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Startup Budget Template
What Is a Startup Budget?
A Startup Budget is a way for a startup to assess all the costs necessary to open their business based on income and expenses. The three main items you will want to include in the budget for a startup will be the total costs for opening the business, the length of time needed to break even, and all of the ongoing business expenses. You can download a printable Startup Budget template below.
Along with the Startup Budget, you will want to create a Startup Marketing Budget to determine the typical marketing budget for a startup. Again researching competitors will help give you a clear idea of what to allocate for this item, but you will want to determine how you will utilize print, digital, or additional forms of marketing. There are also several platforms for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Content Management System (CMS) software to help you track and manage your marketing that can be included as part of your fixed costs budget.
How to Create a Budget for a Startup Business?
- To create a Startup Budget, you should start by identifying your fixed versus variable costs. Fixed costs will be items such as rent, salaried employees, and phone and internet bills. Variable costs are items such as the cost to produce a product, computers, wages for hourly employees, and raw materials. This is also known as a profit and loss statement. You will want to set aside the monthly costs for these items and always estimate a higher budget to allow for any unforeseen additional expenses that may occur in later months.
- You will next want to research what your competitors are spending and if you can review their budgets for comparison. This will help give you an idea of what size budget you can work with and how other successful companies in your industry use their funds. If they are public you will be able to access their budgets easily, but if they are private you will need to estimate many of their costs.
- After you have created the Startup Budget (and your Startup Marketing Budget), you will then want to lay out what the first few years of operation will look like. Depending on what your product is you will want to consider how long it will take to bring your product to market and when you expect to break even.
- Finally, you will want to consider how large or small you will want your business to be. If you are planning to scale up quickly you will need to plan for a large investment in capital to be able to get the business running off the ground in a reasonable time frame. However, if you are planning to run a small business you can design your Startup Budget on a much smaller budget and still make a comfortable profit. You will want to make accurate assumptions on what you will need to spend in order to create a profit.
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