How to Make Money When You’re Broke | Part 1

In this post I’m gonna be going over how you can make money if you’re in a situation where you don’t have much money laying around.

You’ve got both the video format and written format to choose from. So pick your favorite format.

And then let’s get to putting a game plane together for you.

This is your step-by-step guide to making money so that you can get out of that situation. Because being broke sucks.

A little background about me…

Over the last three and a half years I’ve experienced moments where just buying a gallon of water would leave me with nothing.

Let’s put that into perspective:

A gallon of water in my area is $1.89.

I was stuck in survival mode

And was always trying to make some cash to pay my bills. Bills like my car payment and other living costs.

To say the least my every waking second became paying my bills.

At the time I still had an employee mindset. So I didn’t have much of an understanding of how the money getting game really worked.

Being stuck in survival mode made me into a very mentally tough person. It showed me that I can make chess moves.

No matter how little resources I have access to at the time. Whenever I’m talking to you, that’s the mindset I’m coming from.

I know that no matter what my resources are like, I can make things happen. And the same is true for you.

I’m writing this post thinking that you don’t really have much money. You’re more than likely broke and that’s completely fine.

Rock bottom makes for a strong foundation.

This post is focused on helping you build yourself up a few steps. To where you can actually start breathing and switch from surviving to thriving.

I’m not gonna talk about any complicated stuff.

As for the time being we want the money fast.

Step 1: Finding Your Marketplace

If you’re in the  US you’re gonna be using something called Craigslist.

Craigslist is a marketplace where people can sell goods that they’ve got lying around and no longer want.

Items such as…

• Furniture
• Cars
• Pets
• Electronics

If you’re outside of the US, you might need to do some research to find a similar website. But I’ve heard good things about Gumtree.

For Latin American countries, you can look into OLX or MercadoLibre.

Step 2: Look For Cheap Furniture

Next up, we have to find some place where we can get furniture for cheap. Here in America, stores like Habitat for Humanity are great choices.

You’re looking for hand me down stores.

Where people donate items like clothes and furniture.

Garage sales are another decent place to find items.

Once you find a store you’ll look for items that are in good condition. Look for stuff that is cheap and can be sold at a profit.

Stay away from appliances like refrigerators, stoves and dishwashers.

I dabbled with them for a week and I swore that I would never do it again.

It’s a money sink.

What I want you to do is find a couch.

Preferably a leather couch or something like that. Make sure it is in good condition. Try to get the couch as cheap as possible.

An example is buying a coach for $80 and selling it for $200.

That leaves you with $120.

Keep in mind that there’s the cost of transporting the item. So that will cut into your total profit.

Step 3: Create Your Listing

Once you get your items home, I want you to set up a nice background. Then take two or three high-quality pictures of your items.

Let’s say that you buy a coach.

You want to make people envision how the couch will look in a living room. So take the picture from different angles with decent lighting.

Now, create your ad.

Think of an eye-catching title and write some basic sales copy.

Describe the product in detail. And make sure to include things that stand out. The color, is it an antique, is it soft, is it leather, etc.

I go into more detail about creating your ad in this video…

Step 4: Publish Your Ad and Promote It

Step number four is publishing and then promoting the ad you’ve created. Once you’ve published the ad let it sit there for 24 hours before uploading a second one. Just so can stay at the top of the listings.

Then find Facebook groups and pages in your local area where you can find people buying what you’re selling.

Here in Charleston there’s a group where I would upload the furniture I took pictures of. This group had over 3,000 members.

Step 5: Profit and Repeat

Now, step five is profit and repeat. Remember, when it comes to maximizing profits the key is spending the least amount of money when buying an item.

So you can make the most amount of money when you flip it.

Now an issue might rise; one that I ran into. Towards the end, when I didn’t really need the money from Craigslist.

The profit I was making wasn’t really worth my time.

This is where you’ve got to get a little creative. There are some people that will buy furniture. Repair it and then be able to flip it for a higher profit.

Make sure that you use the eBay and Craigslist app on your phone. And start studying  what’s selling well.

Using this strategy you’ll be able to stay on top of things quite easily.

The whole idea behind this type of hustle is putting what money you have towards something that you can flip it.

And make a $20, $50, or $100 profit. Then reinvest it until you’ve got some decent money sitting around.

From there you can start putting your money into higher paying gigs.

Bonus Section: Other Ways to Make Money

Another way for you to make money if you don’t really have much money is something called scrapping.

Scrapping:

Essentially what you’re gonna be doing is finding batteries, tin cans, and other types of metal.

Figure out what’s popular and pays the most in your area, and start scrapping. You could literally go house to house and collect people’s recycling.

While I don’t endorse this guys brand. He does have a good starter video to scrapping. You can check it out below…

Be careful, as I don’t know if there are any laws or rules in your area. After doing your own research it’s worth a shot to go door-to-door.

Collecting any type of metal or other items that they don’t need. And honestly this hustle goes well with making money on Craigslist.

Keep in mind that you’re developing a skill.

If you do decide to go this particular way to make money. You will grow a ruthless go-getter attitude.

You’re gonna get used to selling to people face to face. Which will result in your money problems going away. And more confidence than you thought was possible.

Offer a Service:

A third way to make money, with no upfront costs is to offer some type of service in your local community.

There’s a girl that I talk to. She’s a college student here in my city. And she makes money baby and pet Sitting.

Through those two hustles she’s able to make enough money so she can afford not getting a normal job while she’s going to college.

Sell Hand Crafted Items:

If you’re good at drawing or making anything. There’s plenty of money to be made as well. Let’s take my brother for example. He can draw really well and he’s great at making hand crafted jewelry.

I’ve been trying to get him to start some type of side hustle out of it. Because he could be selling stuff on things like Etsy, Craigslist, and eBay.

Making anywhere from $200 to several thousand dollars a month.

If you’re really good at drawing and you’re like “oh yeah just let me doodle in my notebook” there’s money you’re leaving money on the table.

You could be drawing and selling those drawings, making some cash on the side so you never have to worry about money again.

I hope this helped you out.

Understand that once your foundational income is set up to where you’re making enough money to get out of survival mode.

That’s when I’ll drop the next part of this series. At that point you’ll be ready for the more advanced ways to make money.

So go ahead and choose one of these side hustles.

Don’t do them all at first.

Instead choose one side hustle out of all the stuff that we’ve talked about today and come up with your own plan.

Here are some more articles on making money:

• How to Make Money On Craigslist
• What Being Broke Taught Me
• 5 Ways to Stay Motivated When Your Money is Low
• How to Go From $1.90 an Hour to Millions in the Bank

Your friend,

Dylan Madden

As always leave any questions that you have down in the comment section. I’ll either answer them here or in a post.