6 ways to start making money with no money

One of my favourite sales trainers, Grant Cardone, says you can’t be broke as long as you have energy because with that you can create something that will add value to the world and thus make money.

I believe the same thing and I am about to share ways you can start generating an income with very little investment or none at all. As a minimum you should have some of the basics covered, but if you’re reading this you have internet access… so it’s a start!

Here is a list of things you can do to start earning an income in about 48 hours or less:

• See say do

If you’ve got data on your phone or have access to wifi and a computer or cell phone you can sign-up for See Say Do and get paid to watch ads and complete social sharing activities.

This app is really useful when you need to get airtime. All you need to do is complete a task on the app every day for 10 minutes and you could earn up to R 30 a day. That might not seem like a lot but when you don’t have R 30 to make a critical call or R 30 for petrol when you’re on an empty tank it can make a massive difference.

• Use a skill you’ve developed that’s of value

I am a creative at heart so graphic design, web development and marketing come naturally to me. When I was broke I would go online while at university and search for businesses at random. For example, I would search for plumbers, electricians or lawyers on Google because they generally have poorly designed websites.

After finding a couple of businesses I would offer to design their websites at a competitive rate. Finding their contact details was free, the computers I used were on campus, and sending the owners an email was free too.

Some skills that may be useful (and profitable):

1. Writing
2. Translating
3. Transcribing audio or video
4. Graphics Design
5. Car washing
6. Shoe polishing
7. Shoe Repair
8. Sales
9. Promotions
10. Waiting tables
11. Art – drawing, painting, wood work
12. Building

The key here is to find something of relatively high value and use the internet to find an obvious need.

• Getting a job

Use job posting websites like careers24, jobvine or indeed to look for jobs that relate to your skill set or position you want.

First get a list of all your targeted jobs, then look for the contact people or the company that’s hiring. Then search for the contact information of the company hiring.

NOTE: don’t send them your CV.

Just phone the company and be sure to talk to the person hiring directly and ask them what problem they want solved and what they have done to solve the problem in the past.

Tell them how you can help them solve the problem by giving them an idea of what you can do. Explain to them that you will come to see them in person to see if there’s a good fit between you and them.

NOTE: it’s important you go the extra mile and not just show up, even if they can’t see you be sure to leave a letter motivating why you’ll be the right person for the job by highlighting how you will solve their problems.

You must do this with at least 10 companies, success comes in numbers!

• Do social media promotions

Sign up for Webfluential and add all your social media accounts to their platform and you will start getting jobs.

This will take about 2-3 months to start working however if you keep growing your social media you will start to get more frequent jobs. Remember it’s about the value you add to your audience.

You can also look for promotional jobs yourself, one easy way is to contact businesses within your space.

I approached financial planners and other businesses I saw that weren’t implementing their social media strategies properly to generate new sales and I got 20 responses in about 2 days of contacting people on LinkedIn, over the phone and via email.

You can do the same for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

All you need to do is use the search functionality on the social media platforms and you can get in touch with the decision makers.

• Sell things on OLX

I remember selling my broken iPhone 5 on OLX. You could sell things that you’ve made or things you don’t need any more on the platform.

Possibly you have a connection that could supply you with a product that people don’t have access to easily and you can use OLX to sell it or you can do the same with a unique service.

• Be creative

The last point is to tap into your creativity, there are opportunities all around you to generate income. Remember to focus on providing value and solving a problem.