Business Pivots, Digital Nomad, Entrepreneurship, Mindset, Online Business

How To Quit Your 9 to 5 And Build an Online Business That Replaces Your Salary

June 8, 2026
By itssophiebiggerstaff.com

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Quit Your 9-to-5 and Start an Online Business: What Nobody Tells You First

Quit your 9 to 5 is one of the most searched phrases on the internet right now – and if you are reading this, I am guessing it is because you are dreaming about doing exactly that. Maybe you have been sitting in your corporate job for years, thinking there has to be more than this. Maybe you have already got a business idea swirling around in your head, but you have no idea where to actually start. Whatever brought you here, I want you to know that quitting your job to start an online business is absolutely possible – but there are a few things I need to be honest with you about before you hand in that notice.

Quit my job energy is exciting, nerve racking, terrifying – all the things… I know those feelings because I have lived through them. I am an online business coach and strategist, and I have been building online businesses for the past six years. I have tried almost every online business model you can think of – and I have made more than enough mistakes along the way to know exactly what I would do differently if I were starting again. So in this post, I am going to share the three things I always tell my clients who are ready to quit your 9 to 5 and start an online business – because getting this right from the beginning makes everything that comes after so much smoother, safer, and honestly a lot less stressful.

Freedom business building is not about making a dramatic leap of faith and hoping for the best. It is about being strategic, being honest with yourself about where you are, and taking the right steps in the right order so that when you do eventually walk out of that office for the last time, you are walking into something solid – not into the unknown with your fingers crossed. So let us get into it.

Quit Your 9-to-5 With a Financial Plan: The First Step to Starting an Online Business

When you quit your 9-to-5 without knowing your financial runway, and you are setting yourself up for a very stressful start to your freedom business journey. This is the single biggest mistake I see aspiring entrepreneurs make – and it is also one of the most avoidable ones. The reality of starting an online business is that you are not going to make money from it immediately. It is probably going to take a minimum of three months just to set your online business up properly, and then potentially another three months after that before you actually start generating consistent income.

Online business for women who are transitioning from employment needs a financial safety net underneath it – full stop. When I left my nine to five corporate job in 2020 and started my online business as an e-commerce consultancy, I began working on the idea in January. It did not make me money until May. That is four to five months with no income from the business I was building. And even when the money did start coming in, it was not consistent straight away because I did not yet have the tools or the knowledge to make it reliable. That is a completely normal experience for new entrepreneurs – but it is one you need to plan for.

Here is what I recommend to every client who comes to me wanting to quit their job and start an online business:

Know your monthly personal expenses exactly – not roughly, exactly. That is your baseline number
Build a financial runway of six to twelve months of those expenses sitting in the bank before you make any move to quit your 9 to 5
Accept and understand that income will not be immediate – plan for three to six months before consistent money comes in from your freedom business. (It’s great to be a bit delulu and hope for the best with this ofcourse, but when it comes to financial stability it’s also important to be realistic.)
Remove the financial pressure from your transition – because it is not freedom if you are quitting your 9 to 5 only to feel completely stressed about money every single day
Have a backup plan – going all in with no safety net is not brave, it is risky, and it puts unnecessary pressure on your online business to perform before it is ready

Starting an online business from a place of financial security means you can make better decisions, take more considered action, and build something sustainable rather than scrambling to make anything work fast enough to cover your bills.

Download the Freedom Founder Playbook, where I document my own journey from 9-to-5 employee to entrepreneur – including the mistakes I made so you do not have to repeat them.

Start an Online Business Alongside Your 9 to 5 Before You Quit Your Job

Start an online business while you are still employed – this is the advice I give every single person who comes to me wanting to make this transition, and it is the advice that makes this transition so much easier for aspiring female entrepreneurs. The idea that you have to quit your job before you can build your freedom business is simply not true. In fact, building your online business for women in the background while your salary is still coming in is one of the smartest and most strategic moves you can make.

Quitting your 9 to 5 feels urgent when you are ready to leave – I completely understand that. But here is the thing: starting your online business before you leave gives you proof of concept, early momentum, and real foundations that are already in place before the financial pressure even kicks in. And the time to do it? It already exists in your day. You just need to redirect your energy to do it.

And the good news is you can start your online business even if you only have one hour a day to dedicate to it!

I know exactly what you are thinking right now – you are exhausted when you get home from work, you do not have the time, you do not have childcare, you have a hundred reasons why an hour a day is not realistic. But think about the time you are currently spending watching Netflix, scrolling TikTok, or lying in bed on weekends doing nothing particularly productive. What if just one of those hours went into your freedom business instead?

Here is what that actually looks like:

One hour a day dedicated to your online business is seven hours a week
Seven hours a week is thirty hours a month of building your future freedom business
That one hour compounds – over weeks and months, it becomes a website, an offer, an audience, early clients, and real foundations
Building your online business for women alongside your job means that when you do eventually quit your 9-to-5, you are not starting from zero
That momentum also removes the pressure to make money immediately because you still have your salary while the foundations are being built
You will feel genuinely stimulated by what you are creating in the background, which actually makes the 9-to-5 more bearable while you are still in it

Quit my job does not have to be a leap into nothing. It can be a well-planned step into something you have already been building – and that changes the energy of the whole transition entirely.

