How to Make $300 Dollars Fast AF (Online & Offline)

Are you tired of looking at the same ole’ side-hustle ideas? It seems like everyone and their brother wants you to start a dog walking business or a blog. 

Or a blog about starting a dog walking business.

These folks aren’t wrong. But this kind of stuff takes time. If you need extra cash and you don’t have six months to wait for Google to take you out of the sandbox, you’re in the right place.

Today I’m going to share some ideas — some of them pretty far outside of the box — that can make you cold hard cash.

How cold? And how hard? Most, if not all of these ideas should show you how to make $300 fast…potentially within a day or two. 

Some ideas require you to pull up your sleeves and get your hands dirty. Others are completely online. And a few just require some upfront money to earn passively.

Whichever you choose, they’re all proven to work. 

I’ve personally used a combination of these methods to build a five-figure per month income, and I’ve met people having success in every one of these methods.

Let’s dive in.

How Not to Make $300 Fast

First off, let’s start with what not to do. Knowing how not to make 300 dollars quickly can have just as much value as knowing how you can.

Blogging. YouTube. Streaming. These are all great sources of income…eventually (and potentially).

But you can’t expect to earn overnight. Sure, they offer awesome flexibility and essentially zero startup costs. But if you need money STAT, any strategy that requires building an audience is not the best path.

To earn $300 as fast as possible, you’ll most likely be trading time for money (or for objects). 

This isn’t a bad thing. Especially if you just need extra cash for an upcoming holiday or vacation. You may not need anything permanent.

But you never know where a simple side hustle may lead.

A buddy of mine lost his full-time job. While he was looking for something new, he started a small power-washing gig. After finding a new full-time job, he kept the power washing business.

He didn’t need the money. But he realized power washing was surprisingly therapeutic. An extra $10k to $15k a year (or roughly making an extra $50-ish per workday) was just icing on the cake. 

With that in mind, as you read through this list, consider both the short- and long-term potential of each idea.

How to Make 300 Dollars Fast Online

Note: Income data comes from ZipRecruiter’s salary database unless otherwise stated.

1. Freelancing

Freelancing a skill you already have (or one you want to develop) is a great way to make some quick cash. People who want to break into the freelance writing game, for example, usually start off on websites like Problogger.

But writing isn’t the only option. There are tons of awesome freelance opportunities for beginners.

You can get your foot in the door on sites like UpWork, Fiverr, Freelancer, and others. Most of these are free to sign up for. But to take advantage of their network of opportunities, they take a cut of your earnings. Before signing up, you may want to determine if freelancing platforms like Upwork are worth it to you.

You can make a quick $300 on these sites. But if you want to continue long-term, you’ll earn more by finding clients off-platform.

One of the most important skills anyone can have is networking. If you want to freelance a skill you already have, find ways to tap into your personal and professional networks to find side work.

How long will it take you to earn $300?
“Freelancing” is a pretty broad term. According to Upwork, the average freelancer makes $20 an hour. This comes to 15 hours of your time. That’s 5 days a week at 3 hours a day to make a cool $300.

If you don’t have any skills to freelance, you can take a bunch of free online courses here for a month to learn everything you need to know. 

And if you’re specifically interested in freelance writing, I created an epic free course for you below.

2. Proofreading

If you have an eye for discrepancies in the written word, check out proofreading as a side-hustle. Bloggers, websites, and content mills are always looking for proofreading and editing staff.

Freelance proofreading clients aren’t going to care how old you are, especially if you communicate via email and never meet them face-to-face. Heck, there are many proofreading jobs from home that don’t require experience.

That makes this a great way to make 300 dollars fast as a teenager. 

And since English class is fresh in your memory, you’ll have it easy!

That said, depending on your network, the effort you give, and your self-marketing skills, it may take a few days (at least) to land your clients. So if you’re desperate for money STAT, it might not be the fastest option possible. But if you hustle, it’s still relatively quick. And you can do it long-term to boost your monthly income.

How long will it take you to earn $300?
The main difference between proofreading and other freelancing jobs is finding them. You have to know where to look and who to talk to. However, the pay is fairly consistent with other freelancing gigs at roughly $20 to $25 per hour. Or if you wanted to make $300 a week, 12 to 15 hours a week of your time. Full-time proofreading would be a good way to make $3000 per month.

For help finding your first clients, here’s a free mini-course on how to become a proofreader. 

3. Virtual Assistant

If you don’t want to create content or be stuck with a single task all day long, becoming a virtual assistant could be the right move. Responsibilities as a virtual assistant vary from client to client.

