear from you.

45: What I Learned After My TPT Sales Flatlined: Funnels, Traffic, and Facebook Ads

What I Learned After My TPT Sales Flatlined: Funnels, Traffic, and Facebook Ads
If you’ve ever looked at your TPT dashboard and wondered, “Why are my sales suddenly… not moving?”  this episode is for you.
For months, I blamed everything for my plateau: the algorithm, SEO, the saturated market, AI, promoting my membership, even the season. But the real reason my sales flatlined? It wasn’t any of those things. It was something much simpler  and something I didn’t even notice until I sat down and compared my numbers.
In this episode, I walk you through the exact moment I realized what changed, the product line that suddenly tanked, and how turning off one small part of my funnel impacted my entire business. I’m sharing what I found inside my TPT analytics, what happened when I stopped running Facebook ads, and why traffic matters way more than we think it does.
If you’re in a season where things feel slow, or you’re not sure why certain product lines aren’t performing anymore, this episode will help you look at your data in a totally different way.
What you’ll hear today:
Why my sales plateaued for several months
The assumptions I made (and why they were wrong)
The moment the data finally made it clear
How Facebook ads were quietly feeding my best-selling product line
What I’m testing next with a brand-new funnel
A reminder to go back and look at what actually changed in your business
If you’re brand new and need help getting your TPT store started, I have a free starter mini course. You can get it here:
Free TPT Starter Mini Course
And if you’re in that in-between stage and you’re trying to figure out your next move, you can book a strategy call with me and we’ll map it out together.
Book a Teacher Business Clarity Call
📧 Got questions or want to share your story? Email me at info@monica-lopez.com. I read every message and would love to hear from you.

44: The 4 Steps to Making Time for Your TPT Business When You Have No Time

If you’ve been staring at your TPT store, your ideas list, or that half-finished product thinking, “I just don’t have the time or the energy right now,” this episode is for you.
We’re in testing season.It’s the end of the year.And teachers everywhere are exhausted.
Today, I’m breaking down the 4 steps that helped me grow my TPT business while teaching full time, raising kids, and juggling all the real-life responsibilities we don’t get paid for. These steps are simple, realistic, and designed for the teacher who feels like they have zero time left in the day or zero brain cells left at night.
Inside the episode, we talk about:
How to organize your workday so you’re not giving all your energy to school.
How to protect your after-school time so you can rest and reset without guilt.
How to schedule focused business time (and what to do when you’re drained).
How to own your calendar so your goals and your rest both have space.
Mentioned in this episode: 
Episode 36: Why More Time Doesn't Make You More Productive
Leverage the time you already have with intention so you can build a TPT business that supports your life instead of draining you.
If you’ve been feeling behind, stuck, overwhelmed, or just too tired to even think about TPT right now… this episode will help you take a breath, get grounded, and see a clear path forward.
Book a Free Teacher Business Clarity Call
If you’re ready to grow your TPT business but don’t know where to start, I offer free consult calls to help you get clarity on your goals and your next steps.
📧 Got questions or want to share your story?
Email me anytime at info@monica-lopez.com. I read every message and I’d love to hear from you.

43: How to Grow Your TPT Store: Course, Coaching, or Just Execute?

Have you ever wondered if you actually need another course… or if you just need to get to work?
In today’s episode, I’m talking about investing back into your TPT business and how to decide whether you need:
• A course• A coach• Or just more execution
I break down the different stages of business growth and what kind of help makes sense at each one.
Because not every season requires spending money.And not every plateau means you’re missing some secret strategy.
Sometimes you need to learn a new skill.Sometimes you need clarity and direction.And sometimes… you already know what to do and you’re just hesitating.
If you’re in that messy middle where not brand new, but not scaling yet either, this episode is especially for you.
We’ll talk about:
The difference between a skills gap and a strategy gap
Why over-learning can actually slow you down
When coaching makes sense
And how to figure out what stage you’re really in
If you’ve been asking yourself:“Am I missing something?”“Why isn’t this growing faster?”“Do I need to invest again?”
This will help you sort that out.

