Everything nobody hands you when you start a business
Idea validation, legal, money, build, launch, operations — in the order it actually matters. Pick your kind of business and you get the universal steps plus everything specific to your path, in one list. Built in the open with people actually doing it.
What it actually takes
time and moneyHow long to first revenue
Founders consistently underestimate these. The largest single timeline risk on a physical product is manufacturing lead time, and nothing you do in marketing moves that date.
| Path | To first revenue | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Service | Weeks | You can sell before you build. |
| Software | 2–6 months | To something someone pays for. |
| Physical product | 6–12 months | Dominated by manufacturing lead times and compliance. |
What it costs
List prices only — no intro offers, no first-year discounts. Where something renews, the renewal is the number shown, because that is the one you actually live with.
Formation and legal
| Item | DIY | Done for you |
|---|---|---|
| EINThe IRS charges nothing for an EIN, ever. Paid tiers bundle it; they are not selling you the number. | $0 | $249 bundled |
| State LLC filing feeMontana $35 lowest, Massachusetts $500 highest, median around $100. Pass-through — no service absorbs it. | $35–$500 | same |
| LLC formation serviceDIY means filing direct with your state. Service tiers are on top of the state fee, not instead of it. | $0 | $0 / $249 / $299 |
| Operating agreement | $0 template | included at $249 |
| Federal trademarkUSPTO fee is per class of goods. The assisted figure is an average attorney cost for clearance plus filing. | $350 per class | ~$2,849 |
| Provisional patentMicro entity / small entity / standard. Filing on paper instead of Patent Center adds a $200–$400 surcharge you can avoid entirely. | $65 / $130 / $325 | not sourced |
| General liability insuranceAnnual policies range $265–$3,030 depending on trade and coverage. Rated largely on revenue, so budget for it to climb as you grow rather than staying at the quoted figure. | — | ~$45/mo |
Brand and web
| Item | DIY | Done for you |
|---|---|---|
| Domain (.com)First year lists at $11.28, renews at $18.48. Budget the renewal — the first-year price is not the price. | — | $18.48/yr |
| LogoCanva free tier at zero. Fiverr listings start $15–$130. A 99designs contest starts at $249; logo plus brand guide $429. | $0 | $15–$249+ |
| Business cards50 for $10.00, 100 $14.99, 250 $19.99, 500 $24.99, 1000 $39.99. Rounded corners +$7.00, shipping $5.99. | — | $10–$39.99 |
| Business emailGoogle Workspace, billed annually. | — | $7–$22 per user/mo |
| Website builderWix free tier at zero. Wix paid $17–$159, Squarespace $19–$99. Squarespace also takes 2% on its lowest store tier. | $0 | $17–$159/mo |
Running it
| Item | DIY | Done for you |
|---|---|---|
| AccountingWave has a free tier. Xero $25/$55/$90, QuickBooks $38/$85/$140/$340. | $0 | $25–$340/mo |
| PaymentsStripe domestic card rate, +1.5% international, $15 per dispute. A rate, not a startup cost — it never belongs in a starting-cash number. | — | 2.9% + 30¢ |
| App hostingVercel Hobby free, Pro $20. | $0 | $20/user/mo |
| Database / backendSupabase free tier, Pro $25. | $0 | $25/mo |
| Email marketingMailchimp free under 250 contacts, Standard from $20. | $0 | from $20/mo |
Cheap to start is not cheap to keep
California costs $70 to form and $800 a year in franchise tax.
Nevada costs $425 to form and $350 a year after — the counterexample to the "just form in Nevada" folklore.
What you actually need to start
Everything above, totalled: what leaves your bank in the first twelve months to be open and operating. One-time items count once, recurring items count twelve times at the renewal rate. The low column is the free tier and the cheapest state; the high column is the done-for-you tier throughout. Most people land somewhere in between.
| Item | Low | High |
|---|---|---|
| State filing feeone-time — Montana $35 to Massachusetts $500 | $35 | $500 |
| Formation helpone-time — DIY direct with the state, or the $299 tier | $0 | $299 |
| Logoone-time — Canva free tier, or 99designs logo plus brand guide | $0 | $429 |
| Business cardsone-time — skip them, or 1000 at $39.99 plus $5.99 shipping | $0 | $46 |
| Domainyearly — the renewal rate, not the first-year price | $18.48 | $18.48 |
| General liability insuranceyearly — the annual policy range by trade | $265 | $3,030 |
| Business emailyearly — $7 to $22 per user per month, billed annually | $84 | $264 |
| Websiteyearly — Wix free tier, or Wix top tier at $159/mo | $0 | $1,908 |
| Accountingyearly — Wave free tier, or QuickBooks at $340/mo | $0 | $4,080 |
| Hostingyearly — Vercel Hobby free, or Pro at $20/mo | $0 | $240 |
| Databaseyearly — Supabase free tier, or Pro at $25/mo | $0 | $300 |
| Email marketingyearly — Mailchimp free under 250 contacts, or Standard at $20/mo | $0 | $240 |
| First-year starting cash | $402.48 | $11,354.48 |
A twenty-eight-fold spread between the two columns, and almost none of it is the government. What moves the number is which tiers you buy, not where you incorporate. Trademark, patent and payment processing are excluded: the first two are elective, and a percentage rate is not a starting cost.
What that total does not cover
These are the costs that decide whether you survive, and no price table can source them for you. The number is yours to size. The line item is not optional.
Research, development and the first run
Prototyping, samples, tooling or moulds, lab testing and certification, and the minimum order quantity on your first production run. This is usually larger than everything in the table above combined, it is spent before a single unit sells, and it is quoted — so get real quotes early rather than guessing. Tooling in particular is paid once, up front, and is worthless if the design changes.
The payment gap
You do the work in month one, invoice on completion, and net-30 terms mean the money lands in month two or three. Meanwhile subcontractors, insurance and your own rent bill on schedule. That gap is the most common reason a profitable service business dies. Size it honestly: months of gap multiplied by your monthly outgoings, and hold that in cash before you take the first job. Deposits and milestone billing shrink the gap; they do not remove it.
Runway before revenue
Infrastructure is close to free until it is not, so the real cost is the months you spend building before anyone pays. Two to six months to first revenue means two to six months of your own living costs, which never appear on a vendor price list. Price that honestly or you will ship into an empty bank account.
Tax you have already spent
Money collected as sales tax was never yours, and income tax on profit comes due whether or not you set it aside. Both feel like working capital right up until they are not. Separate them the week you start.
Idea board · Week 1
updated weeklyBusinesses you can start while keeping your job
A fresh set of business ideas every week, each with a real first step rather than a vague prompt. Readers submit ideas; accepted ones publish with credit.
- service
Compliance-document cleanup for small manufacturers
- saas
Sales-tax nexus tracking for first-year sellers
- service
Founder-footage editing on retainer