Passion Unleashed:

Solopreneurship!

# 9: Calculate Your Freedom Number

And Then Plan Your Exit Strategy

Published Date

23 December 2024

Author

Michelle Knight,
The Life Passion Coach

Category

Transition Strategies

Today, I’ll be talking about making calculations and creating a plan. I’d like to suggest a key number you need to calculate for yourself – your freedom number. Then use your freedom number to plan your exit strategy from the corporate world. To find out more, you’ll have to read on.

Bonjour mes amis et bienvenue! I am The Life Passion Coach, Michelle Knight. I’m a semi-retired solopreneur digital nomad, a passport stamp collector and an avid reader and motorcyclist. Today, I’ll be talking about making calculations and creating a plan. I’d like to suggest a key number you need to calculate for yourself – your freedom number. Then use your freedom number to plan your exit strategy from the corporate world.

For many middle-aged women, the thought of leaving a steady corporate job or retiring on a fixed government income can feel daunting. This is something that affects many of us as we hit middle age – feeling stuck and wanting change, but maybe not knowing how to go about it. Whether it’s for a new career, a retirement or you want to start your own business, leaving that corporate 9-5 has just become a priority for you.

But what if you could design a life where financial security and personal freedom coexist? What if you could take control of your finances and live a life of purpose, passion, and freedom? It starts with understanding your “Freedom Number” and crafting a solid exit strategy. In this blog, I’ll guide you through the steps to identify your financial goals and create a plan to transition into your solopreneur journey with confidence.

Bridge over waves.
Bridge over waves - signifying the transition from one position, role or job to another.

If you are truly committed to making financial freedom your priority, you need to keep your only source of income for now, and use that to act as a funding source for your next venture. This is all about the side hustle. Stay in your corporate job a bit longer and build your side hustle from the ground up. When you’re making enough from your side-hustle as your corporate job pays (at which time you’ll be earning double), quit the corporate job, and go full time on your business. Now, with all that extra time, you should be able to grow even faster.

Trust me. I’ve been there. Every single day I wanted to quit my job and focus on entrepreneurship full time. But instead I decided to ignore those feelings and built my business while working at my corporate job. It was the best decision I could ever have made, and look at me now. However, there are a couple of things you can do now to help you get to your solopreneur dream: – calculate your freedom number and plan your exit strategy.

So what is a “freedom number” I hear you ask? Your Freedom Number is the monthly income you need to live comfortably while covering your essential expenses and enjoying the lifestyle you desire. Knowing this number provides a clear financial target and helps you set realistic goals for your solopreneur business. Think of it as the key to unlocking your independence.

The other thing I said you need was an exit strategy or plan. An exit plan is a well-thought out smart roadmap that enables you to transition from your current job/career to the next best professional place for you. This next place may be a different role at the same company, a job in a different company or in a new industry altogether. It could be starting a side-hustle while staying at the same job or going solo and embracing self-employment.

Your exit plan can pave the way to work that you can love and find meaningful and profitable. Hence, I’ve come up with some key steps to help you on your path to freedom and solopreneurship:

Step 1: Calculate Your Monthly Expenses

Start by listing all your essential expenses. This includes:

  • Housing: Rent or mortgage payments, property taxes, insurance
  • Utilities: Electricity, water, gas, internet, phone
  • Transportation: Car payments, fuel, insurance, maintenance, public transit
  • Groceries: Food, household supplies
  • Healthcare: Insurance premiums, medications, routine visits
  • Debt Payments: Credit card bills, loans
  • Savings Contributions: Retirement funds, emergency savings

Next, factor in your “nice-to-have” expenses that contribute to your ideal lifestyle, such as dining out, travel, hobbies, or entertainment. Be honest about what you need to feel comfortable and fulfilled.

Add everything up to get your total monthly expense figure.

Step 2: Account for Taxes and Business Costs

As a solopreneur, you’ll need to consider taxes and operational costs for your business. Add a buffer to your Freedom Number to cover self-employment taxes and other expenses like marketing tools, website hosting, and software subscriptions. There is much literature out there with these calculations being done by professional financial advisors, and since that is not me, I’m going to leave that buffer percentage over to you to decide for yourself – I don’t want to give you financial advice.

I’m just going to pull some numbers out of the blue-air for an example to demonstrate here. If your monthly expenses are $3,500 for example, you could add $1,000 for taxes and business costs. Then your adjusted Freedom Number becomes $4,500.

Step 3: Define Your Revenue Streams

Now that you have your Freedom Number, brainstorm potential revenue streams for your solopreneur business. These could include:

  • Offering freelance or consulting services
  • Selling digital products like eBooks or courses
  • Affiliate marketing
  • Building or crafting some physical product you can sell

If you do start selling a physical product or contracting out your skills and/or knowledge, you don’t have to stop there. You can build additional revenue streams on top of that, to make money off the same skills and knowledge in a whole new way. This is where you could sell online courses teaching what you know, or start a blog or podcast and begin using affiliate marketing.

