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Instant Money
Dean Petrich

Are you out of money and desperate?  Are you out of a job or doing a job that just isn’t paying enough to cover the basics?  Are you panicking that you can’t make your car payment, cover your rent or mortgage for the month, or pay any of your bills at all?  In other words, are you more than a little worried about having no money? 
Then it’s time for you to think about some options that you can act upon immediately.  You must rearrange yourself.  Keep in mind that these options may not be your destiny for the rest of your life; they are merely tools or stepping stones for you to get out of the rut you are in and onto the path towards sanity and financial independence.   While it may seem that you are starting over, in actuality you are simply taking a detour.  Following are some tips that will enable you to become rich and happy.

HEALTH
The first thing for you to do is to stay healthy.  If you lose your health you lose everything.  It is imperative that every day you make sure that you

• Eat.  Make sure that you eat at least two meals a day.  If you can afford it, take good supplements – not cheap supplements.  Even though organic food costs more, it is significantly healthier for you (100x better) than packaged, processed and prepared food or anything that had been genetically modified.  The best way to eat is to graze rather than to binge: eat small amounts of healthy food throughout the day rather than going for long periods of time without eating and then suddenly dumping masses of food into your stomach all at once.  Select your snacking wisely by stocking organic fruits, vegetables, nuts, and simple meals rather than sugar, salt, starch and preservatives.

• Sleep.  The more tired and run-down you get, the more depressed you will become, so it is very important that you don’t stay up late at night worrying.  Make yourself go to bed earlier than normal.  To get yourself in the mood to go to bed, it is important to slow your mind down and to relax your body.
• Do not look at your computer after 8pm.  Computers stimulate the mind; you need to relax.
• Get warm or hot.  Heat makes people sleepy. 
• Turn off the TV and music.  Get bored.   Eliminate extraneous stimuli.  Shut down the house.
• Brush your teeth and get in your pajamas.  Make sure your bed room is comfortable and attractive.  Your bed should be calling you.
• Sometimes it helps to do something very physical or tiring in the evening so that you are literally physically wiped out and ready to lie down.
• Take a hot bath or get in the hot tub.  Then go straight to bed.

• Exercise.  If you stop being active for even two weeks, you will start to get out of shape.  The more out of shape you are, the less inclined you are to want to do any form of exercise at all.  The less exercise you do, the more muscle mass you lose, the more fat you store, and the more prone you become to getting pulled muscles, strains and injuries.  Once your stomach exceeds 40” you are a potential victim for diabetes and heart disease, both of which lead to early death.  You don’t even want to go there.   Instead, get yourself out of your comfort zone and start “working” out.
• Force yourself to do more than you usually do.
• Move faster than you usually do -- more swiftly and carefully, not rushed and sloppily.
• Focus on where you are going, on your end goal, on the reasons why you are getting in shape. 
• Develop a routine and keep a journal.  There are work-out programs on the internet, web sites and plenty of information at your fingertips that cost no money, but start with your own system.

• Attitude.  There is an old saying that still holds true today: “Attitude is everything.”  When you change your attitude, your whole world changes.  For starters, you have the choice of looking at the positive or negative side of whatever is happening at the moment.  Probably you have been viewing only one side up to this point.  Inside of every problem or bad moment there is a golden nugget, the hidden solution, a lesson to learn that will pay off to your advantage,   Bad moments can become your big push to change, to let go and move on, to re-structure your view of the world and your way of doing things.  Pay attention to the hidden goodness inside of whatever initially seems horrible.

• Clean.  The first thing to do is to clean your space.  Your environment and surroundings influence your attitude more than most people realize.  Make your place neat, clean, beautiful and inspiring and your attitude will change accordingly. 
  • Find a garbage bag or some boxes and throw out or recycle all the mess, the extraneous clutter, and the junk you will never use.
  • Create spaces for what you do use and want to keep.  Clean those spaces and label them so that only those things go there.  If it doesn’t fit the label, it doesn’t belong .   Think in categories: tools, papers, toys, clothes, giveaways, cleaners, etc., keeping in mind the old saying, “A place for everything and everything in its place.”
  • Vacuum, sweep, dust, wipe, clean, open the windows.  Use safe, non-toxic cleaners.
  • Simplify and decorate with motivational objects and inspiring pictures.

• People.  Change your friends.  Phase out and avoid negative people: get rid of the dead-beats, people who dump on you, depressed people who dwell on problems, complainers, criticizers, people who have no money or jobs.  Start hanging out more frequently with positive, inspiring people who are going somewhere, who are successful, and who make you feel good.

