When thinking about starting an online business, your financial fears are likely your biggest roadblock.

Am I able to make more than my 9-5? Am I going to be able to cover my rent? Am I going to be able to cover my expenses? Do I have enough money to put towards starting a business?

I get it, love. When working a 9-5 job, you typically always have a set amount of income that comes in each month. You know exactly when and how much you’re going to get paid. So, there isn’t a whole lot of uncertainty.

However, when running an online business, there are formulas you can follow and systems you can put in place so that you have complete control over the income you make each month. By having a financial plan in place and taking your finances into your own hands, building an online business is totally doable!

As a business owner, YOU get to decide when to give yourself a raise. You have the freedom to determine how much money you want to make! And the cherry on top is that you’re able to do this while fulfilling your lifestyle goals — such as working on your own time, being more present with family, and doing work that you love!

You’re not alone in having financial fears when it comes to starting an online business. However, if that is the one thing that is getting in your way of living the life that you desire, it’s time to push through and overcome it. It’s time to understand and get control of your finances! 

Starting an online business and living out the lifestyle you desire is 100% achievable. And today, I’m here to show you how to conquer those financial fears so you can be well on your way! 😉

What’s Your Monthly Break-Even Point?

To conquer your financial fears of starting an online business, you need to figure out what your monthly break-even point is. This is the bare minimum you need to make each month to quit your 9-5 and cover all of your expenses.

When thinking about your monthly break-even point, you need to look at three different types of expenses:

• Lifestyle Expenses
• Business Expenses
• Personal Expenses

To calculate your monthly break-even point, you’ll need to grab your online bank statements from the past few months. Then, you’ll need to look at the breakdown of your costs to calculate what your average monthly spending is in each of these expense areas.

Ready to dive deeper? 😉

1. Lifestyle Expenses

You’re likely thinking that you’re going to have to give things up in order to be successful or have your own online business. But that’s just not the case, love! If you want to continue getting your weekly massage or your fancy cup of coffee every day, then you just have to work it into your lifestyle expenses. 

Your lifestyle expenses consist of anything that you define as necessary to live your everyday life. Such as: 

• Rent
• Utilities 
• Food
• Insurance
• Entertainment
• Beauty
• Gym Membership

Now, just add up your average monthly spending for these items, and you’ll have your monthly lifestyle expenses!

2. Business Expenses

True or False: Starting an online freelancing (or service-based) business is going to be expensive. 

FALSE! Starting an online freelancing business does NOT have to be expensive. You shouldn’t have any big, upfront costs like brick-and-mortar businesses often do.

When you’re just starting out, you only need the basics. Yes, there are fancier tools, systems, and platforms out there, but you don’t need them just yet! Just get the essentials, jump in, get your feet wet, and start adapting, growing, and refining from there! 

Here are a few business expenses you’ll need to get started:

• Cloud Storage (i.e. Dropbox)
• Proposal & Invoicing Software
• Website Domain & Hosting

Your monthly business expenses when you’re just starting out with your online service-based business should be no more than a few hundred dollars! 

3. Personal Expenses

Okay, it’s time to talk credit card debt, student loans, car loans, and any other debt or loans you need to factor in. That way, when you start your online business, you can cover these expenses. 

Oftentimes, people put off starting an online business because they think they need to stay at their 9-5 to pay off their debt, especially when it comes to student loans. But I’m here to tell you that you don’t have to stay at a job that makes you unhappy and doesn’t give you the lifestyle you’re dreaming of just to pay off your debt.

Your debt is an expense that should be factored into what you need to make as an online business owner so that you CAN have the lifestyle you desire!

So, when calculating your personal expenses, you need to consider things like: 

• Monthly Student Loan Payment
• Monthly Credit Card Payment
• Monthly Car Payment

For debt, we recommend making the minimum payment for right now. You can pay bigger chunks off in the future, but when you’re starting out, just stick to the minimum. As your online business grows, you can increase your payments!

It’s Time to Calculate!

Now that you know your average monthly lifestyle, business, and personal expenses, add them all up to create your monthly break-even point!

Lifestyle Expenses + Business Expenses + Personal Expenses 

= Break-Even Point

Once you have your break-even point, you can now figure out what your hourly rate needs to be!

So, say your monthly break-even point is $2,160 and you only want to work 30 hours a week/120 hours a month. Divide your monthly break-even point by your monthly working hours, and you’ll see the minimum hourly rate you need to charge in order to cover all of your expenses. In this scenario, it’s just $18 an hour!

Monthly Break-Even Point ÷ Monthly Working Hours 

= Hourly Rate

You have SO much financial freedom and flexibility when owning an online business. It’s all about putting pen to paper and actually knowing your numbers! That’s where financial control comes from, and that’s the goal!

And this is just the beginning, love! Soon, it’ll be time to give yourself that well deserved raise, and here’s how to do it! 😉 

It’s time to stop letting your financial fears get in your way and start pursuing those online business dreams of yours!