Creative Cash Flow Generators: How to Generate Green When You Are Seeing Red

Any time you find yourself in a cash crunch, get creative! There are a million and one ways to get cash flow in the door quickly whether through business means or a personal sale. The cash doesn’t care how you raise it, you just need cash so here are 7 creative ways to go from red to green, not ranked in any order of best to least, just what I’ve used or have colleagues and friends who have used these!

#1 Craigslist.com
Yes, you can sell all manner of things locally on Craigslist. The key is to include a picture, be thorough in your description, and get it up Thursday or Friday night before weekend shoppers go hunting. Keep in mind, Craigslist.com is often best for low end product and services, and be prepared to negotiate.

#2 Ebay
Without the limitations of local and low priced, Ebay can really move goods. Of course, it helps if you are an established seller with a strong reputation. But even without that when you tell your story in a colorful fashion you can generate the necessary trust for someone to want to buy your goods. Great pictures and keyword rich descriptions are a must. Oh and if you use one of those Ebay “stores” they take 30%. My bet is your crunch can’t handle that, take the time to do it yourself.

#3 Sell Gold and Silver
I know you see these folks on every corner in some cities and you do need to be careful what resource you go to. If you prefer to just get a loan, then use #4 Pawn It. Be sure you are willing to part with your precious metals, and for goodness sakes DO NOT use any of those virtual services that send you an envelope and you send it back, this needs to be face to face with a reputable dealer.

#4 Pawn It
While I’ve never pawned goods, I have bought goods from a pawn dealer because you can get great deals on great equipment and products. No, you aren’t going to get retail on your goods, you’ll get a percentage of the actual value and the difference is what the Pawn Shop makes if you don’t come back (along with interest they charge you when you do come back.)

#5 Credit Card Conversation
This is shockingly easy to do and works 75% of the time. Look closely at your credit card bills. When you have a solid payment history, you can often negotiate a lower interest rate if you are carrying balances. In addition, some cards penalize you for a late payment and you can negotiate to have that penalty charge removed. Sometimes it can depend on the agent you speak with, call back if you don’t get anywhere the first time. The savings here is as good as money in your pocket and will reduce that credit card payment next month if you keep your mitts off the spending.

#6 Elance.com
If you are a quality service provider, go check out elance.com and see if you can market your services there. Most often we talk about using it to find service providers, but when you are in a cash crunch you may want to consider becoming one of those providers if you have a skill set that fits.

#7 Flexjobs.com
This is a directory of flexible jobs both online and offline that are both project based and full hire. If you’ve got more time than cash, this may be a good fit for you for a temporary duration.

The question is really how crunched are you and how serious are you about solving that cash crunch. When you really want to take action, explore one or two of these 7 ways to get relieve and start your cash flowing again.

I’d love to hear your creative cash flow generators. I’ve got loads more I can share and a handful on the business side that can be effective coming up in a post next week.