Playbook · Capital and deals
Should I quit my job for my side business?
For someone with a side business that earns something, a salary that pays the bills, and not enough hours for both.
In short
A board of named AI experts — The CFO, The Skeptic and The Growth Hacker — takes your situation, asks three things first, and hands back a decision memo: quit now, later, or not yet, the number that has to be true first, and a dated plan for the switch. You see one price before anything runs.
Before the board starts
What the board asks first.
What decides this: what the side business earns today, how many months you could live without a salary, and what you would do if it didn’t work.
What does the side business bring in a month, after costs?
In your own words.
How many months could you live on savings with no salary?
That number is the real deadline for the business.
In your own words.
If it didn’t work, could you get a similar job again?
What you get back: A decision memo: quit now, later, or not yet, the number that has to be true first, and a dated plan for the switch.
A real run
One person’s version,
and what the board said.
I work full time as a nurse and run a weekend meal-prep business. After costs the business brings in about $1,800 a month, growing slowly. I have about 7 months of savings if I had no salary. My salary is about $5,200 a month after tax and I have a mortgage.
An example person, written for this page. Everything below is what the board delivered, word for word.
Keep your nursing job while building the meal-prep business further. Do not resign until repeatable business profit—not projected growth—demonstrates that the mortgage and essential costs will remain secure.
What would change it: The meal-prep business nets at least $4,500 per month for three consecutive months after all operating costs and planned reinvestment.
The SkepticDo not quit nursing now; keep the stable income until the meal-prep business proves it can reliably replace most of your salary.
The Growth HackerDo not leave nursing until the side hustle proves it can profitably replace the $3,400 monthly income gap.
The CFOKeep the nursing job and grow the meal-prep business part time until its profits reliably replace nursing income.
Create and adopt a written nursing-exit gate
Questions
Fair questions
about this playbook.
What does running this cost?
Reading this page is free. Running it is a board: on Free it seats 3 experts and its card shows up to 135 credits before anything runs. A board never bills above its card. Nothing is charged until you confirm.
Is the example real?
Yes. The board above ran on a SynthBoard test account with the situation shown. The call, where each expert stood, what would change it and the first step are what it delivered, in its own words. The situation was written as an example; it is not a real person.
What happens when I run it with my situation?
You answer the same three questions with your own facts, then your Chief of Staff shows the board — The CFO, The Skeptic and The Growth Hacker on Free, more seats on a paid plan — and its one price. The board researches, argues it out and hands back the piece, with the first step and what would change the call.
Can the experts be wrong?
Yes. They are AI and can be wrong. That is why every board seats someone whose job is to argue against the obvious answer, and why the piece says what would change the call.
Keep reading
Close to this call.
Should I take the offer to buy my company, or keep building?
For an owner with a real offer on the table who has to weigh money now against what the business could become.
The playbook Playbook · Pricing and billingShould I raise prices on my existing customers?
For anyone who sells something people already pay for, a shop, a studio, a service or an app, and whose costs went up while the price stayed put.
The playbook Playbook · PeopleShould I hire my first employee, or a contractor?
For someone running a business alone who has more work than hours, and has to choose between a person on payroll and help by the job.
The playbookSynthBoard (synthboard.ai) is one place for your business, your life, and every hard call. Your Chief of Staff keeps what you tell her on file, and 24 named experts on different AI models take the calls — one expert for a consult, a board with opposed seats for the hard ones — and hand back a memo with the call, the dissent and the first move. How it works.