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13 Legit Ideas That Take Less Than A Week!

Do you need to find a way to make $1000 fast?

It can happen to anybody. A blown transmission, a broken refrigerator, leaking water heater or any number of other emergencies can cause you to need a quick grand. No matter what the reason, you need to figure out how you can make $1000 fast!

Fast money isn’t necessarily going to set you down the road to long-term prosperity, but it can get you out of a bad situation and develop your money-making skills for the future.

Let’s just get this out of the way now. Making $1000 quickly is not going to be easy. $1000 is a lot of money and you’re going to have to hustle your ass off to make it. The good news is you’re smart and resourceful. Keep reading and I’m going to show you several ways to get the money you need.

Oh, and don’t worry if you’re not working. Any of the methods below can help you make $1000 without a job.

What Not To Do To Earn $1000

There are a lot of articles out there claiming that they can show you how to make a quick $1000 but they’re pushing survey sites that pay pennies, telling you to start a blog or even hit the casino (yes, seriously…).

I’ll be straight with you: you won’t ever make $1000 with survey sites (though you can make some money) and it will take you months, or more likely years to build that kind of income from a new blog. Hitting a casino is far more likely to lose you money than make you a thousand bucks. If you need $1000 fast, forget that stuff and keep reading.

What I’ve included in this list are only actionable, legitimate and legal ways to earn real money, no nonsense.

Some of these ideas can make you $1000 in under a week! If you’ve got some hustle in you then there’s no limit to what you can achieve if you pick one (or more) of these strategies and stay focused!

You ready? Let’s make some money!

How to make $1000 fast

Find something to flip for cash

Flipping is not complicated. All you need to do is buy something that’s undervalued, and resell it for more money. If you’re trying to earn $1000, you’re going to want to focus on higher value items. Here are some good ideas for high-value items that you should be able to flip relatively quickly.

Household electronics (receivers, record players, stereo equipment etc.)

Musical instruments

Bicycles

Appliances

Tip: Focus on items that don’t have an established value. Iphones for example, are fairly easy to sell, but they’re tough to buy below market value because their value is widely known and accepted.

The best things to sell are things that you can buy below market value and can add some value to. Fixing up bicycles or painting/repairing an appliance are a couple of great examples of how you can add value and increase your profits.

If you’re focusing on high-value items such as the ones I suggested above, it’s possible to make $200-500 in a single transaction. If you can sell one item every 2-3 days you could expect to make $1000 fairly quickly, within two weeks or even less is absolutely doable.

Want to learn how they do it? Check out The 10 Best Items To Flip For Fast Cash

Make money driving with Uber or Lyft

I don’t think that ride sharing is a good option for trying to make a full time income. But for extra cash, it can help you put some money in your pocket within a week. Here’s what you need to get started with ride sharing:



Reliable, newer 4-door vehicle

Over 21 years old

Insurance with your name on the policy

Clean driving record

Mobile phone

How quickly can you make $1000?

The amount of money that you can make as a ride sharing driver varies depending on a number of variables including location, day and time. Let’s go low and assume that you’re clearing $12/hr after your costs (gas). In this scenario, you would have to work a little over 80 hours 8 ten-hour days to make that much cash. You can probably do better than that depending on where you live.

Become a referral source for a realtor or business

I know of a few realtors in my town who advertise that they’re willing to pay $500 for a referral that leads to a purchase or sale.

If you can build a relationship with such a realtor and recommend them to your friends, you could start seeing commission within a couple of weeks. This is especially true if the real estate market is hot where you live.

Some other types of businesses that are often willing to pay for referrals are:



Roofing companies

Painting companies

Window cleaners Car/RV dealers

Internet marketing outfits

How quickly can you make $1000?



This is going to depend on your sales skills and your social network. If you’re ambitious, you could strike up a deal with a roofing company and solicit their services door to door, selecting homes that have a roof in disrepair. If you could negotiate a $500 referral fee, it would only take two referrals to get you to your goal.

Sell a piece of furniture

This one’s simple – find a high-value piece of furniture in your home that you don’t use all of the time and would be willing to part with, clean it up and sell it. There are lots of places online that you can list that type of stuff to increase your chances of a quick sale.

