The job’s not done when you open for business, whether that business has a physical or virtual location. As part of doing your business budget, you have to research what other businesses spend to keep their businesses running. Then you can make some educated estimates about your own costs.

You’ll have expenses every month that you’ll have to cover. If you can’t — or you don’t — you risk losing everything you’ve invested, including all your time. And if you’ve borrowed to get your business off the ground, the principle and interest will still be due.

If your projected budget for a particular line item is lower than the actual costs, you’ll have to reduce costs or increase what you allocate the next month. If you spend more on the cost of goods than you project, you’ll either have to raise your prices or reduce your other costs.

When you have a sense of what your operating costs are going to be, go back to the budget worksheet to enter your operating expenses.

Back to Budgeting Start-Up Costs