Imagine you already run the business. It exists, it runs, and it pays you what you need. Now somebody offers you your exact current job, at your exact current salary, with your exact current manager and commute.

From I Want to Start a Business but I Can't Quit My Job, chapter 7: Why you have not decided already

Not in general. Specifically. Point at it. Tuesday evening is not an answer if Tuesday evening currently contains the only two hours you and the person you live with spend in the same room without a screen.

From I Want to Start a Business but I Can't Quit My Job, chapter 10: What the double life costs

These passages come straight from the books. So, if one of them speaks to you, read the full chapter. It goes further, and it ends with a practical exercise.

In addition, these titles look at make money on the side from different angles. Each one opens with a passage from the book. Then, pick the one closest to your situation.

• The Employed Entrepreneur: How to Test a Business Without Losing Your Job
• Keep Your Salary, Build Your Business: The Employed Person's Guide to Testing a Startup Before You Quit
• How Many Days You Have Left: Get Paid Before You Spend a Cent
• Don't Quit Your Job to Start a Business: Build It on the Side, Test It, Then Decide
• You Are Not Deciding Today: Find Out What's Actually Attached to You Before You Quit
• Don't Hand In Your Notice Yet: The Employed Person's Startup Test
• The Side-Business Validation Plan: Keep the Wage, Test the Dream, Then Jump
• Money You Did Not Know Existed: Get Paid Before You Spend a Cent

Enter four numbers from your real month, in any currency. The check shows how long your savings would last and whether the business can carry you yet.

What you need to live each month

Savings you could actually use

What the business earns each month (0 if nothing yet)

Has a stranger already paid you for it?

YesNo

Check my runway.

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Finally, I Want to Start a Business but I Can't Quit My Job goes deeper into make money on the side. Therefore, it is the natural next step. You can read it or listen to it in the stores below. It is also available in 19 languages.

Go to the book page. All topics.

• How to start a business.Diego Segura's books begin somewhere else: with a small test you can run this week, a first paying customer, and costs kept close to zero.
• Business ideas.Lists of business ideas are everywhere, but a list can't tell you which idea fits you.
• Online business ideas.Online business ideas look easy because the tools are cheap.
• Low risk business ideas.These passages show how to limit the downside, so that fear doesn't decide for you.