Use our startup cost calculator to estimate the upfront costs of launching your business and create a budget.

How This Calculator Works

It calculates your total startup costs by adding your one-time costs to the total of your monthly recurring costs, multiplied by the number of months you expect to operate before generating revenue. From this total, your initial cash reserves are subtracted to determine the net amount of funding your startup requires.

• One-Time Costs: These are expenses that you’ll pay just once as a part of the startup process. Examples include buying a domain name, setting up a legal structure, initial branding, purchasing inventory, or the costs associated with setting up your initial office or workspace.
• Monthly Recurring Costs: These are regular expenses your business will incur every month. It includes items like rent, utilities, payroll, marketing costs, insurance, and any other ongoing services or operational costs.
• Months Operating Before Revenue: This is the number of months you expect to operate before the business starts earning revenue. During this period, your startup will be consuming cash without bringing any in.
• Initial Cash Reserves: The amount of money you have on hand to cover initial costs. This could come from savings, loans, or investments. This amount offsets your total startup costs to reflect what additional funding you may need.

Total Startup Costs = One-Time Costs + (Monthly Recurring Costs × Months Operating Before Revenue) - Initial Cash Reserves

Adjust the sliders and input fields to see how different scenarios affect the startup cost for your businesses.

Example

• One-time Costs (license fees, office equipment, etc.): $5,000
• Monthly Recurring Costs (software subscription, salaries, insurance, rent, etc.): $1,150
• Months Operating Before Revenue: 6
• Initial Cash Reserves: $10,000

The total startup cost is $11,900, which includes the one-time cost of $5,000 and the monthly recurring cost of $1,150 for 6 months before revenue is generated.

Here is a breakdown of the costs: One-Time Cost: $5,000 Monthly Recurring Cost: $1,150 Total Startup Cost: $5,000 + ($1,150 * 6 months) = $11,900

If you have initial cash reserves of $10,000, you will need to raise an additional $1,900 to cover the total startup cost. This is the additional amount of funding you’d need to cover the startup expenses until the business starts to bring in revenue.

Why Use a Startup Cost Estimator?

There are many benefits to using a startup cost calculator, including:

• Helps you to accurately estimate your startup costs. A startup cost calculator can help you to identify all of the costs associated with starting your business, including both one-time costs and monthly recurring costs. This can help you to avoid underestimating your startup costs and running out of money before your business is able to generate revenue.
• Helps you to make informed decisions about your business. By understanding your startup costs, you can make better decisions about how to allocate your resources and how to price your products or services. You can also use this information to develop a realistic business plan and to forecast your future cash flow.
• Helps you to secure funding. If you are seeking funding from investors or lenders, they will want to see a detailed breakdown of your startup costs. A startup cost calculator can help you to create this breakdown quickly and easily.
• Helps you to track your progress over time. Once you have developed a startup cost estimate, you can use it to track your actual spending and to ensure that you are staying on budget.

It is important to note that this is just a basic calculation of your startup cost. Your actual startup cost may vary depending on a number of factors, such as the industry you are in, your business model, and your location.

It is also important to have a cash buffer of at least six months of operating expenses to cover unexpected costs and to give your business time to ramp up and start generating revenue.

Did you know that:

• On average, startups can expect to pay around $300,500 for five employees in the U.S during the first year (Embroker).
• More than 47% of Series A startups spend over $400,000 per month, with one of the most significant costs being payroll, which averages around $300,500 for five employees across the U.S (Findstack).
• In the initial phase, 58% of startups have less than $25,000 at their disposal, and 75% use personal savings to support the startup in the initial phase (Demandsage).
• The failure rate for new startups is currently 90%, with 10% of new businesses not surviving the first year. First-time startup founders have a success rate of 18% (Exploding Topics).
• The median income for an entrepreneur/small business owner is $59,000 (Findstack).

TL;DR: Startup costs can be daunting, but they don’t have to be. Our startup cost calculator can help you estimate your startup costs in minutes, so you can start planning your business with confidence.