42: How to Make TPT Work for You, Not the Other Way Around

If you’ve ever felt like you’re working hard on TPT but not getting the results you want, this episode will show you how to flip that dynamic. TPT is one of the smartest, lowest-risk business platforms available to teachers, but only when you know how to make it work for you strategically, instead of feeling like you’re endlessly creating without moving forward.
Today, I’m walking you through the exact mindset shifts and strategic decisions that helped me go from scared to charge $2 to confidently building multiple income streams. You’ll learn why TPT is more than a marketplace, how it quietly trains you to think like an entrepreneur, and how to identify when you’ve outgrown your old strategies and need a new level, a new plan, and a new mindset.
Inside the episode, we’ll cover:
Why TPT is still the smartest place for teachers to grow an online income
How to leverage the platform at any stage of business
The “mindset layers” every seller must peel back to grow
When to update your strategy so you don’t stay stuck
How TPT sets the foundation for memberships, courses, coaching, and more
What’s possible when you strengthen or expand your income streams
Four powerful questions to help you identify your next level
Whether you’re earning two figures or four, this episode will help you step back, reassess, and finally use TPT in a way that supports your goals instead of draining your energy.
Want clarity on your next step?If you’re ready to stop guessing and start moving forward with a clear plan, schedule a free consult call with me. We’ll walk through where you are, where you want to go, and the exact strategy that will get you there faster and with less stress.
Resources & Links:👉 Schedule a free consult call with Monica

41: What to Sell on TPT: The 4 Steps Every New Seller Should Start With

🎙️ What to Sell on TPT: The 4 Steps Every New Seller Should Start With
If you’ve ever opened your computer and thought, “Okay… but what do I even make for TPT?”  This episode will help you finally get clear.
Today I’m walking you through four simple steps to figure out what to sell on TPT, without chasing trends or guessing what teachers want. These steps work whether you’re brand new or you’ve been selling for a while and need a reset.
In this episode, I break down:
✔️ Step 1: How to look through your own files to find product ideas that actually workBecause your best ideas are the things that already helped your students.
✔️ Step 2: How to polish those activities so they’re ready to list on TPTCovers, thumbnails, clipart, and making them look clean and usable.
✔️ Step 3: Why publishing quickly matters more than getting it “perfect”You can’t learn anything until it’s up and running.
✔️ Step 4: Why you should leave your product alone (and stop checking the data every day)This one saves so much stress.
If you’ve been wanting to start your store but you never feel “ready,” this episode will give you a clear place to begin.
Wanna start the right way?
If you want help making your TPT storefront look clean and professional from day one, check out my TPT Store Starter Kit Mini Course. It’s six short videos on:
Your logo and brand elements
Covers, thumbnails, and previews
Setting up your store visuals in Canva or PowerPoint
Making your storefront something you’re actually proud of
If you have questions or want to share your progress, email me anytime at info@monica-lopez.com. I love hearing from you.

40: Should You Sell on Your Website? The Real Pros, Cons, and TPT vs. Your Own Store

Are you wondering whether you should sell your teacher resources on your website or if it’s just one more thing everyone says you “should” do?You’re not alone. This is one of the most common questions teacher-sellers ask when they start taking their business seriously.
In today’s episode, we’re breaking down everything you need to know so you can make the right decision for YOUR stage of business.By the end, you’ll know whether selling on your website is worth it, what it actually takes to make it profitable, and how to avoid wasting time or money in the process.
We cover:
Why so many teacher-sellers want their own website
Shopify vs. Squarespace vs. WordPress (and what I chose)
The truth about uploading your entire product catalog
How long it really takes to see sales
What you must have in place BEFORE you open a store
Website pros, cons, and deal-breakers
When a website becomes more profitable than TPT
Whether you should add a TPT “buy” button on your product pages
Why email list + trust = the secret to website sales
The long-term payoff most teachers never talk about
If you’ve been confused, overwhelmed, or unsure whether you’re “ready” to add a store to your website, this episode will give you the clarity you’ve been needing.
If you’re not sure whether you’re ready—or you need help figuring out the next right step in your business, I offer 1:1 coaching to help you grow with clarity and confidence.
I support teachers with:
TPT store strategy
Website setup + offers
Messaging + positioning
Mindset and overthinking
Anything your teacher brain is stuck on
If you’re craving real progress with way less overwhelm, book your coaching call:yourteacherbiz.com/coaching
Links & Resources Mentioned
Squarespace (my website platform)
Shopify (another popular website option)
Emily Bryant, CPA for TPT sellers
My 1:1 Coaching: yourteacherbiz.com/coaching