Round Table
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Cost Plan Part 2
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Leave out costs that do not fit your own business for example
building and maintaining your own website. Online time is difficult to
predict until the business is in operation. Assume a few hours per week
and modify this once some experience of actual online time has been
gained.
The total will equal the starting capital required to set up. You can
then determine how the starting capital will be sourced and how is needs
to be repaid and factor that in to Year 1. Repeat this for Years 2, 3, 4
and 5.
Add in costs for any other business development activities you may
have planned. A minor example may be that in Year 2 you want to stop
using clip art on your website and develop your graphics editing skills.
Add the cost of graphics editing software into your plan. Perhaps, you
predict that your web authoring software may be out of date in Year 4.
Add add a software upgrade to the Year 4 plan.
|
Year 2 |
| Description |
Cost |
Frequency of Payment |
| Internet service provider |
|
Monthly |
| Domain name registration |
|
Bi-annual or annual |
| Telephone calls |
|
Quarterly |
| Web maintenance &
development |
|
Monthly |
| Web hosting |
|
Monthly |
| Loan |
|
Monthly |
| E-products for resale |
|
One time |
|
Total |
|
|
You now have a view of what the business will cost to set up and
operate over the next few years. Year 1 also gives a view of what the
potential loss could be if the business should not be as productive as anticipated.
It is surprising how little money is required to get started. A
reasonably featured "entry level" or "home" web
hosting package will get a home based internet business internet
presence for between £50 and £100 a year. As you develop the website
and need more web space and features then upgrade to the next level
package.
That's how to estimate what costs can be expected.
Next question is "How do we organise the Finances?"
