10 Ways to Earn Money Fast

By Joe Waynick
May 7, 2017

I get a lot of questions from new booksellers asking me if I have any ideas about how they can earn money fast to use as start-up capital for a bookselling business and begin making money selling online.

It’s a common problem among those of modest or limited means. Therefore, I decided to continue writing this series of articles and list as many viable ways that I know for raising money to start your business on a shoestring.

I emphasized the word “viable” because so much information found on the Internet on this topic is completely useless. Unfortunately, before you can leverage any of the top home-based business ideas, or any other money making strategy, you need a grub stake to get started.

That’s why this article contains my top 10 ways to raise $100 that I’ve actually used myself and can vouch that they definitely work.

My Top Ten List

Below you’ll find 10 ways that I’ve personally used to raise small amounts of capital. By putting one or more of these ideas into action it won’t take long before you’ll have the extra cash you need to get your business off the ground.

1. Borrow from Family Members
2. Use Your Credit Card
3. Become a Day Laborer
4. Become an Uber or Lyft Driver
5. Post Gigs on Fiverr
6. Hold a Garage Sale
7. Recycle
8. Donate Plasma
9. Become a Painter
10. Penny Pinch for a Month

I’ve used every one of these techniques to earn from $100 to $2,500 in a single month. I know they work and they can work for you too.

Some of the best ideas I know to earn money fast are now at your fingertips. The extra cash you need to start your business is just two or three weeks away. Don’t let a lack of start-up capital stop you from living your dream!

1. Borrow from Family Members

In my previous books I’ve always railed against borrowing money from friends and family. However, since the amount of money we’re discussing here is relatively small, I think it’s much easier to digest.

If you have a family member willing to cough up $300 and you use one or more of the other techniques in this article for the other $300, in less than a month you’ll have $600 and can get your business off to a flying start.

Should you decide that bookselling isn’t for you, then you only have $300 to repay — and you should absolutely repay it! Don’t risk your family relationships over a measly $300.

2. Use Your Credit Card

Looking for extra cash that you can access today? An obvious source of capital is using your credit card to finance your business. Don’t have one of those? Then apply for one.

Banks love to give credit cards to consumers. If you can score a Visa or Mastercard with more than a $600 credit line (usually banks give at least $1,000), then you’re off to the races. There are smart ways to use credit cards to increase your wealth.

Take the entire $600 and purchase 300 books within 30 days and you’ll be golden because the payments for the charges will be negligible.

Again, should you decide not to continue in the business then you don’t have a huge sum of money to repay.

In fact, whatever books you purchased will earn money fast and pay off the $600 you charged in very short order.

3. Become A Day Laborer

You can make cash today by becoming a day laborer. Just visit one of the many day labor employment offices in your city or town and tell them you want to work.

You’ll fill out a bunch of paperwork, get a background check and take a drug screening. Once everything comes back clean you’re good to go. Having a criminal record doesn’t necessarily disqualify you, but your opportunities for employment will be somewhat restricted.

The same is true for drug screening. If you smoke pot, many companies won’t hire you. If you do anything harder than that, the employment agency probably won’t even take you on as an employee. Do yourself a favor and stay away from controlled substances.

But the good news is, once you start getting assignments you get paid at the end of every day. If you’re pulling in $10 an hour that’s $80 a day less taxes, so you’ll probably net about $65-$70 per day.

4. Become an Uber or Lyft Driver

This is a fun one. I kept hearing stories about Uber and Lyft drivers earning as much as $1,500 per week. It seemed like the perfect way to earn money fast. So I just had to try it.

Let me start off by saying that during my two-month-long experiment I never made $1,500 a week. The most I made was $600, but I put a ton of miles on my car and shelled out a lot of money for gas.

If you live in one of the more expensive cities, the per mile rate is higher. And if you really hustle, I can see you earning as much as $1,000 a week. But you’re going to do some serious hustling and driving some serious miles.

And sure, you drive a lot of miles as a book scout as well. But you’ll drive more when you rideshare.

However, you do have the option as a driver to sit in one spot and wait for fares, but you’ll limit your income with that strategy.

As a long-term proposition, you can make money with Uber or Lyft, but be aware of the beating your automobile is going to take.

But if all you want is a quick $600 to $1,000 to start a bookselling business then ridesharing is as good a method as any to get the capital you need. As of this writing, Uber even offers daily payouts.

5. Post Gigs on Fiverr

The website Fiverr.com is a clearinghouse for budding entrepreneurs willing to sell their skills for half a sawbuck. I gave this one a whirl when I planted myself in Las Vegas for a spell.

I tried the site for about three months, then moved on to something else. I did several things to attract business like write website content, editing, ghost writing, etc. The most I ever made in one month was $600. But man, did I sweat for it.

