Not everyone wants to quit their job to make iPhone apps fulltime, but those who do need to make sure that they can make their expenses in the short term. Keep in mind that there is no such thing as guaranteed success in any business including app publishing when you are striking out on your own.

There are three things that you’re going to want to take care of before you leave your job for good:

• Figure out how much money per month you really need to live
• Make sure that you have up to 6 months of expenses covered
• Make sure that your business income is predicable and repeatable

How Much Money Do You Really Need Per Month?

This question will vary depending on whether you have a family, if your partner works and how much you can really do without.  The fact of the matter is that you will have to take a pay cut for while, especially if you are a software developer in a major city.  You will have to figure out what will pay for your acceptable lifestyle each month.

What is your personal bottom line?

For the sake of argument, I’m going to put your figure at $4,167 per month which is the average household income in the United States.  Remember that the initial goal is not to get rich quick but to put yourself into a position where you can focus 100% of your time on your business.

Figure Out How Much You Need If Your Income Stops Tomorrow

This is the idea of your runway or how much money you would need to survive and pay the bills until you can get your next idea up and running.  For a significant project to get up and running you will have to spend at least six months to implement and figure out if it will pay out.

If you are following my example, then you will need to have $25,000 in the bank to have a runway in place that will sustain your through any dark profitless months.  Risk takers may divide that figure in half for a three month runway.

Make Sure Your Business Income is Predictable and Repeatable

You want to make sure that you can repeat last month’s revenue each month for the foreseeable future.  Just so you know, your app’s first month is usually the highest grossing so if your app made $10,000 in the first month you can’t assume that it will make that much in each subsequent month.  You are better off waiting a month or two to get a more realistic idea of what your apps passive income footprint will look like.  Same goes for apps that are featured in the app store or on a big website.  Whatever you are doing for cashflow you want to make sure that you can do it again and again.

Runway Mods

You can be a little bit more flexible in your assessments if you have a skill that you can use to bring in some cash before your projects launch.  For instance, if you do quit your job but work as a consultant to your former employeer you can take a few more risks early on.  Same goes for reduced hours (that’s what I did), other income streams or if you have some other side business that you can use to essentially fund your app business.

Do you have any other ideas about taking care of business while you are trying to quit your job?