When Should You Quit Your Day Job?

This post is by necessity going to be subjective. There is no definitive answer as to when you’re making enough money on the Internet to quit your day job. However, I hope to at least give you some background so that you can get a better idea of what you should be thinking about in terms of walking away from the old 9-5. Here’s what you need to know:

Do You Have a Day Job?

The first question of course is whether you even have a secure day job or you merely have a business that you run, either from home or from an office. This matters a lot because a business that you own, you can always scale back on and even hire someone else to take over part of the work as you build your Internet business up.
If you do have that kind of situation, then you have a much easier decision to make. You can start by scaling back and or simply hiring someone else to help out with taking over some of the work load. In today’s tight economy, it’s even possible to find a contractor who will work on a per diem or per piece basis so that you don’t have to make a long term commitment if the Internet business isn’t making as much as you thought it would.

If You Do Have a Day Job

If you do have the formal 9-5 grind and your Internet business is starting to take off but isn’t quite making you a living yet, then you may want to consider talking to the boss about scaling back on your hours. Perhaps you could work one day a week less so that you can spend more time focused on your home business. It’s a tricky proposition though, especially in a bad economy so tread lightly on this.

But When Do You Quit?

Okay, so I’ve been dancing around this question of when you can quit your day job because frankly, I don’t have a real answer to offer. The reality is that it depends largely on the amount of free time you have as well as on your own savings and comfort level.
For example, if you’re taking home $1,000 per month working part time on your Internet business, will you be able to survive on that $1,000 while you’re trying to build up your business? How long has that money been coming in? Is it consistent money? Do you have a spouse who can kick in some money to help out when things are tough? As you can see, the question of when to quit is fraught with questions.

The Rule of Thumb

Instead of giving you a definite answer then, I’ll give you a rule of thumb: you should quit your day job when you start to think of your Internet business as your primary job. In other words, if your Internet business is bringing in some decent money and you tend to think of your day job as “that other thing I do,” then it’s probably time to quit the day job and start working on your internet business full time.