Just before I wrote this suggestion, I visited their site again, and saw that they now give vendors far more flexibility in pricing their wares than what was available when I tried it.

This makes the Fiverr concept a more viable method to earn money fast with Fiverr, but you can expect a fairly long lead time before you get your first check.

6. Hold a Garage Sale

Everybody has stuff laying around the house they no longer use. Good stuff and not so good stuff. Either way, chances are someone wants your stuff. Why not sell it to them by holding a garage sale?

It takes a little bit of effort, but not much money to pull off a sale. When I was a young man in my 20s, I went through a very tough time financially. To make ends meet I started holding garage sales every weekend.

I used to go out to storage unit auctions and neighborhood garage sales to pick up merchandise on the cheap and resell at my own sale.

It wasn’t unusual for me to clear $200 every Saturday morning. That extra cash sure did come in handy. You can probably raise a couple hundred bucks this coming weekend with stuff you own right now.

7. Recycle to Earn Money Fast

This is something you can do as you go about your day. I don’t care where you go, there’re always discards laying around that can be recycled. This includes glass, aluminum cans and newspapers.

Collecting glass can be particularly lucrative if you live in a state that requires a bottle deposit. The deposit can be as much as $.10 per container. All you do is find them, store them, then drop them off once a week. You’re paid immediately.

Aluminum cans is another easy one. Whether you live in a deposit state or not, you can get as much as $1.10 per pound for aluminum cans.

Not too shabby when you consider that it only takes 32 cans to make a pound. I did this extensively as a kid and raked in as much as $85 a month. That was serious money when I was 12 years old.

If you’re looking for a quick $100, you can easily do that in a couple of weeks. Just get into the habit of picking up cans wherever you go and accumulate them over time as an ongoing source of cash. You’ll earn money fast before you even realize it.

I recommend that you buy an inexpensive aluminum can crusher on Amazon.com and stick it in your garage. When you find cans, crash them and store them in a large black trash bag that seals. It’ll hold an awful lot of cans.

8. Donate Plasma

You can score some really fast cash by taking a trip to your local plasma donation center. For the first five or six donations you’re paid $40-$60 per visit. After that it drops to $25-$35 per visit.

You can donate as often as twice weekly, therefore, in one week you can easily score $80 to $100. Do it for three weeks straight and you can score up to $300 cash, or more.

If you’re seriously short on cash and you’re not terrified of needles then this idea is a no-brainer. You can actually start to earn extra cash in 72 hours or less!

Just so that I could honestly say I know it works, I found the local plasma center in my town and donated for two weeks, (a total of four trips), and I scored $200. It’s one of the best ideas to make extra money in the shortest time possible.

9. Become a Painter

Another great gig that I did in my youth is becoming a handyman. Specifically, I liked to paint home interiors. I shopped myself around to several real estate brokers because they’re always looking for people who can do rental property repairs.

I started out as a general handyman, but soon discovered there were certain jobs that I hated doing, (like plumbing), and there were jobs that I didn’t know how to do, like certain kinds of landscaping.

But I could paint like a madman. I had my own equipment, and the agency usually popped for paint in advance.

I even hired a couple of guys from school to help me and we would paint a room in just a couple of hours. I charged the realtor a pretty penny, paid my workers a fair, but modest wage, and pocketed some serious change.

Find out what the going rates are in your neighborhood. Painting just one or two rooms can land you all the cash you need to buy inventory and sell books for cash online. Heck, you may even decide to go into the painting business full-time!

10. Penny Pinch for a Month

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of ways to save money each month. As a matter of fact, I think I’ll write an entire article on this one idea alone. But for now, I’m going to mention a couple of the best ones I’ve successfully used myself.

And remember, saving money is just another way to make money at home fast, without having to hustle.

For the big money saver, start by cancelling your cable TV. “What!” You exclaim. “Cancel my cable TV?!”

Trust me, you won’t die. In fact, you’ll probably flourish without the distraction of that mind polluting technological terror that has plagued society all these generations.

Get rid of the boob tube on a permanent basis and save yourself upwards of $100 every single month! You earn money fast by simply not spending it in the first place.

My second big idea is for smokers, (yes dear readers, once upon a time I was a dreaded smoker). If you have a pack a day habit and cigarettes cost five dollars per pack, you can save $35 a week or $150 by kicking the habit for just 30 days.

Make your lifestyle change permanent and your savings become permanent as well, plus you may even get the benefit of a longer life.

Good hunting!

Joe Waynick is author of several eCommerce books covering the bookselling and publishing industry. His books are available on Amazon.com.You can also follow him on Twitter @JoeWaynick.

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