There are literally thousands of ways to make money. Some people claim there aren’t enough opportunities out there. Some say they don’t have access to resources. Some say the economy is bad. Although some of these are valid points, they sound more like excuses. This is the very reason why I’m writing this article. To demonstrate some of the countless opportunities out there and most of these require literally no money to start with.
Many of the millionaires out there started out with little to no money. They had virtually nothing to lose and learned how to create something out of nothing. Although they lacked resources, some of them learned how to make money with no money. It doesn’t really take that many resources to build wealth. Instead, it takes a burning desire and a wealth builder’s mindset to build. Once you establish this, the resources will begin to pour in. Now let’s get to the main strategies.
Real Estate (Wholesaling)
You probably figured I was going to start here. Real estate is one way to make money with no money. How? There’s a strategy out there known as wholesaling. The wholesaling strategy is the best strategy to use when you have no money in real estate. You first find a property, get it under contract (put it on paper), then turn around and sell that contract to an end buyer (who has money) without ever having a dime of your own money tied up in the deal. The key with this strategy is you must know how to find good deals using sites like Craigslist. Without the ability to find good deals (or get to know people with good deals), your wholesaling journey will be extremely tough. You also need to learn how to negotiate on the earnest money, which can go as low as $10. So I do need money, huh? Nope. Simply borrow $10 from someone you know and tell them you’ll pay them back in a few weeks. This amount is so small that they may just give it to you for free.
Another critical skill to have in wholesaling is you must build a good list of cash buyers (people with money) that will buy your deals/contracts. You just might know some cash buyers (people with a lot of money to invest) right now. Once you build up enough money/capital, you can move on to fix and flips, where you can still make money with no money through lending partners such as hard money lenders. It’s always nice to have some reserves (money in the bank or lines of credit), however, and hard money lenders like to see some type of reserves. Once you do a few flips, you can then move on to rental properties and build a never-ending stream of wealth. Remember that nine out of ten millionaires became millionaires through real estate. You must be willing to learn and have a burning desire to be successful. Success is all about mindset and execution. I would argue that the mindset is far more important.
Note: Although you don’t need a perfect credit score with these strategies, you should at least have a decent credit score (at least a 650). If lower than 650, then consider credit repair/counseling. I personally run a credit repair company if you’re ever interested. You should also have a credit card or some sort of access to capital in case you need it. It’s much better to have money when you don’t need it than to not have it when you do need it. Lastly, please understand the difference between good debt and bad debt. Good debt puts money in your pocket and bad debt takes money out of your pocket. Another way to view it is that good debt is created by an asset that produces money and bad debt is created by a liability that takes away money. A rental property is a great example of good debt. If you’re a savvy investor, there’s nothing wrong with having good debt. Now back to the strategies.
Car Rentals
There’s a new wave of opportunity when it comes to the sharing economy. Similar to Airbnb for real estate, there are sites out there that allow you to rent your car to other people for money. These sites include Turo and HyreCar. If you have no money and a car, you can rent out your car to someone else for extra income. You can rent out virtually anything now a days so you can leverage your own assets to build up cash. Assuming you have decent credit (or know someone with decent credit), you can go to a dealer and finance a car with no money down and rent it out to someone else the very same day. Continue purchasing more cars as you build up cash flow and you will have a large portfolio of income producing rental properties. Personally, all my bills are paid for by my car rental income and this is part of the reason why I’m financially free today (i.e. I don’t have to work for money anymore). Couple that with real estate and you’ll have a very powerful portfolio.
Online Stores
Thanks to the internet, you can make money online by setting up virtual stores on websites. Sites such as Shopify & Amazon allow you to run an online store without physically owning a single product. You can sell name brand products without owning them and make a commission every time each product in your store sells. The key here is you must know how to market/sell well. You can literally run an online store from your living room and make money without a dime of your own money involved.
Personal Services
The service industry has always been known for being very lucrative. If you have a skill and you can teach it or offer it to someone, then do so even if you have to charge people for it. People will pay for value and in some cases, it takes none of your own money out of pocket to get started. For example, if you’re highly skilled in giving life advice, then people will often pay you for that advice. You of course have to be good at it and find ways to put your name out there. You’re simply teaching people what you know and providing a service. This is how my financial coaching company came about. People saw that I knew a tremendous amount about finances and they were ready to pay me for it.
There are many ways to make money with no money, but this is just a few of them. It doesn’t always take money to make money and if it requires some money, then try to find it from elsewhere. Ultimately, you must know what you’re doing. Begin reading books on some of these strategies and if you can recall in my last article, Audible provides you with one free audiobook. In order to become wealthy, it more so takes a burning desire to succeed and a willing and able mindset.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out.