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I need to make an extra $500 by July 26. And now my hustle has begins. (copy/web design)

Anything considered a "hustle" and not necessarily a CENTS-based Fastlane

Choate

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So, long story short, I've been hit with the perfect storm this month - basically, more expenses but less income. I do a mix of copy and web design and rely both on Upwork and long term clients I have for myself. My primary client is selling his website before we dive into a few new things in the beginning of August, which has left me a little bit short. Not usually a problem but this month is different...

July 26 is my best friend's wedding which I have no business going to due to my financial situation but I am going to make it work since I've committed and I'm in the wedding party. I'm out of money but I still have to pay for my tux rental ($200 on pickup), and my hotel for the weekend which is around $300.

Now with Upwork, you have to wait 5 days for escrow protection to get paid... which means my last day to possibly get paid through it is likely Saturday (maybe Sunday).

So that will be part 1 of my hustle - I need to maximize potential earnings off of Upwork in the next ~72 hours. Since they take a 20% cut. If anyone wants to check out my profile I would probably be more comfortable PMing but may include it in a further message here.

Part 2... I have an abandoned website from a few months ago that I never ended up using, and I could finish it up within 6-8 hours or so in order to leverage it to make sales. Basically, a bare bones local website with just enough info on home/services/about/contact in order to clients to understand I am a legit, local person. AKA... a minimum viable product. That website is [redacted due to this thread already showing up in Google...]. My idea for this is to productize a few specific services and start hitting the phones on Monday for sales. This will give me enough time to finish up part 1 with Upwork, build out the rest of the website, and compile a list of businesses to call. The benefit to this is I can charge a lot more, get paid faster/partially upfront, and see if I can leverage this website for future use.

It's about 1am here that's all I have for now. The countdown is on... I have 8 days to provide $500 worth of value through copywriting and web design, from proposal to pitch to doing the work to actually getting paid.

It's literally sink or swim because I cannot even begin to fathom the embarrassment of not being able to go to the wedding. I'll update this every 12-24 hours until D-Day in order to stay on track. All kicks in the a$$ are welcome.
 
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Fox

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Web design isn’t an 8 day type of business. Most clients will think about investing in a site for at least a week.

You got to think longer than 8 days for a proper business - it takes time to build up. It took me four months to make proper money with selling websites.

Get a bucket of paint and go paint peoples fences in your area.

Go cut grass.

Go work at a temp staffing agency.

Thinking like this will nearly guarantee you won’t succeed with web design. Real clients want someone who cares about their business - not someone just trying to pay for a wedding in a week. They will most likely sense something is off with your priorities.

Try get on a long term track for real money once this wedding is over.

I’d also check out “the richest man in babylon”.
 

Fox

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Honestly if it was me I wouldn’t go to the wedding and I’d stay home and feel embarrassed.

I’d then I’d use that feeling to make some real change.

I’d ask myself the tough questions like

- why don’t I have this money easily to spare

- why haven’t I been successful when others have

- what are my daily habits and beliefs creating in my life

- what can I do to start turning all of this around

You have been in the forums since 2014 - you got to start looking at why you are making more progress.

Commit to stop ignoring the fact you have zero savings and resolve to change everything you can since what I’m currently doing is clearly not working.

I don’t care if this is harsh - you need to hear it. You got a whole forum here to help and no excuses. Get things in order.

I’ve been there and had to do these same things myself. You can pretend it’s fine and continue as you are or face reality and being to change.

Make a new thread and break it all down, be open, and let people help.
 

Choate

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@Jmad97 I have definitely thought about flipping a few items. From a canoe that has to go at some point anyways to a mini helmet signed by Tom Brady. These things are on the table as I don't hold them particularly close to me and like to free up space but I'll probably take the weekend to figure it out and see where I am on Monday.

@Fox You are on to something about my situation and this is really only the tip of the iceberg. Despite being on this forum for 5 years (I mean hell it's even worse than that, I had an account in like 2012 and read TMF around then), I let things go to the wayside. After going through an office wide lay off in 2016 in a sales job I was conquering, I began my journey of bonafide sidewalker by convincing myself I was working on my fastlane goals while wasting tons of time and money - when in reality I became a freelancer who was barely scraping by. That definitely warrants its own thread and I need to start working towards real solution with the long term in mind to turn this situation around.

Like you said, it's probably best to stay home from the wedding. It's an option I've weighed for the past few days. I know time is of the essence to give them notice but I need to see what I can do in the next 36 hours before I press the nuke button and bail out.

A possible plan B is to drop out of being a groomsman in the wedding party, thus not having to come up with money for the hotel and tux and essentially only having to drive there the day-of. That way I can attend the wedding without the associated costs. Anyone have insight on this?

I downloaded The Richest Man in Babylon and will begin to chip away at it.
 
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Fox

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@Jmad97 I have definitely thought about flipping a few items. From a canoe that has to go at some point anyways to a mini helmet signed by Tom Brady. These things are on the table as I don't hold them particularly close to me and like to free up space but I'll probably take the weekend to figure it out and see where I am on Monday.

@Fox You are on to something about my situation and this is really only the tip of the iceberg. Despite being on this forum for 5 years (I mean hell it's even worse than that, I had an account in like 2012 and read TMF around then), I let things go to the wayside. After going through an office wide lay off in 2016 in a sales job I was conquering, I began my journey of bonafide sidewalker by convincing myself I was working on my fastlane goals while wasting tons of time and money - when in reality I became a freelancer who was barely scraping by. That definitely warrants its own thread and I need to start working towards real solution with the long term in mind to turn this situation around.

Like you said, it's probably best to stay home from the wedding. It's an option I've weighed for the past few days. I know time is of the essence to give them notice but I need to see what I can do in the next 36 hours before I press the nuke button and bail out.

A possible plan B is to drop out of being a groomsman in the wedding party, thus not having to come up with money for the hotel and tux and essentially only having to drive there the day-of. That way I can attend the wedding without the associated costs. Anyone have insight on this?

I downloaded The Richest Man in Babylon and will begin to chip away at it.

The quickest way to free up money is to sell what you got.

The second quickest way to get quick cash is odd jobs.

Freelancing has a "delay". Most cash comes in weeks after you make the first contact.

Another option is to make a marketplace post on here and offer something at a super low price in exchange for the money.

But ya the bigger picture is to long term use this forum to get properly on your feet. You live in the best country in the world at one of the best times ever - you don't need to be stapped for cash like this.

You write well so I am sure you have the ability to do well -you just need to switch things up.

Go enjoy the wedding if it is important to you but long term focus on yourself.
 

1step

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I need some emails written that I don’t want to write. If your copy is good I’ll hire you. Send me a link to your Upwork profile and past copy examples if interested

Fair warning it’s a lot of emails
 

Primeperiwinkle

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It’s Saturday. Update??

You’re not the only one who had to come up with some cash by the end of the month for weird reasons... my number is 2k.

Where you at now?
 
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100ToOne

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Massachusetts minimum wage is $12/hour as of January 1, 2019.

12dollars*8hours*7days(left) = 672 dollars.

I'm not from the US so don't take my word for it lol. I just agree with what Fox said.
 

Choate

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Well to close out this thread, I ended up making around $900 just in time for the wedding. It was a mix of a forum member offering a good amount of work along with some IRL hustling. Wedding was absolutely amazing and while I was running on 3 hours of sleep a night in the latter half of the week, it was 100% worth it in the end. Sometime in August I'll be making a progress thread on my overall happenings or may revive an old one I have.
 

Danczyk

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Man you are in Boston too many businesses to be called you should be absolutely killing it. @Fox has laid it out all for you.
 

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