Remember, you can always replace the piece later on when money isn’t so tight!

Some places to list your furniture for sale:

Ebay (great for smaller antique and vintage pieces)

Craigslist

Facebook Marketplace

Varagesale

Letgo

How quickly can you make $1000 selling your furniture?



You could realistically make that much money in a single transaction if you have a high-value piece you can sell. Things like credenzas, leather chairs, antiques and anything real wood are going to fetch the best money. Best to hang on to the Ikea stuff :).

By selling one or two pieces of furniture at $500-1k apiece, you could make $1000 within a couple of weeks.

Sell a high value item for a commission

Most people don’t enjoy the hassle of selling stuff through online marketplaces such as Craigslist. If you know how to sell, and don’t mind the hassle of meeting with Craigslist buyers, you can sell high-ticket items for other people.



Boats, RVs, cars, motorcycles and machinery are some great examples of things that you could sell for a commission. A 10% commission for finding the buyer and facilitating the sale is very reasonable.



How quickly can you make $1000?

The more expensive the item is, the more money you can make by selling it. Focus on high value items such as the ones mentioned above. You could realistically make $1000 with a single sale of an item that’s worth more than 10k. That could be accomplished in a month or even less if you have contacts that need something sold quickly right now.

Related post: 21+ Creative Ways To Make $500 FAST

Make some cash delivering flyers

I recently heard an episode on the Side Hustle Nation podcast about a guy who delivers flyers door to door to help local businesses promote their services. He charges a fee of $.15/flyer. If you could set up an arrangement with two businesses to deliver 3500 flyers each, you could make more than $1000.

How fast can you make $1000?

What I like about this idea, is that you have a lot of control over how much money you make. You could be delivering three flyers from three separate businesses to the same house without any overlap.

Assuming you’re charging $.15 per flyer, you could increase your revenue per house from $.15 to $.45. That’s 3x more money per home. I’m considering doing this myself.

Hold a garage sale

A garage sale is probably one of the fastest ways to get money right now. Garage sales are great because you get to earn some money and clean out your house at the same time.

It’s best to plan your yard sale a couple of weeks in advance so you’ve got time to collect up everything you want to sell and advertise!

Below are some tips to make your garage sale a success:

Advertise on Craigslist and other local sites.

Make cheap signs and tack them to power poles in your neighborhood (make sure to remove them after the sale).

Advertise your sale to your Facebook friends!

Keep lots of small bills on hand to make change.

Set your prices a little high and bargain. Garage salers like to get a deal.

How quickly can you make $1000 with a garage sale?

If you have a reasonable amount of stuff to sell, you should be able to clear $1000 in a single day with a garage sale. You can increase your profits by asking family, friends and neighbours if they have any items that they would like you to try and sell for them for a commission.

Take A Break From A Payment

So technically this isn’t earning $1000 fast so much as saving $1000 fast, but it still puts the money in your pocket, so who cares? If you have high-dollar payments for a home, RV, Car or other expensive item, you might be able to defer one or more of them for a month or two to help you get back on track.



Creditors generally appreciate when people are proactive. Just tell them that you’re in a tough spot and you’re hoping to work something out that works for everybody. I’ve done this in the past with some success.

Some mortgages now include a ‘take a break’ feature that allows you to defer one or more payments over the course of the loan. How awesome would it be if you could skip a mortgage payment? Just remember that there will certainly be term and interest implications for doing this so read the fine print.

How quickly can you make $1000?

If you can manage to defer one or more payments, you could realistically come up with an extra $1000 in an afternoon. Again, you’re saving it, rather than earning it, but if you’re in a pinch this will help you out all the same.

Offer your services as a freelancer

There’s a ton of opportunity out there right now for freelancers. Large and small businesses, bloggers and online retailers are just a few examples of the types of businesses that use freelancers.

Some examples of freelance skills that are in high-demand:

Bookkeeping

Blog content writing

Video creation

Data acquisition

Social media management

Whether you have one of these skills or another, you can earn $1000 as a freelancer. You’ll probably want to start by using a site that connects companies that need work done with freelancers.