You may work organizing a schedule for one client while proofreading blog content for another. Monday you may be replying to emails, and Tuesday you might be booking hotel or golf arrangements.

Best of all, there are virtual assistant services for all skill levels. If you’re stuck on what services to offer, here are over 50 profitable VA ideas. 

How long will it take you to earn $300?
A VA with in-demand skills can expect to earn anywhere from $20 to $40 an hour. What does this mean for you? Anywhere from 7.5 to 15 hours of your time. The more specialized your skill, the less time it’ll take. If you’re specialized enough, you can easily earn $300 a day as a virtual assistant. All from the comfort of your home.

Here’s a free masterclass that shows how to break into VA work and land your first paying client.

And if you wanna go all in and make this an actual career, here are the best virtual assistant training courses.

4. Customer Service

Working from home is a dream lifestyle for some, but not everyone is cut out for freelancing (or a feast-and-famine income).

If you want a stable income and you enjoy helping people, look into work-from-home customer service jobs. These are usually part-time or full-time jobs that may even come with juicy benefits.

You can have all of the upsides of a full-time job without the commute — help the kids with school work, make dinner, and write off your home office on your taxes. Not bad if you ask me.

How long will it take you to earn $300?
This kind of job is less of a side-hustle and more of a “real” job. If you have no experience, you’re looking at an average of $13 per hour in the United States. Depending on your position, you also can potentially earn thousands of dollars in bonuses and commissions per year. To make $300, you’re looking at around 23 hours of work (once hired).

5. Online Tutoring

Are you a teacher or someone with a knack for explaining things in simple terms? If so, you can earn money from anywhere by tutoring online. 

If you don’t have expertise in any particular subject, you can also make good money teaching English to students all over the world. 

If teaching English as a second language tickles your fancy, but you don’t want to bother getting certified, check out our guide on how to earn money by having casual conversations in English (no experience required).

How long will it take you to earn $300?
The income potential for teaching English or tutoring online depends on your credentials. Without credentials, you’re looking at $10 to $15 per hour. With a teaching degree or TEFL certification, you can easily make $20 per hour. And if you find private clients, potentially double, or even triple that. 

This free webcast covers everything you need to know about teaching English during  (and after) the pandemic. 

6. Talk to Strangers

Believe it or not, you can get paid to talk to strangers. It’s unfortunate, but the world is full of lonely people. All they want is to have a conversation. To be heard.

The key to success with this kind of thing is to do it safely. Make sure to research any of the platforms you’re interested in before signing up. Some of them will require you to have a webcam and your face will be shown. Others are more anonymous.

Check out my full article on how to make money talking to lonely people.

How long will it take you to earn $300?
Some of these platforms pay you up to $30 an hour to talk to lonely folks. Just ten hours of your time talking to someone can put $300 in your pocket. And who knows, you may even get paid to make a virtual friend.

7. Sell Pics of your Feet

There are a lot of bloggers out there that will suggest freelance photography as a great side-hustle. 

Perhaps. But there’s an easier way.  

Take pictures of your own feet and you can potentially make way more money. The average freelance photographer makes a little over $40,000 a year. And to do that, you have to have professional skills.

However, people selling pics of their feet online can pull in $25 a picture or more.

You might think this bizarre way to earn money online deserves its own blog post. And you’re right — here it is.

Will you meet some weirdos? Probably. But as you’ll see in my guide, people pay for feet pics for a variety of non-weird reasons as well.

You can also sell hand pics for money, although it isn’t quite as lucrative.

How long will it take you to earn $300?
At $25 a foot pic, it will take you 12 sales. If you want to earn 300 dollars fast online, then take on multiple clients. If you sell the same three pictures to four clients, you’ve got 300 bones to play with. No pun intended. Kidding. It was intended.

8. Earn passively with crypto

This is one of the easiest ways to earn $300 passively.

Recently I stumbled deep into the world of crypto. It’s mind-boggling at first, but the more you immerse yourself, the more it makes sense.

UPDATE: LUNA, UST, and Anchor Earn have collapsed. It was fun while it lasted. Then…it wasn’t. I kept the info here to illustrate an example of how things can work. In the future, there might be better options.

To explain it super simply, there is something called the Anchor Protocol. This protocol lets you do a bunch of stuff you normally need a bank for (savings account, borrowing, lending, etc.), but without the bank. In other words, it is decentralized, as they say.

Anyway, their version of a savings account currently offers a fixed ~20% return. That’s pretty nuts considering that normal banks in the U.S. offer an average yield of 0.06%.