• Goals.  Set goals or you will stay where you are.  A goal is a dream with a deadline.  Write down what you need, what you want, and what you wish you could have, and then set a time when you would like to achieve each dream.  Now you have goals.  The only thing left to do is to figure out how you are going to achieve each goal.  Figure out what it would take to get to where you want, then break that process into tiny steps.  Set a starting time, write it in your schedule, make a promise to yourself to commit to sticking with this process, and honor your own promise by starting on schedule.  Tell people your goals and they will hold you accountable.  By setting goals you not only will notice that your attitude improves, but you will also get what you want.

• Play.  “Always play once a day.”  Take little moments out of what you are doing to play.  Play does not necessarily mean go to the playground.  It means “take time to smell the roses, for they may never smell sweeter.”  It means that while you are in the middle of whatever, joke about it – lighten up and look for funny things that are happening in the moment.  Stop what you are doing and go for a short walk; better yet, go for a run.  Do some sit-ups or push-ups.  Change your environment, get physical, breathe different air, do something with a friend.  These play moments don’t have to be long --may be only a couple minutes or so -- but they are fun.

 

BRAINSTORM

Now that your mind and body are in a better state, it is time to think out of the box.  You already know what you have been doing in your life up to this point, and it is obvious that whatever you are doing now isn’t working.  Your entire life is the way it is from the choices you have made.  Studies have shown that people do not really like making decisions because it takes effort, so they will spend as little time as possible in decision-making mode.

Brainstorming does not require decision-making.  Rather, it is creative, fun, and expressive – more like play than work.  Children work very hard all the time because for them whatever they are doing is play. “Make it fun and the work gets done.”  Projects and obstacles can seem daunting unless they are posed as challenges or puzzles; suddenly the project takes on a fun aspect that can even become addicting – people will do nothing else until the goal is achieved and they win.  A perfect example is the concentration it takes to conquer all the difficult tasks in a video game.  Life is the same. 

So start brainstorming.  Often it helps to have a brainstorming party and invite some friends over to help you to think.  Start writing.  Write down any and every idea that comes to you.  Don’t judge, reject or eliminate any idea.  In fact, often the crazier and wilder the idea is, the better.  The words you write don’t have to be in a list – they can be all over the page.

• Write all the things you know you are already good at. 
• List things that you know other people are doing that appeal to you.
• Throw together combinations of things regardless of their compatibility.
• Ask questions regarding what you want and what is related to what you want.
• Think of everything that is associated with what you want, including the source of materials or ideas, the paths they travel, what is added or removed from them, offshoots they create, possible uses or end results that are out of the norm, future possibilities, abstract combinations, and what-if scenarios. 
• Put yourself into alternative situations.  Bring in other people.  Add tools, computers, & aids.
• What would you normally never see yourself doing?

Once your brains have exhausted their ideas, take a break for a day and let your mind mull over what just happened.  Let it daydream and ponder these ideas for a week or so, adding new thoughts onto the paper as they come.  Re-work the combinations and move things around.  Let your gut sift through what feels the best. 

 

RE-STRUCTURE                

This theory is all good, but it is rather vague and open-ended.  Take a specific example.  Let’s say that normally you are accustomed to a desk job, but your company just closed and you have no income.  You have lost of bills due now and you have no way of making any money – or so it seems.  Now with your brainstorm list you have some things that you really could do, but that you probably would rather not do because they are not as fun or challenging, they don’t pay as much, or you are not very good at them.  Well, guess what?  Right now you have to bite the bullet and jump into some cold water. 

Think what people need.  What needs to be done that people do not want to do themselves?  At this point you must be willing to clean toilets, humbling though that may seem.  Let’s say that on your list of things that you “could” do are window washing, yard work, mowing lawns, cleaning gutters, house cleaning, babysitting, walking other people’s dogs, running errands for people, calling people up to remind them about important dates, helping hoarders to get organized, working for a temp agency, sewing, making crafts and selling them at a flea market, having a garage sale, making signs, doing data entry, starting an internet business, or whatever. 
To be more specific, let’s say that you decide to wash windows.  There are certain things you need to do in order to get started.  Once you start, you will be able to earn instant money, and each job will lead to more jobs.  These steps apply to any venture.

