There’s nothing worse than when you’ve got no money left over at the end of the month and a huge bill pops up just when you least expected it. This is increasing the situation for many of us, with 7 out of every 10 workers “chronically broke” according to The Guardian.
What’s more, almost half of us have less than £1,000 in savings.
If you’re an American reading this, the figures are just as stark, with 47% of the US population unable to pay an emergency bill of $400.
So if you’ve not got any prospect of a raise, promotion or additional overtime at work, what are your options if you need to raise funds fast?
Luckily, you’ve got multiple ways to hustle your way to a grand within a relatively short period of time.
So without wasting any more time let’s get into the 10 fastest ways to make £1000 (or $1000) if your flat broke.
1. Sign Up as a Driver for A Ride Sharing Service
If you’ve got a car, you’ve immediately got options to accumulate cash quickly.
Ride sharing services such as Uber and Lyft give you the option to maximise your downtime by turning your car into an impromptu taxi service.
Whilst the background checks can take a while to clear, you can soon start making an extra £100-£200 per weekend if you make yourself available during the hours that weekend revellers will most need your services.
In the UK, the process is slightly elongated due to the fact that you need a Private Hire Vehicle License and private hire insurance. Which gives this potentially lucrative side hustle much higher barriers to entry.
But those licenses can be obtained for less than £100 (depending on your local authority) and there are many flexible private hire insurance options that can be picked up and put down whenever you need them.
So don’t let that put you off.
Services to sign up to:
• Uber
• Lyft
2. Sell Unwanted Items
Let’s face it, we’ve got some things that we currently need that hold value to plenty of other people.
Whether that’s an old BMX you no longer use or you’ve outgrown your PlayStation or Xbox. Draw up a list of items that you’d like to have, but realistically you would perfectly fine without.
In some cases (such as computer games), the selling of these items will help you to stop wasting time unnecessarily and free you up to pursue other money making avenues to reach your goal much faster.
Depending on which platform you decide to sell your items on, you could have cash in your pocket on the same day as listing your item.
Services to use:
• Ebay
• Gumtree
• Shpock
3. Take Up Matched Betting
Still the UK’s number one side hustle in 2019, there is no quicker way to earn serious amounts of money than by learning how to use this technique to make risk-free, tax-free, profit.
Just by completing what are known as the “sign up” offers you can easily make £1500, and that’s before you even take into account the “reload” offers you’re sent as an existing customer.
I won’t bore you to death with all of the minutiae of exactly to earn this free money because I’ve dedicated so many posts to this topic already.
Just head over my matched betting section to start learning. It’s also worth following the story of how I turned a £500 initial investment into a £5000 profit in just over 11 months.
Although this money-making method is limited to the UK and other EU countries, bookmakers are containing their expansion to the United States.
With the relaxing of federal gambling laws, it may open up this under-the-radar side hustle to a truly global audience.
Services to sign up to:
4. Launch Freelance Services
Everyone has a particular set of skills, usually developed in direct relation to their function at their place of employment.
But this isn’t always the case, you may be a mechanic with a passion for photography or an accountant who’s got a flair for voiceovers and accents.
It doesn’t matter what your skills are, it just matters that they’re better than another person’s that’s willing to pay for them.
I launched my Fiverr business 10 months ago just to see if I could make any extra money on the side of my existing side hustles. I’m now $7,0000 richer and regularly make over $1,000 £800 every month by putting in a few hours extra each day (Fiverr operates in dollars).
So whether you want to pick up extra work doing what you already do (such as bookkeeping or writing) or you want to try something completely out of the ordinary, it only takes a few minutes to sign up to the popular freelancing platforms.
But don’t just rely on those famously temperamental platforms, reach out to people or businesses through calls and emails that could do with your services.
It’s not unreasonable to have established a proper side business with a few clients within a month.
It took me just 90 days to pass the $1500 mark selling my services on Fiverr. So I can guarantee you that you will make money quickly if you get it right.
Platforms to sign up to:
• Fiverr
• Upwork
• Legiit
5. Become a Dog Walker
This may seem a bit silly, but make no mistake, dogs are big business.
It’s not unreasonable to be paid £20+ an hour dog walking or dog sitting.
What’s more if you get yourself a loyal client base, you can soon be making an amount of money that’ll make you think about quitting your job and joining the pups full-time!
But a more realistic aspiration is to pick up a few regular dog walks per day and that extra £40-60 per day will quickly end up being £1,000. You may even get used to the extra money and decide to carry on after earning enough to hit your target.
When it comes to setting up, you’ve got a couple of options. You can either try and set up your own venture, or you can use dog walking apps such as Rover to create a profile and meet new clients.