Once you learn the basics of crypto, it’s easy to park your money there. And you can take it out any time you want.

How long will it take you to earn $300?
It all depends on how much money you deposit into your “savings account”. At a 20% return, you would need to deposit:

💰 $1,500 to make $300 a year passively.
💰 $18,000 to make $300 a month passively.
💰 $78,000 to make $300 a week passively.
💰 $547,500 to make $300 a day passively.

Not bad if all you have to do is park your money, sit back, and relax. As with any investment, there is risk, but this is relatively small compared to most other crypto options. (Disclaimer: This is not investment advice — always do your own research!)

How to Make $300 Dollars Fast Offline

9. Care.com

I had a friend with a high-stress management job at a big-box retail chain. She was miserable. 

One day, she decided to take a gamble and signed up for Care.com. If she could pick up enough clients cleaning houses for people, she could quit the job she hated and spend more time with her kids.

It took less than a month to fill up her roster at $20 an hour with no professional experience (more than she earned in her management job).

Care.com offers way more than cleaning gigs. Babysitting, house sitting, dog walking, and many other gigs can be found on the website.

How long will it take you to earn $300?
My friend ended up LLC’ing the business. The potential write-offs were too enticing not to do it. I’m sure she’s raised her rates since starting, but at her initial rate, it would only take her 15 hours to generate $300 in revenue. If you’re looking for how to get $300 fast, this one can take a few weeks to build up. But once you fill up your roster, it can turn into a long-term career.

10. Handyman (or woman)

If your hobbies include building things, fixing them, and in some cases, breaking them, then handy services could be a great way for you to make $300 fast.

Tools can be expensive. Non-tinkerers don’t want to buy a whole set of tools for a one-off job. So they either rent tools, or they hire someone to do the work for them (like you).

If you’re already doing this stuff for fun or constantly working on projects around the house, chances are you’ve already accumulated your own tools.

Handyman jobs have also moved to the gig economy with apps like TaskRabbit and Handy.

How long will it take you to earn $300?
Handymen and women make roughly $24 an hour. But this depends on the project. If you go the app route, you can probably count on $20 an hour as an average. Like most of the hustles on this list, 15 hours will get you where you want to be.

11. Hair and Nails

Hairdressers and nail techs are the unsung heroes of everything from special occasions to date nights. If you’ve ever had to reach out to one of these folks in any kind of emergency, you’re aware of the damage it can do to your wallet.

Many run their side-hustle out of their homes or will come directly to you. Why not be on the other side of the table? 

How long will it take you to earn $300?
Freelance hairdressers average more than $23 an hour while nail techs pull in an average of over $28 per hour, according to ZipRecruiter. Either way, In less than 15 hours, you’re sitting on a cool $300.

Keep in mind, any figure you read online is going to be base pay. They can’t include tips and under-the-table type gigs because there is no way to track those figures.

12. Landscaping

If you want to earn 300 dollars fast as a teenager, then landscaping is one of your best options. It’s perfect summer and weekend work, making it ideal for younger folks and adults with a nine to five job.

Ideally, you’ll want your own equipment. If you don’t have any, you can always help out a pro for an hourly wage.

How long will it take you to earn $300?
The average hourly pay for this kind of work is around $14 if you work for a company. Self-employed landscapers, on the other hand, haul in $36 per hour on average, according to ZipRecruiter.

If you’re just starting with a basic side hustle with “normal people” equipment (i.e., no ginormous riding lawn mower that goes 0-60mph in 5 seconds), $20 per hour is a reasonable goal to shoot for. Two 8-hour shifts over the weekend should be all it takes. 

13. Driving

Driving apps have something for everyone. Uber and Lift satisfy the chatty Cathies. While food delivery like Doordash is for those who prefer a solitary driving life.

The best part about these apps is the signup process is painless. It takes a few days for them to verify all of your information. But once you’re done, you just log in and hit the road.

Check out this dude’s strategy for hitting $25 per hour:

How long will it take you to earn $300?
A busy night on these apps will bring in close to $25 an hour. People who have mastered the art of “multi-apping” and are willing to grind 8+ hour shifts can profit $300 in a day and a half. 

14. Sell Stuff

Selling your stuff is one of the best ways to make 300 dollars fast. Unfortunately, it means you won’t have your stuff anymore. 

If you’re looking to embrace minimalism, then getting rid of your stuff could be exactly what you wanted to do — win-win!

But what if you like all of your stuff? That’s where retail arbitrage comes in, or the art of selling other people’s stuff. 

Go to places like Goodwill and department stores during sales. Buy items for cheap and then flip them online using eBay, Amazon, and Facebook Marketplace.

