5 min read
The start-up cost checklist most first-timers miss
First-year failures are usually cash-flow failures, and cash-flow failures usually start with a cost nobody listed. Work through this before you set a price.
One-off costs
Registration and licences. Insurance excess and first premium. Equipment and tools. Fit-out, signage and installation. Opening stock. Bond or deposit on premises. Website, branding and photography. Legal and accounting set-up. Deposits demanded by suppliers before they extend terms.
Ongoing costs people underestimate
Payment processing fees. Software subscriptions. Vehicle running costs and depreciation. Waste, cleaning and compliance checks. Your own wage — a plan that pays the founder nothing is not a plan, it is a countdown.
Working capital: the gap nobody budgets
You pay for stock and labour before customers pay you. Budget the cash needed to cover that gap for at least three months of operating at your expected volume, not at capacity.
Turn it into one number
Margin per sale equals price minus variable cost. Break-even equals total fixed monthly costs divided by margin per sale. Compare that to what you can realistically deliver in a month. If it does not fit, change price, cost base or model — now, not after launch.
Do it automatically
Idea Vault builds this list for your industry and country, prices it in your currency, and calculates break-even, funding gap and a three-year forecast from it. You correct the figures you know better than it does.
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