Before I start, I just want to add that this is not a spam or a get-rich quick scheme to make million within 5 mins kind of thing.
With experience, I will tell you how I made $500 just last week.
I took a 5 days leave and with a little planning by last friday, I got my $500 and a little more.
All it took was a little planning and the saying "If you fail to plan, you plain to fail." is very true
I did a little research and found that companies pay $100-$$150 on flyers distribution.
Since I had no overheads to pay, I called up a few Small business and offered to do it for just $30. I targeted Food catering,Pets store, Hair Salons, provision stores and restaurants.
Although the result was not exactly how I expected but I got about 8 customers- mostly food catering and small provision stores. It took me over 7 hours worth of work and on the first day I made $240.
I tried to repeat the process on the second day but only had 3 customers and figured I did not want to waste my time doing it.
So I called up small business firms and SMEs and offered another service. I told them that I will advertise their products, websites etc.. on classified ads, add their company profile on Forum Signatures and even mention about them on popular social networking sites all for a fee of $20.
I told them that if they do not have costs to advertise, this will be duly effective. At the end of the day, I will show them what I did and which sites I went to advertise and they were pretty happy about it. (I just love the internet)
There were a lot of rejections at first but eventually a few small business firms did consider it. I had 6 clients. It took me the whole day and I worked till the night. On the 2nd day, I made $120. In total, $360 within 2 days (You can PM me to know what websites to use)
In my area, Car washing is expensive as it could amount to $50 to $65
Thus, on the 3rd day, I went to houses offering to wash their cars for only $10 and the response was great, of course your hands will ache but hey I think I had made about $65 for that day (I gave discounts to old folks)
Total after 3 days: $425
The next day, I went through some ads in the newspaper and found lots of house cleaning firms charging from $300 to $1000
Now this takes dilligence and the ability to handle rejections. I went door to door within my residential area as I was armed with brooms and mops and cleaning utensils.
I charged $40 for 4 hours of cleaning and I managed to get 2 houses (my neighbours)
Total after 4th day: $505
On the Fifth day, I was not in the mood to think what else I could use to make money so I repeated the flyers distribution
I had 5 customers
Total after the 5th day: $655
I know that these are hard works but if you are truly desperate need of money by end week, well it pays the bill.
Its just my 2 cents worth of sharing...