Should you start a practice on the side or quit your job first?
Start on the side if your contract allows it and you can sell evenings or weekends. You learn what clients buy while a salary pays the rent. Quit first only when the work can’t happen around a job, and when you’ve saved enough to cover every month until the practice pays.
| Start on the side | Quit first | |
|---|---|---|
| Rent | Paid by the job | Paid by savings until the practice covers it |
| Hours to sell | Evenings and weekends | Any time you choose |
| What you learn first | Which offer sells, before you depend on it | How long your savings last |
| The risk | Burning out on two jobs | Pricing too low because you need the booking |
| Suits | Work that fits around office hours: coaching, tutoring, writing | Work that needs daytime: site visits, clinic hours, company clients |
Read three clauses first
Your employment contract may say something about work outside it. Look for three things before you take a paid booking:
- 1
Outside work
Some contracts ask you to get permission for any paid work, or forbid work in the same field. A short email to your manager asking is better than finding out afterward.
- 2
Who owns what you make
A clause about intellectual property can cover things you create in your own time if they relate to your job. Read it before you write the workbook you plan to sell.
- 3
Clients and colleagues
A clause about soliciting may stop you selling to your employer’s clients, during the job and for a time after it. Your first clients have to come from somewhere else.
If a clause is unclear, ask an employment lawyer for an hour. It costs less than a dispute.
The number to save before you quit
Add up what you spend in a month: rent, food, insurance, debts, the lot. Multiply it by the months you expect the practice to take to cover it, then add three more for the months that go slower than you planned. That’s the number. If you don’t know how many months, starting on the side is how you find out. Before you quit: five numbers puts it a card at a time.
When the side becomes the job
Leave when the practice covers your monthly costs for three months in a row, or when you’re turning work away because there aren’t enough evenings. How many clients replace a salary? tells you what that looks like in bookings.
From take-home pay to sessions a week, with the working shown.
How many clients replace a salary? →Checked 2026-10-11.