How much money do you need to start a business? We get asked this a lot and the answer is…it depends on the type of business. A general rule of thumb though is about two to three months of expenses including all your start-up costs.

We advise anyone starting a business to do a comprehensive budget and cash flow forecast. This will help you monitor income and expenses when cash is tight in the early days.

Peter had always worked for someone else so it was a huge learning curve when he decided to go out on his own. We were able to help him with the business’s finances by creating an accounting toolkit which included: a breakeven analysis, a budget, pricing strategy, cash flow forecasts and identifying his key numbers to monitor and manage.