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Business Running Costs

Every business is different, but all businesses will have some kind of running costs which could include the following:

  • Legal fees / Administration Fees
  • Business loan
  • Stationery such as printer paper, business cards, leaflets, blank invoices
  • Brochures
  • Computers
  • Internet
  • Inventory
  • Insurance
  • Rent
  • Advertising/Marketing
  • Franchise Fees

Businesses are very different so some companies won't have any stock or need to send any printed materials to their customers...it's possible these days to do pretty much everything online if you don't have tangible goods to sell. Having said that it is still a useful marketing tool to have things like business cards just in case you meet anybody who might be interested in your digital products or services.

Legal Fees / Administration Fees

All companies are likely to have some legal or administration fees - you will need to hire an accountant that you might pay on a monthly basis or every year when they've completed your accounts. You may need to keep purchasing a licence on a yearly basis. You will need to pay fees to bodies you belong to - again these could be monthly or yearly. If you have copyrighted or trademarked products you may need to hire lawyers to act on these competitors infringing on your business rights. As a limited company you will usually have to pay a small filing fee to put you on a company register that shows everybody you are a legitmate company.

Business Loan

If you weren't fortunate to have a big pot of cash - then you probably recieved business funding to start your business. As part of your running costs you will probably paying back in monthly installments - this could be for several years very much like a mortgage on your house.

Stationery

Even living in the so called paperless office - it's very hard not to use paper. You can use your stationery to also promote your contact details such as phone, mobile, e-mail and web address(es). If you pay a little more you can get letter headed stationery which can also save you money in ink if you buy in bulk from a professional printers.

Brochures

A brochure is a great way of explaining to potential customers what you do. These can be quite time consuming to put together as well as being quite expensive to print off. As your company expands hopefully - you may have more products and or services to tell your customers and therefore you'll need to update your brochures or catalogs.

Computers

Most companies will tend to have a website, therefore you'll need a computer just to look at your own website and make sure it is running okay as well as receiving feedback from feedback forms and e-mails. As your company expands - you will need to take on more workforce and therefore they will likely need a computer - also computers will fail and you will need to replace them. It is also advisable to have a plan to back up your data - this could be an online feature where your computers are connected to the internet and are backed up to the cloud each and every day.

Internet

Obviously if you have a website then you'll also need access to the internet which is usually a monthly cost. You can also use the internet for carrying out research on your competition. You may need to hire a website designer or have someone in-house to maintain your website.

Inventory

If you sell physical goods then you'll need to purchase products in order to sell them. This can be a big problem if you sell items in different sizes and colors. You might need to have 36 items just to have 1 product if it has 6 different sizes and 6 different colors. If you can drop ship your items then you can avoid having an inventory and offload the problem onto someone else. When your business is up and running you will need to maintain stock and re-order it as well as keep stock of it...this can mean paying a member of staff just to count up everything if you are a large company.

Insurance

This could be to protect loss of your physical goods or damage to them, you can protect your data, you might also need insurance if you are dealing with the general public called public liability insurance.

Rent

If you have a physical shop then the likelihood is you are renting your premises. You'll usually have to pay a deposit up front and at least a month in rent. As well as rent you might have to pay business rates which are paid in installments...you may get relief on this depending on various factors such as the size of your company or if you are a charity for example.

Advertising/Marketing

For people to get to know that you're actually selling something you have to do something to let them know. These can be simple business cards to paying for google adwords to bring traffic to your website.

Franchise Fees

If your business is a franchise you will generally have an initial outlay to buy your business as well as monthly/yearly costs to keep it going and purchasing your raw materials or products if you are selling a franchised product.

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