Sean Carter
Overhead costs can be a new business owner’s nightmare. You are excited with your new business idea. You have your business loan and “are now in business.” However, you have forgotten a handful of crucial items in your business budget. The following are some of the most commonly forgotten budget items.
When running a business, many people forget to make sure they know they exact cost of their business’ supplies. A restaurant owner, for example, often forgets to factor in the fact that unused food will go bad and have to be replaced. A business owner in an office setting may forget to budget for items as simple as printing supplies or desks. Do your business a favor and factor in all costs associated with running a business in your industry. It may be helpful to talk to another person who owns a business like yours and talk to them about their costs.
Payroll can get complicated. There are tons of laws and tax codes that you as a new business owner may not know about. In addition, there are plenty of fees and penalties you could face if payroll is not done properly. The majority of businesses need employees to help everything go smoothly for the business. Usually business owners factory in employees’ wages, but forget the extra cost of either hiring an in-house accountant or an outside payroll company. Do yourself a favor, and miss out on any headaches from forgetting to budget the payroll person in your business budget.
Another often-overlooked item is maintenance costs. Every business has some sort of maintenance be it computers, equipment or building. If you, for example, have a construction business or other business with large machinery, you will want to make sure you budget maintenance for the equipment. You want to make sure you get everything inspected to know it is safe to use. A proper inspection will check everything, even the stainless steel boiler feed water systems, to make sure it is safe to use. If you run a computer-based business, you will want to make sure you budget for a tech to come in and give the computers a regular check-up, making sure all the systems run properly. Forgetting to budget for regular maintenance will result in you facing unexpected costs associated with major repairs to unmaintained equipment.