• Start.  There are two ways to start: do your research and preparation, or just jump in and do it.
• Research and preparation takes time and sometimes money, but once you start you are prepared, you have a plan, you know what you are doing and you are efficient.
• Advantages
• Being professional from the outset leads to increased referrals.
• Being organized facilitates handling more jobs in a shorter time.
• Drawbacks
• There can be a tendency never to start at all due to a lack of knowledge, materials, equipment, or some minor technical or psychological barrier.
• It takes a while to research and prepare, and you need money now.
• Jumping in blind is a great way to start.  In a very short amount of time you will find out what works, what not to do, what you need, and what customers want.  You soon learn what it is you most need to know, so that when you do approach experts for advice you have some hands-on background for reference.
• Advantages
• The biggest advantage to jumping right in is that you have instant work.
• When you jump in you are alert, ready to learn and please, keenly aware of what must happen, and on your toes since you must make lots of quick decisions to make sure you are on track. 
• Direct hands-on learning creates indelible memories.  The goal is never to make the same mistake twice. 
• Drawbacks
• The problem with jumping right in is that you are totally unprepared, unskilled, and clearly a complete amateur. 
• Learning by trial and error can be slow at times.  Your prices should not be by the hour since in a sense you are being paid to learn.
• Figuring out things yourself can possibly lead to bad habits or circuitous processes.  Without the guide of a mentor or expert, you are often swinging around in the dark hoping you do the right things.
• Tools & equipment.  Before you can wash any windows at all you will need some tools and equipment.  Since you don’t have any money to buy anything, you can do one of several things:
• Borrow someone else’s equipment
• Do some sort of trade or barter to obtain what you need.  Find someone who has the equipment, and work out what you can do for that person in exchange.
• Find a customer, like a neighbor, and ask to be pre-paid enough to enable you to buy what you need to get started.  In this way the customer gets a good deal because you are charging less than the job would normally cost, and you are getting a good deal because you are now able to own equipment that will make you money continually, far into the future.
• Knowledge.  You should know at least the basics of window-washing before jumping in and messing up someone else’s windows. 
• Read up on the subject.  Check out some books from the library.  Look up internet information. 
• Talk to friends, neighbors, relatives, and amateurs.  Go to supply stores and ask advice. 
• Consult with professionals.  Ask permission to follow a professional around for a day to watch and learn.  Offer to work for free alongside a professional for a day or a period of time.  Find a professional who will wash your windows in exchange for something you can do in return; pay close attention.  Particularly look for the little tips and subtle tricks that make the job perfect rather than passable.  Find out what to do, what to avoid, and how to be efficient, clean and swift.  Ask about pricing, problems, and possibilities.
• Practice.  It is wise to wash a few of your own windows, both inside and out, before going into someone else’s home. 
• The absolute best way to learn anything is to have an expert demonstrate, then you try to copy what you saw.  Then the expert does it, then you do it, over and over.  Each time you try to emulate what you just saw, you will improve.  The first time you will have the rough idea but you will miss the details.  The next time you will get the details, but you will have missed the style.  Each imitation will grow closer and more accurately to the example.
• It takes 10,000 hours of hands-on experience to become an expert – that’s approximately every day for ten years.  It takes twenty-one days to learn any motor muscle skill – that’s at least two hours a day every day for three weeks.  Don’t expect to “get it” the first time.
• Always practice on something that doesn’t matter first before doing something that does matter.  You want to know what you’re doing or you shouldn’t be doing it.  Find out what can go wrong before touching someone else’s things.  You cannot afford to make mistakes.  If you ruin something that is not yours you will have to pay for it and you don’t have the money to take that risk. 
• Be methodical, careful and knowledgeable.  Create a system that works for you and stick to it.  Keep track of anything that you move, and put things back when you’re done.   Clean up as you go.  Leave things better than you found them. 
• Do everything three times.  First do the basic rough overview.  Then do the job carefully and accurately.  Finally go back and touch up the tiny details that were missed.

 

SPREAD THE WORD

You don’t have a business if you have no customers.  People must know that you exist.  When people know that you can help them, they will want you.  Get the word out.

