Looking to start your own business and make some leather backpacks just like us? As entrepreneurs and owners of a leather backpack business, we know just how confusing the process can be.
There's so much information out there about how much it costs to open a business, what kind of business loans you need, and so on... Finding the right answers can be overwhelming.
But here's a secret: The best way to feel ready for the next steps is to sit down with a pen and paper and really figure out what you want from this new business.
So what are you looking for? A new adventure? Flexible hours? More time with family or friends? Once you know—and I mean really know—the answer to that question, you're ready to get started. That answer will keep you focused when things start getting hard, or when you need to make tough decisions. Like whether or not it's worth getting a loan for this venture!
One of the most common questions we get is: "How much does it cost to start a business?" And while we obviously can't speak for everyone, we can share what it cost us to start our leather backpack business.
Short Business Story
We started small and local, making leather bags to order in our garage with our savings. We had a modest goal: sell enough backpacks to rent a space in a local shopping center and hire someone else to help make bags.
The small amount of money we earned from selling bags at fairs helped us pay for our first rental space. The next step was figuring out how much we were going to need to hire someone else. After doing some research online and talking with friends who had owned businesses, we decided that $100,000 was the minimum amount of money we would need to hire someone else while still keeping our costs low at home.
If you've got an idea for a business, it's time to start doing your research and planning. After all, if you don't know what you're getting yourself into, how do you know if it's really worth the investment?
The first thing to think about is how much money it takes to open up a store—after all, the more money you need to get started, the more risk there is involved. A good rule of thumb is that you should write down a list of everything that needs to be purchased in order to open your business, then add up all the costs.
You might also want to figure out how much money your business will cost every month. This will help tell you if your business will be profitable or not. For example, if your monthly cost is $100 but your sales are only $80 per month, then there's no point in starting this business! Luckily today many people are able to start their businesses with very little upfront cash; still, finding out this information early on can save you from wasting time on an idea that won't crush your budget.
The first thing many of us think about when we imagine opening our own business is the money. Unfortunately, there's no easy way to answer the question "how much does it cost to open a business." You've probably heard that you need $10,000 or $20,000 or $30,000 to start a new company, but those numbers are really just arbitrary. If you don’t have such budget, try some loans to cover all business expenses.
If you want to open your own business and you're asking how much it will cost, the most important thing to do is think about what kind of business you want to start. Are you going to make your own products? Are you going to sell them? Are you going to provide a service? Each of these options could have different costs associated with them.