How To Keep Your Start-up Costs Down

If you’re setting off the exciting journey of setting up your own business from scratch, then you’ll have plenty on your mind. And rightly so. Starting a company is a big responsibility, and it’s important that you get things right from the start, to maximize the chances of success and long-term survival. And, it doesn’t matter what products and services you’re offering, finances will be a big part of that. How much you spend, and how much you earn, will determine your destiny. Here’s how to keep your start-up costs down.

Be strict

It goes without saying that before you start your business, you should have a plan in place – detailing what you’re offering, your investment and revenue forecasts – and contingencies. You need to be strict from the start about your finances. If you have some capital in the bank to kick off your company, make sure you invest it into your venture wisely – don’t just throw it all in the pot, spend it and hope for the best. All your spending needs to be justified and accounted for. This means making tough decisions before you commit to any outlay and considering how it will help your business.

Staffing

It’ll be very tempting to take on some staff to work with you right from the start. You may need to if your business dictates that. For example, if you’re opening a café or running a delivery service. However, if you’re an online or office-based company, then factor your staffing decisions into your business plan. You need to evaluate how the extra staffing will benefit your business, how much it will cost including expenses, and how you will comfortably cover the extra expenditure.

When you do decide to take someone on, make sure you take advice over rules and regulations of employment – ensuring both your company and your staff are protected. You’ll need to consider pay, working hours and human resources support. To keep your costs down, you may want to contract out your HR to an external provider. You can also use services such as a pay stub generator to help with the paperwork.

Keep overheads low

When you’re first starting out, you may think that your business needs an office or storefront. If you have a company which relies on sales of goods through customer-facing contact, then, of course, a store is probably necessary. Otherwise, tread carefully.

While renting office space can make you feel like a real company and give you more motivation to work every day, it can be an unnecessary luxury, to begin with. Think about setting aside some space at home, a whole room if possible. But, make sure there’s a divide between your home and work life. You can then start your business here, see how it goes and if you do expand and take on staff, then you can think about going for an office option. Right at the start, it can be too risky, and may mean you lose a lot of cash, which could otherwise still be in your business bank account.