How to read your score and income figures

Everything on this site is general information for the UK. It is not financial, tax, legal, insurance or investment advice, and it does not consider your personal circumstances. Speak to a qualified adviser before making a financial commitment.

Scores out of 100 are produced by fixed, published rules applied to your answers — no AI, no guesswork about you. Change an answer and the score changes in a predictable way. A high score means your answers line up well with what usually makes that type of work viable; it does not mean the idea will succeed.

Monthly figures in pounds are the realistic initial range for someone doing that work part-time in the UK. Where a guide shows a higher ceiling, it is labelled separately as established monthly potential, and it is not what the Index or our comparison pages rank on.

What the money means depends on the type of work: for services it is income before tax and ordinary overheads; for products and marketplace selling it is profit before tax after typical direct selling costs; for commission and affiliate work it is the fees actually received. Every figure is before your own personal tax and National Insurance unless we say otherwise. They are estimates, not survey data about you or your area, and actual earnings vary widely and can be nil. Our methodology sets out the definitions in full.

Startup costs are indicative. You are responsible for checking whether your idea needs a licence, DBS check, qualification, insurance, or registration with HMRC, and for reporting income correctly. Rules differ across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The finder compares your answers against a fixed catalogue of opportunities. A good idea that is not in the catalogue will never be suggested, and local demand where you live may be very different from the national picture.

Treat every result as a hypothesis to test. The seven-day plans exist so you can look for real evidence of demand before spending significant money. If the evidence is not there, that is a useful result too.