Quick cash jobs are not always easy, and on the flipside, easy cash jobs are not always quick. But this one offers a little of both:
Shoveling snow as a quick cash side job

When I was in college in the Chicago area, I made lots of cash every winter shoveling snow off people’s driveways and sidewalks. Face it, no one, and I mean no one likes to shovel snow. No matter how good of shape you are in or what your age, shoveling in sub-zero weather is hard to do.
This is where the would-be cash job entrepreneur can capitalize.

Tools needed for this side job
1) snow shovel
2) snow blower ( if you have the cash to invest)
3) ice melt salt (to add that extra touch at the end)

Really, only the first item is necessary and the following two are just icing on the cash cake.
The way to shovel snow for cash is to first decide on where you are going to target and hit that area BEFORE the snow falls. Get your fliers out on the doors and make contact with potential customers. The idea is to get your name and phone number in front of them so when that big snow storm comes, they will call you first and pay you cash on the spot.
I normally target areas with older folks. It’s pretty obvious that they are the ones most willing to pay you to do the job for them.

Next, you want to decide what to charge. This one can burn you quick, so listen up: You NEVER want to quote a set price to shovel a driveway for cash. Here’s how I got burned:

Back a few years ago a buddy of mine and I lined up about 10 accounts to shovel snow for cash. We found an area that had lots of paired townhomes with small driveways. We figured that with a normal amount of snowfall the two of use together could clear one of these small driveways in about 15 minutes. With that in mind, we told the folks we’d shovel their driveways for $20 each. With 10 accounts lined up, that would equate to $200 for 150 minutes of work or about 2-and-a-half hours of work. That breaks down to $100 each in cash…not bad right? But the the problem was our assumption of “normal amount of snow.”
Well, what we did not count on was the big, huge colossal snowstorm that hit us that December. Yep, you guessed it, we arrived on that day to discover that our customers’ driveways were buried in snow drifts 4-feet tall. It ended up taking us 3 hours to shovel one driveway for a measly $20! BURN BURN BURN!

So here is the lesson: You can charge $20 for a small driveway, but make sure you put in some verbage on your agreement (verbal is fine with cash jobs, just re-confirm before you start the actual work) that the $20 price is charged for 4″ or less of snow, and that there will be another $20 charge for each additional 4″ buildup and snowdrifts will be charged $20 per hour. (let the customer know these things prior to the storm and re-confirm them the day you show up to do the work)

You will need to do a little negotiating at the door sometimes on the actual work day, but realize that when you show up, if the customer turns you away because they don’t want to pay, then they will have to make other arrangements and chances are that after a big storm, there will be nobody available. But it won’t hurt you because you can just go to the neighbor and get their cash business!
I’m not telling you to screw people over here. What I am telling you is that you don’t want to get screwed over yourself.
You have to achieve a balance of give and take., just like any business, even a fast cash business like this one.

So now you see that shoveling snow is a quick cash business, but not necessarily and easy cash business. Go out today and line up those cash jobs and when snow hits, you’ll be in the green baby!