Startup Costs to Avoid During the First Six Months

During the startup phase of your business, you are likely equipped with a very limited supply of resources, and it is a critical to be aware of how you spend your money. There might be some things that you will pay for down the road but that you want to try and avoid from the start. Here are my thoughts on costs to avoid in the early going:

Travel: Travel is expensive and suppresses productivity. Avoid it by taking advantage of modern technologies like phone, email, and Skype.

Office Space: Unless a retail company, startups normally don’t get off the ground in a store or leased office space. Work from your home for the first months or even years of business.

Hiring: Only hire employees if your business requires it. Otherwise, take advantage of contractors and freelancers in the startup phase. This will also give you more time to search for the “right” hires.

Website: Don’t take this the wrong way. You want a nice website that’s very user friendly, but that doesn’t mean you need to spend money on the latest in web technology. A good template should get you through until you have time to build up some capital to pay an advanced web developer.

Blogging: Take it easy on the blogging. Try to keep focused on product development and growing your business before you spend a lot of time writing about an industry that you’re trying to be in.

Public Relations: PR is great but be careful how you approach it. You want to have a strong version of your company’s story and where you are headed by the time you start paying for PR. Shoot for free publicity instead.

Paper: Avoid printing at all costs. Of course there will be times when you need to print but try and keep it limited to necessary items. Remember, green is great.