If you are working in a job, the first question to ask yourself is ‘what is the price of my freedom?’

You need to precisely calculate the cost of your freedom i.e. how much income you need to achieve in order to resign from your job and still be able to pay all of your bills.

Get yourself a budget planner (- find one online or ask your Bank to provide one to you -) and work out what you need to earn in order to give up your job.

Here are some links to online budget planners:

I suggest that you be realistic i.e. don’t add in expensive holidays, cars etc but work out the minimum you would need in order to leave your job.

To start with, you may decide to exclude or pause pension contributions. The fact is, your online business could easily replace your pension. However, it would be sensible to continue contributing to a personal pension as soon as your business is in a position to do so.

When I left my corporate job in 2001, I was also surprised to discover that it was much cheaper to work from home i.e. no commuting costs, lower clothing costs, lower lunch costs etc.

One of the ‘essentials’ I have given up is a mobile phone – I simply don’t need one.

One of the things I hated about my job was my mobile phone and the fact that I was constantly at the beck and call of other people.   I would go into a meeting, turn my phone off to ensure no interruptions and then when I left the meeting I would have a string of recorded calls to return 🙁

Now my customers can only contact me via my email inbox or my help desk – which I look at only once a day.  If I talk direct to a customer on the phone it will be pre-planned as a coaching call and my customer has paid to have one-on-one access to me.

When I left my corporate job, I actually sat down with a piece of paper and planned the perfect business for me.

I cannot remember everything I wrote down but here are a few of the things that led me eventually to internet marketing after a detour through business consulting:

  • work from home
  • can be operated via the internet i.e. location independent
  • not capital intensive
  • give and take no credit
  • not reliant on suppliers
  • no stock-holding
  • no direct staff

In my case, I took voluntary redundancy from a job paying me the equivalent of around £75,000 per annum so it was not an easy decision to make.

If you are not in the fortunate position of having a redundancy lump sum, you may need another strategy.

My basic personal expenses per month are around £1,000 which includes ultra-fast broadband (200 mbs) and running a car but I do not have a mortgage to pay as I paid off my mortgage 20 years ago.  My wife and I can comfortably live on £1,500 per month in a nice 4-bedroom house.  The question is – what is your figure?

For you, it may mean you need to work to set up your business in your spare time and get some results BEFORE you resign your job.  If so, you will need to set aside a time and place each day to start building your internet business and for learning some of the skills required.

I will discuss the costs of setting up and the skills and tools required to succeed in my next blog post.

Your Homework: Calculate The Price of Your Freedom

For now, I simply want YOU to calculate how much income YOU need in order to pay YOUR monthly bills – is it £1,500, £2,000, £2,500 or more?

If you are currently living with your parents, it could be a lot lower and therefore easier to obtain your freedom 🙂

The figure that you come up with is the price of your freedom from your job.

In future, you need to monitor your actual monthly costs against your budget to ensure that you remain on track.

Also, work out the costs that that you can reduce so that you come up with a figure that is easily attainable.

This may or may not include moving to a smaller house or running a cheaper car to reduce the income you require to achieve financial freedom whilst you go through the process of establishing your new business.

Whatever the figure is for YOU, you have answered the question ‘What is the price of my freedom?‘ You now have a specific goal to aim for.

Without execution, thinking is mere idleness.

Winston Churchill