Some good examples are:

Upwork

Ifreelance

Peopleperhour

There are many others but this is a good list to get you started!



How fast can you make $1000 as a freelancer?

If you’re diligent, willing to work hard and learn the ins and outs of a site like Upwork, you could realistically make $1000 within a week or even less.

Rent out your stuff

If you own something that could bring in a decent rental income? Think big – maybe you have a skid steer, and RV, a boat or something else that you could rent out for money. It’s not uncommon for an RV to fetch $100/day. If you’ve got a trailer that you’re willing to rent out, you could make $1000 pretty quickly this way.

You can advertise your item for rent on sites such as Craigslist and other local advertising sites.

How fast can you make $1000?

If you’ve got something that you can rent for $100/day, it would take you ten rental days to make that much money. They might not come consecutively so I would say you could probably do it within a month.

Rent out a room

If you’ve got a larger home with a spare room or two, you could rent it out to make money. A spare room could easily fetch $400-500 per month in many cities. Just be sure to vet the person you’re renting your space to! Even better if you can get a trusted friend or family member in there.

How fast can you make $1000?

If you’re renting a room for $400/mo, it’s going to take you 2.5 months to make 1k. It’s a little longer than some of my other ideas but it requires less effort.

Start leading walking tours

This idea is another one that was inspired by an interview on the Side Hustle Nation Podcast. If you live in a city that’s frequented by tourists, and you know your way around pretty well, you can organize paid walking tours.

If you’re good at interacting with people, live in a city that’s frequented by tourists and willing to learn more about your town (you could learn lots by picking up a guide book), you can start charging for walking tours fairly quickly.

H ow quickly can you make $1000 leading walking tours?

This is going to depend on the value that you offer and how you price the service. If you live in an area that gets regular cruise ship or other tourist traffic, you should be able to charge between $20 and $25 per person for a decent, hour-long walking tour.

Get 10 people on a tour and you’ve made $250. Do that three more times and you’ve made your $1000. If the season is right, you could reasonable pull in $1000 within a month doing one tour per week.

How To Make $1000 In A Day

If you need $1000 really fast, in less than a day, you are going to need to work a few of these ideas simultaneously. If I needed $1000 right now I would sit down and make an itemized list of all the high-value items that I could sell quickly. I would then try to find some quick work. Uber or Ubereats is great for this and could easily earn you $100 in a day.

I would then call the companies that hold my mortgage and car loan (if I had one), and ask them all for a deferred payment. This could net a grand in savings alone.

The bottom line: You can make $1000 in a week or less, but it’s not easy

The fastest way to earn cash is to combine two or more of these ideas and watch the money pile up. Driving for Uber after work and completing a freelance gig while a couple of items are listed on Ebay could easily earn you $1000 in under a week.



You’re smart and a hard worker, you can make this happen!



How to avoid this situation in the future

Having to scrape together $1000 in a week or less really sucks. Whether it’s for your mortgage, a car repair or payment, you definitely don’t want to find yourself in this situation again.

Now that you have some ideas for how to make $1000, let’s talk about how to avoid ending up here in the future.

Start an emergency fund

If you have a thousand bucks in an emergency fund, you won’t find yourself searching ‘how to make $1000 fast’ next time something breaks or you get laid off from work.

Seriously, a healthy emergency fund can mean the difference between a broken water heater being a nuisance or a real financial catastrophe. Try putting away $20 per week in a separate savings account.

At that rate, you will have $1000 saved in less than a year and you’ll be in much better shape next time something like this happens!

Get on a budget

Everybody should be on a budget. Many people think that budgeting will mean that they have no money left over for fun but it’s quite the opposite! If you budget with intention and stick to it, you will find thatbeing more mindful of where you’re spending leaves you with more money in your pocket.

Related reading: Complete Guide To The Zero-Based Budget

Reduce your expenses

If you want to really pack that emergency fund the best way to do it is to reduce your expenses, and use that money to save. It’s much easier than getting a second job :).

Here are some articles to help you make money:

Do you have other ideas for how to make $1000 in under a week (or even a day)? I’d love to hear them, share you thoughts in the comments below!

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