Another option is to focus on high-margin flips. For example, if you find a steal on a used vehicle and quickly resell it, you could hundreds (or even thousands) in just a few days.

I have a friend who started flipping snowmobiles in high school. Now he has an entire warehouse full of snowmobiles, dirtbikes, boats, and cars — all ready to sell.

How long will it take you to earn $300?
This is completely up to you. How hard are you willing to grind hunting down deals in stores and online? The more you do it, the faster you get. 

There is no set rate for retail arbitrageurs. If you hit the jackpot and find a huge stock of discounted products that you can resell for a $30 profit each, you’ll reach $300 in the time it takes to ship those items. 

Now, if you’re looking for how to get 300 dollars right now, post some of your own stuff on Facebook Marketplace for cheap. When I need to make money fast, I list things for 10% cheaper than other comparable listings. Oftentimes it sells within a day.

15. Wait Tables

Let’s say you have no idea what you want to do. It happens. 

What’s your best option? Instead of twiddling your thumbs waiting for a magic opportunity to fall in your lap, why not wait tables in the meantime? Restaurants are always looking for server help and the tips can be fantastic.

If you spend one full day applying at different restaurants, it would be hard not to find a job in today’s market. Some restaurants are so desperate for help that you could start work tomorrow.

The best part is servers typically work in 4- to 5-hour shifts. So if you’re only available 10 hours a week, this could be a nice flexible option.

How long will it take you to earn $300?
The best servers I’ve ever known can bring in anywhere from $100 to $200 in a five-hour shift, provided these shifts are during peak dinner hours in popular, decently priced restaurants. Lunch tends to bring in the cheaper crowd.

As a beginner, you probably won’t make quite this much, but it’s something to shoot for. According to ZipRecruiter, the average waiter salary is $16 an hour, which means you could reach your goal in just a few days of work (especially if you score good tips).

It’s not the sexiest job on the list, but it doesn’t have to be permanent. It’s quick to start, requires little experience, and is fairly flexible — a great temporary option until you decide what you really want to do. 

16. Farmer’s Markets

If you enjoy cooking or crafting, you don’t need a business license or fancy website to start making money. Most farmer’s markets charge you to set up a table, and then it’s up to you to sell your goods. 

This also opens up cool networking possibilities. You never know who you’ll run into at a farmer’s market or what they may need.

Markets can also be a helpful place to look for business ideas. Take a look around and see what other people are doing. You may find something that gets the juices flowing.

How long will it take you to earn $300?
It depends on what you sell, the demand for what you sell, your margins, and the time you invest.

Let’s say you make the best hummus in town. Each container you sell makes you $5 in profit, and you make enough hummus to fill 20 containers every week. It will take you 3 weeks to earn $300.

If you’re willing to make hummus all day every day, you can travel to different markets and scale the hummus business accordingly. You might even meet a hummus-crazy client who wants jars delivered to his house every day. Again, you never know what kind of rabbit hole a farmer’s market will lead to.

As another example, maybe knitting is your jam. If you’ve ever been on Etsy, you know hand-knitted items aren’t cheap. Granted, this is more of a seasonal thing. But if you spend all spring and summer knitting while you watch TV, then you’ll have a full inventory come fall, ready to make bank. You can also sell digital products on Etsy, which lets you create a product once and sell it forever. These Etsy printables training programs teach you exactly how to do it.

How to Make 300 Dollars in a Week (or Less)

Every side hustle idea on this list can be done within a week or less. 

To maximize your speediness, choose something that you already know how to do. Something you can start this second.

For example, if you pop open Facebook Marketplace and list that old TV of yours, the cell phone you tossed in your junk drawer after upgrading, and that treadmill you have in the basement collecting dust—you’ll meet your goal pretty quickly. You may even make 300 dollars in a day!

If — immediately after reading this guide — you walk around your neighborhood asking if anyone needs their lawn mowed, driveway power washed, weeds pulled, or dogs walked, you’ll make it to three hundo in no time.

Or if you’re looking for quick ways to earn 300 bucks online, sign up for Cambly or Palfish and start chatting in English—no experience required (check out my Palfish review here). These Cambly alternatives will help you reach your goal even faster.

Now, if you’re wondering how to make 300 dollars in a week on a regular basis, that’s a different story. For something more long-term and consistent, consider taking the time to find an ongoing freelance client who needs help with writing, proofreading, or any type of virtual assistant tasks.

You could also invest in a cheap TEFL certification and start pulling in upwards of $20 per hour teaching English online—even more if you find private students.