May 14, 2012 How Much Does It Cost to Launch a Business?
I was asked the other day how much I thought it would cost to start a business. After hearing a short description of the business, I said, “half a million, if you want it to be above-the-board.” (For the sake of privacy I’ll only say this woman wants to manufacture and sell a new consumer product). My estimates were based on three known costs, in order of heft: R&D/production, overhead/payroll and legal.
After repeating “half a million?!?!” in exaggerated shock, she added:
What if I just launched it online?
Now, I don’t pretend to be able to throw up simplistic business models like so much branding bile (let’s face it: “buy this now” can only be regurgitated so many ways), but this woman’s reaction is a great cautionary tale for the future business leaders of our generation, assuming they didn’t have the same reaction I did, which is:
There is no “just” launching online anymore. Online IS your business. You can’t relegate “online” to “just” an act of clicking “publish.” In fact I’d guess if your primary business model does not depend on the internet, you can probably plan on spending twice this half mill’ just to get brick-and-mortar distribution set up.
On second thought and after sobering from pat assumptions, I think anyone can start a business for peanuts out of their living room with a sewing machine, Tumblr and PayPal account. Does that make it “just” an online business?
Was your lemonade stand “just” about lemonade?