Free tool · from Nobody Is Coming to Promote You
Quit Your Job Calculator
Not when you are excited, and not after a bad day at work. Leave when the numbers say you can. Enter your pay, your costs, your savings and six months of side income, and see whether the three numbers are in place, and if not, when they could be.
Free, with no sign-up. It runs in your browser, and nothing you type is sent to us.
How it works
Three numbers, all at once
- Steady income: the business has paid you at least 75 percent of your take-home pay for six months in a row. The chart shows each month against that line.
- Savings: six months of living costs, kept apart from the business, so one slow quarter cannot end it.
- Demand: you are turning work away or keeping a waiting list, because your evenings and weekends are already full.
- If a number is missing, the calculator uses your recent trend and your saving rate to estimate the earliest month all three could be in place.
The reasoning
Why 75 percent, and why six months
Seventy-five percent, not a hundred, because you will have far more hours once the job is gone, and a business that already pays three-quarters of a salary on evenings and weekends usually covers the rest once it has your days. Six months, not one good month, because one good month can be luck: a big client, a seasonal spike, a launch. Six in a row is a pattern.
The savings rule is separate on purpose. Side income tells you the business works. Savings tell you that you can survive the months when it doesn't, without going back to an employer on worse terms.
Keep what you make
The $100 split
For every $100 of profit in the early months: $25 aside for tax, $25 back into the business, $50 to you. Pay tax first and yourself second. Change the numbers to suit your country and your life, and keep the tax money in its own account so it is waiting when the bill arrives.
Tax rules differ in every country. In some places you must register from your first sale; in others, only above a set amount. An hour with an accountant early costs far less than fixing a mistake later.
The book behind the tool
Fifty small businesses you can start without quitting your job
Nobody Is Coming to Promote You covers fifty businesses you can start for under $500, with real costs and real numbers, and how to get the first customers, price, and keep the money. The three numbers this calculator checks come from its last chapter, When to quit your job, together with what to sort out before you hand in your notice.
Buy the PDF · US$39.99 About Nobody Is Coming to Promote You
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A second pair of eyes
Want help choosing the business, or checking the numbers?
The book comes with an optional Starter Kit of eight fill-in tools, and an optional call with the author.
Book + Starter Kit + 45-minute call
US$239.99
The PDF and the Starter Kit, plus a private call with the author to choose your business, check your numbers and plan your first 30 days.
Book + Starter Kit
US$49.99
The complete PDF plus the Starter Kit: eight fill-in tools from the book that do the maths for you. Works in Excel and Google Sheets. Delivered by email.
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Open the toolQuestions
Quitting, answered
How much side income do I need before I quit my job?
The rule in Nobody Is Coming to Promote You is at least 75 percent of your take-home pay, every month for six months in a row. Count what you could actually take out of the business after costs and tax, not sales.
How many months of savings should I have before quitting?
Six months of living costs, kept in an account separate from the business. It is your cushion for slow months, late payers and the costs your employer used to cover.
What if my side business is growing fast?
The calculator will show an earlier date, because it projects your recent trend. Still wait for six months above the line: fast growth from a small base can stop as fast as it started.
What if my side income isn’t growing?
If a business hasn’t grown after six months of real effort, the book’s advice is not to quit to give it more time, but to change the business and try the next idea on your list. The selling, pricing and money skills carry over.
Should I count sales or profit?
Count what you could pay yourself: profit after the business’s costs and after setting money aside for tax. If you only know profit before tax, tick the box and the calculator takes off the percentage you choose.
Is this financial advice?
No. It checks your numbers against a simple rule. Your situation (debts, dependants, health cover, the tax rules where you live) may call for more caution. An hour with an accountant before you hand in your notice is money well spent.
Is anything I enter saved?
No. Everything is calculated in your browser and nothing is sent to our server.