Startup cost calculator

Start with the one-time costs — the things you pay for once to get to opening day. The rows are prefilled with the categories the SBA uses in its startup worksheets: equipment, licenses and permits, initial inventory, branding and website, deposits, and legal and accounting fees. Every row is editable — rename it, change the amount, delete what doesn't apply, and add anything unique to your business, from a food-truck wrap to a franchise fee.

Then fill in your monthly operating costs: rent, salaries, marketing, software, insurance, utilities. These are the bills that arrive every month whether you have customers or not, which is why the calculator multiplies them by your months of runway — the time you expect to pass before revenue reliably covers them. The default is 12 months; adjust it to how fast your business realistically ramps.

Finally, set a contingency buffer. The default 15% covers the costs you didn't see coming — a permit that takes longer, equipment that costs more, a launch month that slips. The total updates as you type, so you can test scenarios instantly: what if I lease instead of buy? What if I run it from home for the first six months?

A few costs hide between the two groups, so place them deliberately. Insurance often has a down payment (one-time) and a premium (monthly). Payment processing, bookkeeping, and loan repayments start the day you open, so they belong in monthly even if you haven't signed up yet. And if you're leaving a paycheck behind, your own living costs are the most commonly skipped line in any launch budget — add an owner's draw row to the monthly group so the runway math reflects reality.

The calculator adds three layers. One-time costs are simply summed. Working capital is your monthly subtotal multiplied by your months of runway — the cash reserve that keeps the lights on while revenue builds. Contingency is a percentage applied to both, because surprises hit setup costs and operating costs alike.

Applying the buffer to working capital, not just the build-out, is deliberate: delays don't only make setup more expensive, they stretch the months you carry rent and payroll before revenue arrives. A one-month slip on a $1,500 monthly cost base burns $1,500 of buffer on its own — so the contingency scales with your runway instead of sitting on top of the equipment line alone.

Say you're launching a mobile coffee cart. One-time costs: $8,000 for the cart and espresso equipment, $600 in licenses and permits, $1,200 of initial inventory, $900 for branding and a website, $1,000 in deposits, and $500 in legal and accounting — $12,200 in total.

Monthly costs come to $1,500 after renaming a couple of rows to fit: $400 for a commissary kitchen (the "Rent" row), $300 for marketing, $120 for software, $180 for insurance, and $500 for restocking supplies.

With 12 months of runway, working capital is $18,000 — already more than the cart itself. A 15% contingency on the $30,200 subtotal adds $4,530, for a launch number of $34,730. That number is the point: most people would guess "about $10k for the cart" and be under water by month four.

First, compare it to the cash you can actually raise — savings, a partner, a small-business loan, friends and family. The gap between the two is your real planning problem, and it's far cheaper to discover it now than after signing a lease.

If the gap is big, work the lines: lease equipment instead of buying, launch from home before renting, start with a smaller inventory, push non-essential purchases past opening day. Each change updates the total instantly, so you can see exactly what a leaner launch saves.

Then treat the number as a budget, not a memory. Revisit it monthly once you start spending — line items drift, and catching a 20% overrun in month two beats discovering it in month six. When you're ready to move, these same numbers become the financial spine of your business plan.