To make this transition easier for you I will help you fill your very first hour of starting your online business with my Freedom Business Bootcamp – in that hour we will figure out exactly which online business you are going to start, build your offer together and figure out who you are going to sell it to. You can register and join the next live session here!

Freedom Business Building: Use Your 9 to 5 Skills to Start an Online Business

Freedom business building does not require you to start from scratch – and this is the thing that most people completely miss when they are thinking about how to quit your 9 to 5 and start an online business. You have been working in your career for years. You have skills, experiences, and expertise that people would genuinely pay for. The fastest, most solid route into online business for women is to take what you already have and transfer it into something that is yours.

Online business for women that is built on existing skills, existing passions, and existing experience is so much more sustainable than something built on a trend or a course you completed last month. So many aspiring entrepreneurs I speak to think they have to go and learn an entirely new skill set before they can start an online business. That is not the case. Your 9-to-5 has been paying you for skills and expertise that your future clients will also pay for – just on your terms, in your freedom business, in a way that works for your life.

Here is how to start identifying what your online business could be built around using what you already have:

Write down every skill you use in your current 9-to-5 – even the ones that feel ordinary to you, because they are not ordinary to someone who does not have them
Look at your existing experiences – what have you done, built, solved, or delivered in your career that someone else would pay to learn or replicate?
Identify your passions alongside your skills – the overlap between what you are good at, what you love, and what the market will pay for is where your freedom business lives
Do not go and learn something completely new as your starting point – use what you already know as your baseline and build from there
Trust that what you already have is enough to start an online business – you do not need to be a fully formed expert before you begin

Quit your 9-to-5 with a clear sense of what you are bringing with you, and you will have a head start that most people completely ignore when they make this transition.

Still not sure which skills could make you money online? Drop in to the next Freedom Business Bootcamp and I’ll teach you how to figure it out and design a whole sellable offer around them. Register and join the next live session here!

Quit My Job and Start an Online Business: Your Questions Answered

Here are the questions I get asked most by women who are ready to quit their 9 to 5 and start an online business of their own:

1. Do I have to quit my job before I can start an online business for women? No – and I would strongly recommend against it. Start an online business alongside your 9-to-5 so you can build real foundations and generate early momentum without the financial pressure of needing to make money immediately. One hour a day is genuinely enough to get started on your freedom business.

2. How much money do I need saved before I quit my 9 to 5? I recommend having six to twelve months of your personal expenses in the bank before you make the move to quit your job. This financial runway removes the desperation factor and gives you the space to build your online business properly without panicking every time a slow month comes around.

3. How long does it take to make money from an online business for women? Realistically, expect a minimum of three months to build the foundations of your online business and potentially another three months before income becomes consistent. When I started my online business in 2020, it took four to five months before I made any money at all – and even then, it was not consistent straight away. Plan for that reality, and you will not be caught off guard.

4. What online business should I start after quitting my 9 to 5? Start with what you already have. Your existing skills, experiences, and passions from your nine-to-five career are the most powerful starting point for your freedom business. You do not need to learn something new – you need to repackage what you already know into something you can offer on your own terms.

5. What is the very first step I should take if I want to quit my job and start an online business? Get clear on three things: your financial runway, your transferable skills, and your timeline. Then start your online business in the background while you are still employed – one hour a day, building consistently – so that when you do eventually quit your 9-to-5, you are stepping into something that already has foundations underneath it.

Join the next LIVE Freedom Founders Bootcamp and take your first real step toward building an online business that replaces your salary and gives you the freedom business lifestyle you have been dreaming about.

Ready to Quit Your 9 to 5 and Build a Freedom Business That Actually Works?

Quit your 9 to 5 does not have to be a terrifying leap into the unknown.

With the right financial runway, a smart approach to starting your online business alongside your current job, and the confidence to use what you already know to build something real – this transition can be smooth, strategic, and genuinely exciting.

You do not have to quit my job today. You just have to start. One hour a day. Your existing skills. A clear financial plan. And the belief that your freedom business is absolutely possible – because it is.

For the online business for women who are ready to back themselves is exactly what I am here to support. Join The Freedom Business Bootcamp and let me walk you through the first steps of your journey from corporate employee to online business owner, on your own terms.

meet the writer

I'm Sophie

Online business coach, podcast host, mental health advocate, speaker, founder of TINAH, community builder, full-time digital nomad, and general trailblazing, rule breaker…

I tried to live a “normal” life: I spent 11+ years working my way up in the fashion industry, working for brands like Ralph Lauren and Burberry. I had the apartment in the city, I lived for going out at the weekends, spent money on designer bags and holidays – until I realized this lifestyle DID NOT FULFIL ME – I was waking up with anxiety every day – surviving, but definitely not thriving.

So I quit. I left my 9-to-5 behind to start an online business that supported the lifestyle I actually wanted. Now that looks like slow mornings, daily beach walks, co-working with like-minded entrepreneurs, yoga, meditation, and lots of social connections.

Since 2020, I’ve built multiple online business offers – from online business coaching and consulting to online courses, digital products, and a mental health marketplace – all while travelling the world and living life, and earning money on my own terms.

Now… I’m on a mission to help more people break free from lives that don’t feel good for them and create more freedom through starting and growing an online business.