Saturday, April 26, 2008

Start-up! How to Budget Your Business

Most people believe that to have a successful business you need to start with a large sum of money and acquire those start-up funds by taking risky business loans or mortgaging your home. That's simply not true. In fact, 25 percent of business owners needed no dollar amount to start up.

Reports show that only 27 percent of business owners have borrowed the money they needed to start their business and 36 percent of owners used their savings for their business start-up. It is always better to save the money you need up front if you are able. A total of 69 percent of new businesses were started or acquired without any need to borrow money.

So if it's that easy, why do so many businesses fail? It may be that new business owners spend more time planning a vacation than they do their new business venture. Many don't calculate into the equation how their personal financial responsibilities will be met while their new business is growing legs. They will still have rent or mortgage, electric bills, phone bills, and other household expenses. A new business just can't support home life for an estimated need of 1-2 years. This is where we fail to plan.

Starting a small business should be looked at as just that, a "small" business. The founder of Dell Computers was a college dropout. Starting small out of his garage, he managed to excel above all of the world's top computer manufacturers. One in three computers sold today is a Dell.