Yesterday on our facebook page, a guy named Jose Garza Paz gave me a good idea on what to talk about regarding an interesting topic.  He said “If Frank woke up tomorrow, and was poor, what would Frank do to survive? Sell food? How? Offer services? Which ones?”  I would like to clarify that I am not rich or anything, but I’ve been on both sides of the spectrum.  Anyhow if you’re looking to make money, you need to start first by not making excuses for everything.  “I can’t because I don’t have a car”  “I have no one to take care of the kids for me” “I’ve tried but nobody wants to buy anything” and the list of excuses continue.  One saying that sticks to mind and one that my father told me a few times was “El que quiere salir adelante, va buscar como hacerlo y el que no, es puro huevon (Who ever wants to succeed shall find a way and if not is just a lazy ass)”

So what are some of the things that you can do to make extra money ???

Selling plates of food, think about it, everyone gets hungry and maybe not everyone has a hour lunch to go out and go somewhere to eat so this is where you come in.  You don’t even have to be a chef, you could make something simple like a regular ham sandwich with cheese with chips and a soda and offer it for around $4 bucks, if someone came into my office and offered me that, I’d take the deal and not have to drive anywhere. You could also offer tuna or chicken salad for an added cost.  Maybe make a little menu and print them out so that you can stop by an office and take orders? Construction sites in newly formed sub divisions are always a great place to go to and ask the workers there and let them know that if 5 or more order, you can offer them free chips, anything to seal the deal.

Washing cars is another great opportunity. You could start by walking around your block with a bucket in hand with everything that you need and when you see anyone outside, tell them that you will wash their car for $5 bucks (outside only).  You might get a few no’s at first since many people do like to wash their own cars but like I said, you are offering a service which is a commodity. If anyone stops by my house to wash my car for $5 bucks and do a good job, go for it.  Each car may take you about 10 or 15 minutes each and let’s say you wash 10 cars, you’ve made yourself $50 dollars cash.

Cutting grass is a bit of a harder task but you can definitely always charge a minimum of at least $20 per yard and depending on how big someone’s yard is then you can go upwards of $30,$40,50+.   Don’t have a lawnmower? Well you can go to the pawnshop and buy a good used one for about $50-60 bucks and then you’ll make your money back in a day. Don’t have money to buy a lawnmower, then pawn something and once you start cutting yards you can get whatever you pawned back.  Got nothing to pawn? Borrow money and then pay back the lender when you cut the first few yards. Got no one to borrow money from? May need to get that lawnmower on credit at Sears and then make sure you pay at the end of month to avoid getting interest. Got bad credit? Borrow someone’s lawnmower and then get your own. Got no one to borrow a lawn mower from? Well you’re out of luck then, may have to cut the grass by hand, you get the idea though.

Cleaning houses is another service that’s been around for years and pretty much anyone can do it.  You can charge $20 for a small house an upwards. You can charge extra if you need to do laundry and cook.  Be friends with everyone and people will refer you to other people and your network of clients will grow giving you a larger access to make more money and of course since most of it will be cash, tax free.

Whatever it is that you decide to do, do it with passion and whatever small amount of money you make is better than no money.  Do your best and when you know you do a good job, clients will notice and I can guarantee you that if you make a good impression, they will hire you again which will lead to referrals.  Never find an excuse for not being able to survive, in the end it all comes to you what you set your mind to.  Don’t give up and go out there and market yourself, that’s the only way you will get noticed. Hopefully this article helps anyone and gives people ideas and of course you can do many other things than the services I listed, but these are the ones that come to mind.