How much does it cost to start a business?

The cost of starting a business is your one-off setup spend plus several months of operating costs before revenue covers them. Founders reliably budget the first part and forget the second, which is why so many run out of money while the business is technically working. The setup is visible and easy to plan. The months of runway underneath it are what actually decide whether you make it.

1. One-off setup is the easy half

Registration, a domain, initial equipment, any legal or design work, and whatever you need to make the first version exist. These are visible, quotable, and mostly under your control, which is why founders plan them well and then feel prepared.

Keep this number deliberately small at the start. Money spent before you have a customer buys you assumptions; money spent after buys you improvements to something people have already paid for.

2. Operating costs are the half that sinks people

Rent, software subscriptions, hosting, accounting, and your own living costs keep going every month whether or not anyone has bought anything. Sales almost always ramp more slowly than the plan says, so budget several months of operating spend up front rather than assuming revenue arrives to meet it.

The honest way to size this is to ask how many months you can survive with zero revenue. If the answer is under three, the business has a timing problem regardless of how good the idea is.

3. Cut the number before you raise it

Most early costs are optional in disguise. Software you could do without for now, an office you do not yet need, a brand you can improve once people are paying. Every pound removed from monthly spend extends your runway more reliably than a pound of hoped-for revenue.

Spend on the things that shorten the path to a paying customer and defer everything else. The cheapest business is the one that gets paid soonest, not the one with the smallest setup bill.

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