Breaking away from the 9-5 and setting your own hours and working on your own terms can bring a lot of freedom. You can work around your family, avoid hefty day care fees, or just say, screw you 9-5, I quit!
But what is the financial cost of setting up your own business?
In the second instalment of our feature blogs (In case you missed part 1, you can check it out here), we asked our budding entrepreneurs what they actually spent setting up their online or work from home business.
It’s a question I see asked in business groups so often.
“I am thinking of setting up an online business, how much will it cost me?”
Well, short answer, How long is a piece of string?
There are so many factors that contribute to how much it will cost to set up an online business.
Are you going to be holding stock?
Do you need a premises to work from?
Do you need a computer?
Do you need equipment to run your business i.e. Printers, sewing machine, lawn mower?
Are you going to pay a web designer to create your awesome new website or are you going to have a go at DIY?
Who will you host your website through and what are their fees?
These are all questions that you need to answer before you can really sink your teeth into an online business or work from home business.
It pretty much goes without saying, if you are starting up a product based business, your set up costs are going to be considerably more than a service based business. That is because you will more than likely be buying in stock or having it manufactured in order to start trading. Obviously, a service based business is relying on selling your services only, so there is no massive initial outlay except your time.
Of those we surveyed, the average business set up spend was around $5000, with just over 80% of our business owners selecting figures between 0 – $10,000 to start up their business. This was then evenly spread between our 3 selections within this bracket with the breakdown being: 27.3% selecting $0-$1000; 27.3% selecting $1000 – $3000 and 27.3% selecting $5000 – $10,000.
Of those who selected the $0-$1000 and $1000 – $3000 start up price ranges, only one was a product based business. This is consistent with with the reality that building a product based business does require a higher financial commitment than service based.
The businesses who selected the start up price range of $5000 – $10,000 were all product based or retail businesses.
It was interesting to note though, the main expense each business owner mentioned in their answers was their Website.
“For me, website and it continues to be. My blog was set up with a provider who owned the CMS (Central Management System) and any customisation’s or changes were very costly.The best decision I made was to move my blog to WordPress so I had more control over the everyday changes I needed to make.” Sara Keli from Kid Magazine says of her website.
Even those who had to initially outlay for stock and products spent a considerable amount on their website with many opting for a website designer to create their dream site for them.
Stacey Webb from Little Butterfly Creations admits it took her 2 goes to get it right. “It was my website. I paid for a web designer to build me a website where it was nice, however I then realised it missed a lot of what I felt a website needed (though at the time of purchasing didn’t realise this). So I paid for a different website designer to build be a new website that I have now and absolutely love.”
In a day and age where everyone is online, you need an online presence. Your website is your shop front, your store, your personality, so you have to make sure you get it right. But don’t be dismayed if you want to start your own business but you can’t afford to engage the services of a professional web designer. You can do it yourself, all you need is a little time, patience and a good how to guide.
Before delving into web design myself, I would have most certainly paid a professional to design my website for me. But unfortunately this wasn’t in my budget when I was starting my online business. So I reluctantly built my first website myself using my hosting company’s site builder, Google and a whole lot of paper notes!
If you are wanting to save yourself some money to invest elsewhere in your business, you may want to try your hand at building your own website. Our WordPress based eCourse is designed to virtually hold your hand through the process from registering your domain name to launching your completed website and everything in between. The added bonus is you will learn how it operates and in turn be able to manage it yourself.
You may be asking, where did the remaining businesses fall in their start up costs? Well, they bought already established businesses, so their financial outlay was considerably higher than their peers, factoring in that they purchased ready made businesses with a customer base and established online assets.
We are asking business owners the tough questions. In a series of blogs we interviewed 11 like-minded business women and asked them the taboo subjects that get brushed over or embellished. We want to find out what really happens behind the scenes of an Entrepreneur (and Mumpreneur) from the very business owners themselves. Stay tuned for our next installment.
