Startup Costs Calculator

How it is calculated

The tool adds five one-time costs: total = equipment + inventory + legal + marketing + other. Enter each as an amount in a single currency. Equipment covers machinery, tools, furniture and fittings; inventory is the opening stock; legal covers registration, licences and professional fees; marketing is the launch promotion; other is everything else, such as deposits or insurance.

All five boxes must be filled. A blank box gives no result, so type 0 for a category that does not apply. Negative amounts are rejected. The total is formatted in dollars whatever currency you used. It counts one-time launch spending only: it does not include running costs after opening, such as rent, wages or utilities, nor a cash buffer for the months before income starts, which a business plan should add separately.

Common mistakes

• Leaving a category blank instead of typing 0. A blank box means no total is shown.
• Adding monthly running costs such as rent or salaries. Those are recurring, so they belong in a budget or cash-flow forecast, not in the startup total.
• Entering a deposit that will be refunded or an asset you already own as if it were new spending. Count only cash you will actually spend.
• Mixing currencies or mixing monthly and one-time figures across the boxes.
• Treating the total as the amount to raise. Most plans also add a working-capital reserve and a contingency on top of the startup total.