A friend of mine asked me the other day what our basic startup costs and operating budget was, not including employee salaries. Fortunately for him, we had a pretty clear breakdown of these costs created while investigating a joint venture with another company. This seems like exactly the information a new tech startup would need and something that is never thought out completely at the offset of a new venture.

Now, these numbers are not what we actually paid – we were extremely blessed to have had much of our furniture donated to us, as well as some lab benches, whiteboards, and electronics equipment. But if we were to start again, we would expect to pay close to $100K to cover all the basic office expenses for one year. Our cost breakdown is below or can download it here:

Download Excel Version of Startup Costs

Of course, I would recommend you work as hard as you can to keep these startup costs as low as possible. When you learn how to operate leanly, it will have positive effects on your bottom line and cash flow for a long time.

Estimated Monthly Costs

  2080 Office Space (1600 SQ ft- @1.30 Incl. water, trash)
   350 Telephone Service (AT&T)
   330 Mobile telephones / service (Qty 3)
   200 Electricity service
    80 Cleaning service
    70 DSL service (Includes WEB hosting)
    15 Drinking water service
------ ------------------------------ 
  3175 Estimated Monthly Expenses
 38100 Estimated Monthly Expenses, per year

Estimated Yearly Costs

   500 Office Supplies (paper, toner, clips, pens, pads)
   600 Subscriptions/ memberships / specialty books
  1400 Insurance (Building / equipment)
  5000 Accountant Services
 14000 Lawyer (350 / hour x 40 hours)
------ ------------------------------ 
 21500 Yearly Costs

Estimated One-Time Costs

  3750 Desks (5)
  1250 Executive desk chairs (5)
   800 Visitors chairs (10)
   600 Conference table
  1040 Conference room chairs (8)
   800 File cabinets - small (4)
   150 File cabinet - large
   825 Book cases (5)
   350 Conference room credenza
  1100 Overhead projector
  5000 File server (With keyboard, and monitor)
  8000 Computer - desktop (5)
  1500 Monitors (5)
   980 Fax, copier, scanner (color laser)
   750 Printer
   660 Telephones (6)
   750 Office accessories for offices/meeting room
   475 White Boards / bulletin boards (5 offices)
   250 White board for meeting room
   250 Chair Mats (plastic, 5)
   400 Letter head, envelopes
   240 Coffee Machine, cups
   400 Small table and chairs (break room)
   400 Refrigerator
   400 Business cards (5 people)
   150 Microwave
   120 Trash cans
   750 Decorations (plants,pictures)
   950 LCD Television (with DVD)
   800 Lab Bench and chair
   140 Tool set (screwdrivers, wrenches, exacto)
   240 Soldering Station
   150 Multimeter
   300 Microscope, power source
   120 Wire, flux, solder, standard connectors
   250 Power tools (drill/driver, dremmel)
  3500 Oscilloscope with accessories
------ ------------------------------ 
 38590 One Time Expenses 

 

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If you’re starting a tech business and want to read more from our experience, check out these blogs on the topic:

Starting a Business

Thoughts on Business Marketing

Copy Protection and Protecting Your Software Investment