• Talk yourself up.  Start telling all your friends what you are doing.  Word spreads.  Talk about your new projects in every conversation you have.  Ask for opinions and advice.
• Ask for referrals.  The average person knows at least two hundred other people.  That means that every person you talk to is a resource of clients. 
• Take advantage of your computer.  Post your service on Facebook, Craig’s List, and other social networks.  Be up-beat and excited.   Include photos showing you working and of your best finished projects. 
• If you are desperate and need immediate cash, you can go door-knocking and cold-calling. Always smile.  Make an offer they can’t refuse.  Be willing to negotiate, trade or even come down on your price.  Some kind of work is better than nothing at all.  No matter how desperate you are, never come across as being desperate: that repels people.  Leave them an out to say no, be willing to let go and move on, and carry the attitude that you don’t have to have their particular business because there are so many other potential clients out there.  Somewhere out there are people who need exactly what you have to offer; those are the people you are seeking. 
• Be grateful for each job.  It doesn’t matter who they are or which ones they are, simply be happy that you have people who are willing to hire you.  The days are gone when people unhappily would “have to” go to work.  Nowadays people thankfully “get to” go to work.  Appreciate your customers to the point that you are willing to do not only your best but that you are willing to do more than they ask for or expect.  Word will spread that you are good. 
• Be reliable and honest.  Build a strong reputation for yourself.  Show up on time.  Do a good job and clean up afterward.  Be professional: keep a schedule, call ahead, have your procedure down to a system, keep your equipment in tip-top condition, keep the customer’s best interest in mind, and always compliment and thank the customer. 

 

START SMALL BUT THINK BIG

Even though you are starting this venture to make instant cash – you do a job and you get paid on the spot – ultimately as you improve word will spread and your business will expand.  Think ahead as time goes on which directions you want to go.

• Expansion
• Could this business turn into your next major source of income?  If so, is this what you want?  Is it enjoyable?  Is the money potential attractive or simply a band aid?
• How could this business be expanded?  What other types of clients might be interested in these services or products as well?  What types of people peripherally need you?
• Multiple Streams of Income
• What products can be added to this service?  What services can be added to this product?
• What other businesses could be added to this one?  Consider adding a cluster of similar businesses. 
• Begin looking into businesses that are the opposite of this one to complement each other.  For example, window washing, gutter cleaning and lawn mowing are good when the weather is good, but what businesses might be good during bad weather?  Think of opposites: summer vs. winter, dealing with lots of people vs. with only one person or even nobody at all, indoors vs. outdoors, fast vs. slow, travelling vs. stationary, high end prices vs. low-end prices, products vs. services, necessity items vs. luxury goods, working alone vs. working as a team, etc.
• What if the business expands to the point that the location would have to change, employees would need to be hired, tooling would be expanded, etc.?
• Examine advertising alternatives.  People will buy and pay for anything if they want it.  Look at past history: people will pay for sticks and rocks and garbage if these things become attractive.  It’s all in their perception of value.  How can you show what you have as worth more than what else is out there?  This is the key to making money. 
• Create three different types of businesses:
• Products (both high-end and low-end)
• Services (both winter and summer)
• Residual (ongoing payments for one-time activities)

 

SUMMARY
In conclusion, here are the steps you need to take to make instant money:

• Get your health back in order by doing the following: eat, sleep, exercise and change your attitude.   In particular, it is important to clean up and organize your space, take time to play, make a point of surrounding yourself with positive, successful people, and to set goals.
• Brainstorm fresh ideas of what new directions you can go to make money.  If you don’t do this you will stay where you are, and you can’t afford to do that.  Consider even things you don’t like doing.
• Re-structure your life and get yourself set up for change.  Choose one or several jobs you can do right away and gather the materials you will need for each one.  Do your homework: learn at least the basics about how to be a little better than the average person to make yourself worth hiring.  Take the time to experiment, practice and make trial runs in order to create a system for your operation so that you are confident enough to do the same for other people.
• Spread the word.  Tell everyone to tell everyone.   Remember that bad news travels faster than good news.  You don’t want bad news about you to travel quickly.  You want good news to spread, and since you know it travels more slowly you must be out there more so people see and know you.  Give your first few customers special deals or work for free so they can start telling others.  Actually even if you work for “free” you are really being paid in the form of positive advertising, which is often worth far more than money in the long run.
• Start small, but think big.  Keep in mind the long-term picture of where you are going and where you would like to be.  However, you must start small for several reasons.
• You are not yet an expert. 
• Your primary goal is to pay bills and debts. 
• You need to expand your existing customer base:  find more clients.
• You are slow and lack the tricks to make things efficient.  Learn these skills.
• You don’t have time to mess around or to spend your energy on activities that do not produce money.  Weed out these unimportant time wasters and do what earns income.
• Once your new business takes off, you can then start thinking into the beyond.

 

If you don't have the ability or time to put together an instant business, give me a call and I will help you get started with a business that is ready-to-go, and that includes all three types of businesses in one: products, services, and residual income.

Call while this is fresh in your mind:
Dean (206) 324-5055.