Side Project Value Calculator
Portfolio and skill value of side project investments.
About this calculator
This calculator estimates whether a side project is worth your time by weighing direct revenue and three intangible benefits against the opportunity cost of the hours you'll spend. Total hours come from weekly hours times duration in months, using a 4.33 weeks-per-month average; multiplying that by your hourly rate gives the opportunity cost baseline the project has to beat. On the value side, skill value assumes your project's relevance to your career translates into up to a 3% annual salary bump (scaled linearly by the relevance percentage you enter), applied flatly across three years — it doesn't compound like a raise would, it's simply the same annual figure counted three times. Portfolio value assumes a strong project can be worth up to 5% of your current salary in career impact, scaled by the portfolio-impact score you supply out of 10.
Networking value is the simplest and most literal assumption in the calculator: each new professional contact is valued flatly at $500, a stand-in for average referral value rather than anything project-specific. Total value adds all three intangibles to any direct revenue (product sales, ads, freelance income), and net value subtracts the time-based opportunity cost to give a bottom line — a positive net value means the project clears its opportunity cost even before you sell anything. Because the skill, portfolio, and networking figures are all rough industry-wide estimates baked into the formula rather than measurements from your actual situation, treat the ROI percentage as directional, not a certainty.
Inputs
Results
Net Career Value
-$2,732.00
How to Use This Calculator
- Enter weekly hours on the project, project duration in months, and your hourly opportunity cost rate.
- Set expected direct revenue ($), career skill relevance (%), portfolio impact score (1–10), and expected new contacts.
- Review Net Career Value, Total Estimated Value, and Opportunity Cost.
- A positive net career value means the project is worth the time investment even without direct revenue.
How the result changes with Weekly Hours on Project
| Weekly Hours on Project | Net Career Value |
|---|---|
| 5 | $2,464.00 |
| 7.5 | -$134.00 |
| 15 | -$7,928.00 |
| 25 | -$18,320.00 |
What each input means
- Weekly Hours on Project
- Hours per week you spend on the side project.
- Project Duration (months)
- How long you expect to work on this project.
- Your Hourly Rate ($)
- Your opportunity cost per hour (what you could earn doing other work).
- Current Annual Salary ($)
- Used to estimate skill and portfolio boost value.
- Expected Direct Revenue ($)
- Revenue from the project itself (product sales, ads, freelance income).
- Career Skill Relevance (%)
- How relevant the skills you are building are to your career growth.
- Portfolio Impact (1-10)
- How impressive this project will be in your portfolio (10 = very impressive).
- New Professional Contacts
- Professional contacts or collaborators gained through this project.
What each result means
- Net Career Value
- Total estimated value minus opportunity cost of your time.
- Total Estimated Value
- Direct revenue plus career skill, portfolio, and networking value.
- Opportunity Cost
- The value of the time you are investing, at your hourly rate.
- Total Hours Invested
- Total hours spent on the project over its duration.
- 3-Year Skill Value
- Projected salary boost over 3 years from skills gained.
- Portfolio Boost Value
- Estimated career value from having this project in your portfolio.
- Project ROI
- Return on investment of your time in this side project.
- Effective $/Hour
- Total value divided by hours invested — what each hour is worth.
How this is calculated
Worked example, using the default values
- Identify Input Parameters4 parametersWeekly Hours on Project = 10, Project Duration (months) = 6, Your Hourly Rate ($) = 40, Current Annual Salary ($) = 70000 = 8 input(s) provided
- Calculate Net Career ValueNet Career Value = totalValue - opportunityCost-2732 = $-2,732
- Calculate Total Estimated ValueTotal Estimated Value = directRevenue + intangibleValue7660 = $7,660
- Calculate Opportunity CostOpportunity Cost = totalHours * hourlyRate10392 = $10,392
Engine last updated . Checked against 3 independently-derived tests — how we verify calculators. Built by Paul Gunder, a software engineer, not a licensed financial, medical, or legal professional.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is the 3-Year Skill Value just the annual figure multiplied by three?
The calculator computes an annual skill value (your career skill relevance percentage scaled to a maximum 3% salary boost, applied to your current salary), then multiplies that flat annual number by three rather than compounding it as a growing raise. It's a simplification — the same dollar figure is counted three times — so it represents three years of a steady bump, not a raise that itself grows with subsequent merit increases.
How does Portfolio Impact (1-10) translate into a dollar value?
Your portfolio-impact score is divided by 10 to get a multiplier between 0 and 1, which is then applied to a ceiling of 5% of your current salary. So a score of 10 gets you the full 5% of salary as portfolio value, a score of 5 gets you 2.5%, and so on — it scales linearly with the score you assign, so an honest self-rating matters more than an optimistic one.
Why does each networking contact count for a flat $500, regardless of who they are?
Networking value is calculated simply as contacts × $500, a single stand-in figure for average referral value baked directly into the formula. It doesn't distinguish a casual acquaintance from someone who could hand you a job lead, so if your project's networking genuinely produces higher-value connections than that, the calculator will understate this line — and vice versa for weak or purely social contacts.
What does a positive Net Career Value mean if I have zero Expected Direct Revenue?
Net Career Value is total value (direct revenue plus the three intangible values: skill, portfolio, and networking) minus opportunity cost (total hours times your hourly rate). With direct revenue at zero, a positive result means the calculator's estimates of skill development, portfolio boost, and networking alone are projected to outweigh the value of the time you put in — worth remembering that all three of those estimates are rough, formula-driven assumptions rather than measurements of your specific situation.
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