True Effort Calculator

Are you building a business — or another full-time job?

Log every hour your business takes in a typical month. We'll show your real hourly wage, how much of your time is unpaid, your burnout risk, and which categories to cut first.

Your month

Use a typical month. Round to the nearest hour. All inputs stay in your browser.

Monthly profit ($)What you actually keep after every expense.

Hours per month

Creating products (hr)Designing, making, photographing, listing new products.Customer support (hr)Replying to messages, handling refunds, resolving issues.Marketing (hr)Ads, SEO, email, outreach, campaigns.Packaging (hr)Wrapping, labeling, prepping orders for shipment.Shipping (hr)Postage runs, drop-offs, tracking, carrier issues.Administration (hr)Bookkeeping, taxes, inventory, planning, meetings.Social media (hr)Reels, TikToks, Pinterest pins, posts, engagement.Learning / research (hr)Courses, tutorials, competitor research, reading.

Results update live as you type.

Effective hourly earnings

$27/ hr

You're earning well per hour. Good ratio of dollars to hours. Watch unpaid hours so it doesn't slide into job territory.

Burnout risk

Moderate

Manageable now, but watch for creeping hours.

Total hours invested

129 hr/mo

≈ 29.8 hr/week

True hourly wage

$36/hr

After unpaid time penalty

Paid hours

77 hr

Creating + fulfillment

Unpaid hours

52 hr

Growth + overhead

Where your time goes by type

Value-creating & fulfillment produce paid deliverables. Growth & overhead are necessary, but invisible.

Value-creating · 40 hr (31%)Fulfillment · 37 hr (29%)Growth · 38 hr (29%)Overhead · 14 hr (11%)

Where your time goes by activity

Sorted from biggest to smallest time sink.

Creating productsValue-creating40 hr · 31.0%
Social mediaGrowth20 hr · 15.5%
MarketingGrowth18 hr · 14.0%
PackagingFulfillment15 hr · 11.6%
Customer supportFulfillment12 hr · 9.3%
ShippingFulfillment10 hr · 7.8%
AdministrationOverhead8 hr · 6.2%
Learning / researchOverhead6 hr · 4.7%

Suggestions to reduce workload

Personalized to your hour mix.

Tip 1Your biggest time sink is "Creating products" at 40 hr/mo (31%). Batch it, template it, or hand off the first 30%.

How this calculator works

Effective hourly earnings = Monthly profit ÷ total hours. This is the most honest number in your business — the one most owners avoid calculating.

True hourly wage weights for unpaid time. The more hours go to growth and overhead instead of value-creating work, the lower your true wage drops.

Burnout risk blends weekly hours with the share of unpaid time. Long weeks plus invisible labor is the fastest path to burnout.

Goal: push more hours into value-creating and fulfillment work that produces deliverables — and automate, batch, or cut the rest.

Product Profitability

Rank products by $/hr and profit.

Open →

Hidden Business Fees

Find every cost draining your profit.

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Business Growth Planner

Your top 5 growth experiments.

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Hourly ↔ Salary