For example, if you wanted to sell a physical product, you could start a Coffee cart or food truck business. Hospitality can be extremely competitive and challenging but also rewarding. You get to feed people in the literal sense, but you can also add to the sense of community in a neighbourhood. Starting off in a truck or cart will help keep your overheads lower than the fixed location of a café.

Alternatively, you could start your own handyman business, contracting out the knowledge and skills you already have. For those who are good with tools and who enjoy fixing things, working as a handyman or a contractor is an excellent small business idea. Handyman skills are always in demand, no matter where you’re located.

Affiliate marketing is a popular form of income for bloggers and podcasters. By referring your readers or listeners to shopping sites, you can set up a relationship where you get a small cut on any purchases they make. You first need to build up a sizable audience and it helps if your blog or podcast has a theme that naturally connects to certain types of products. Examples might be blogs about travel, woodwork, parenting, gardening, cooking, or crafts. Affiliate marketing is a long game, and it’s all about building a fantastic network/audience and keeping them engaged with great content and good products. This is what I call “Profit Partners”.

You don’t have to stick to just one revenue stream, you can run multiple revenue streams simultaneously and use the income from all streams to feed into your business and cover your monthly expenses.

Let me give you a real example to better illustrate this. Start by breaking down how much you’d need to earn from each stream to hit your Freedom Number. For instance, if your target is the $4,500/month we worked out earlier, you could aim for:

  • $2,000 from contracting out your handyman skills
  • $1,500 from digital course sales where you teach people how to “D-I-Y” a variety of projects
  • $1,000 from affiliate marketing based on a vlog (video blog) you film about reviewing certain tools and/or instructions demonstrating repair techniques

The best thing about having multiple income streams within the same business based on the same skills and knowledge base is that each income stream validates and supports the others. For instance, the following you get from your vlog that will buy from your affiliated companies, creates the authority to support your knowledge and skills as a handyman when people want to hire you. And the projects you work on as a handyman create the content and ideas to use in your vlog to support your affiliate marketing.

Step 4: Create a Transition Timeline

Transitioning from a traditional job to solopreneurship doesn’t happen overnight. Realistically this transition timeline is another whole podcast episode on it’s own, so I’m just going to breeze over it a bit here today, and leave the bulk of the topic for a future episode I already have planned. The upshot is, you will need to create a realistic timeline with key milestones. As far as your Freedom Number is concerned this could look like:

  1. Build a Financial Cushion: Save 3-6 months’ worth of expenses to act as a safety net during the transition.
  2. Test Your Business Idea: Start your side hustle while still employed to validate its viability.
  3. Set Mini-Goals: Break your Freedom Number into smaller targets and work toward hitting them gradually.
  4. Plan Your Exit: Decide on a date to leave your corporate job based on your savings and side hustle income.

Step 5: Track and Adjust

Once you’ve started your solopreneur journey, regularly review your finances to ensure you’re on track to meet your Freedom Number. Use tools like budgeting apps or spreadsheets to monitor income and expenses. Adjust your strategy as needed to align with your goals.

Final Thoughts

Calculating your Freedom Number and planning your exit strategy are essential steps to achieving financial security and personal freedom. By taking the time to understand your financial needs and creating a roadmap, you can transition into your solopreneur journey with confidence and clarity.

Remember, this is your opportunity to design a life you love—one that aligns with your passions, skills, and values. I am here to provide unwavering support, to listen to your concerns, and to offer guidance and encouragement every step of the way. I am not here to judge; I am here to empower. Let’s explore options, resources and barriers together. Ready to take the first step? Let’s start working on your plan today!

I’m still giving away FREE to you, one of my two Freedom Pursuit Checklists – either the “Nomad Nirvana: Your Starter Checklist to Freelance Freedom” or the “Side Hustle Serenity: Your Checklist to a Profit Partners Passion”. If you are interested in the details of the Freedom Pursuit Checklists, just go to my website and click on the button to fill out the form and receive the checklist you chose. Just remember, big change requires big support, and I’m here to help you through the transition from the rat race you’re running now to the passionate, fulfilled life you want for yourself.

Thank you for reading this BLOG post of the “Freedom Unleashed: Solopreneurship” Broadcast.  Believe in yourself and trust the process. Always look for new opportunities and be open to change. Enjoy the journey and make the most of it. Don’t be afraid to try new things. Take the first step, embrace the journey, and rediscover the excitement and purpose that life has to offer. Until next time, stay passionate.

I will leave you with my final thoughts:
BDK – Be Brave, Be Different and Be Kind. Remember: Laughter is the answer to everything.
Je vous remercie et je vous souhaite une bonne journée.

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