Whichever you choose, you’re at least bound to have some fun with your new furry friends as well as make some extra cash!
Service to sign up to:
• Rover
• Tailster
• Wag!
6. Become a Delivery Driver
As I’ve said already, having a car gives you options.
Aside from joining a ride-sharing service, you could become a delivery driver for a wide range of companies, and make a serious side income by combining work for multiple sources.
For example, you could operate as a casual Amazon Flex delivery driver, picking up shifts after work, whilst making the most of your free time on the weekends as an Uber Eats delivery driver.
However, a crucial difference between becoming a delivery driver and a part-time taxi service is that you’re not limited if you don’t have a car.
You can just as easily use a moped, scooter or push bike if you want to keep fit. If you live in any UK city, you’ll have already seen at least one Deliveroo bike courier.
So this presents a more flexible way to pick up some quick cash after work or on the weekends.
Services to sign up to:
• Stuart
7. Start Using Cashback Sites to Earn Money for Nothing
Isn’t great when we can earn money for doing something we would be doing anyway?
And yet, hardly any of us tap into this free source of income.
Switching your energy provider because your exclusive tariff is coming to an end? Well why not get £100 for doing so? What about your TV/broadband deal? Fancy another £80 for switching?
What about your grocery shopping? Fancy earning 2-5% back on everything you buy? Why not?!
There are so many products, brands and services that partner with cashback sites and yet when we come to purchasing our products, we forget to use them!
Use this as a timely reminder to go and sign up now before you forget again and snap up and quick £100-£200 just by remembering to purchase through a cashback site or app.
Whilst it’s probably the slowest of the methods listed here, you can easily reach £1,000 within 6 months, and that landmark may arrive much quicker if you’re smart with your purchases.
Services to sign up for:
• QuidCo
8. Help People Complete Random Tasks
A great way to start building up a cash balance in a hurry is by helping to complete tasks that other are willing to pay for.
Whether that’s helping an individual to clean their own house, or by mounting a TV onto a wall for someone else, there are hundred for odd jobs that people are willing to pay good money for.
So instead of getting home from work and slouching on the couch in front of the TV, why not get out and help someone else put their new shelves up?
With services such as TaskRabbit or AirTasker you can make £1000 pretty quickly by just completely one task per day which start from £10 and can up to hundreds per task depending on what it is that’s required.
You can even earn money for standing in the queue in place of someone else!
I don’t know whether I should be thankful that those types of money making opportunities are available, or lament where we’re at as a civilised society.
Services to sign up to:
• Bark
9. Become a Mystery Shopper
Another way to combine earning money with your normal day-to-day routine is to become a mystery shopper.
You can easily earn the equivalent of £20 an hour by just buying a few items (which you are reimbursed for) and writing feedback about your experience.
Some services contain everything within an app so it doesn’t even have to wait until you get back to your computer at home to complete the assignment.
Another perk of mystery shopping is that you can sometimes enjoy the finer things in life for free.
Free meals, free drinks and free items are common payment for your opinion, and whilst that may be not be money earned, it’s certainly not money spent, which may make saving towards your target much easier.
Services to sign up to:
10. CPA Affiliate Marketing
This is most likely an aspect of affiliate marketing you’ve not heard about.
You’re probably well-aware of the the “blogging” type of affiliate marketing where you earn a percentage of every sale referred to the end company.
But it takes a long time to build up traffic to a website, an email list and an army of fans willingly clicking on your affiliate links.
But what if you could get affiliate sales within a day?
That’s where CPA (cost per action) comes in.
The landing pages and sales funnels for these products have all been done for you.
Your job is simply to drive traffic to those landing pages and get paid when someone completes an action which can be as innocuous as entering an email address.
Thanks to PPC (pay per click) advertising you can have people entering their email addresses literally the same day as starting your campaign.
Of course, I am massively oversimplifying the process of working out which offers to go for and working out CPC (cost per click) of getting visitors to your desired landing page versus the commission payout.
But make no mistake, you can have your £1,000 in a few days with the right product and PPC campaign.
If you want to learn more about CPA try reading this guide, it’ll get you up to speed.
CPA Networks to sign up to:
• PeerFly
Conclusion
Phew! That was a lot to get through, but hopefully you can take one of these ideas and really run with it to make that £1,000 (or $1,000 if you’re from the US of A) as fast as humanly possible!
I’ve always found it better to stick with one or two methods until you’ve mastered them, before simply moving on the “next big thing”. So whilst some websites and apps all have their own little quirks, I think it’s best to pick only a few and go for it!
If you’ve stumbled upon any other methods that can make serious dough in a short amount of time, then let me know in the comments below!
Further Reading:
7 Ways to Make Money Using Your Phone
5 Businesses You Can Start for Free
