Starting a small business never quite goes the way you expect. One of the aspects that can trip you up is all those unexpected costs. It turns out it’s pretty expensive to run a small business.

If you are thinking of starting a small business, or in the early days and learning, here are some unexpected costs to look out for.

Insurance

Insurance isn’t always the first thing you think of when considering starting a business. But it is so important. Lots of small businesses fail in the first year due to unexpected losses. Insurance can protect you and your business from money loss, but it does come at a price.

Insurance is especially key as your business begins to grow. The more assets you obtain, the more insurance is needed, so the price of insurance rises. This cost is a key one, but also can be an expensive one. Choosing the right insurance can massively affect the state of your small business.

Capital

This may be less of an unexpected cost – everyone knows you need equipment to run a business! What will come as a surprise is how much you need.

The amount will depend on the type of business you are running, but many will need a combination of these key types of capital:

• Speciality manufacturing equipment
• Generalised equipment
• Transport
• Workspaces
• Digital capital

The more successful your business is, the more capital you will need. Alongside the costs of capital, there are the added costs of insuring this capital. If you have invested in a fleet of vans, you can’t avoid risk without investing in business auto insurance.

Maintenance

Another addition to capital costs is the cost of upkeep for these assets. Equipment, office spaces and transport all require regular maintenance to avoid further costs surrounding breakages or failures. There may be costs around updating technology as research progresses, all of which can come as unexpected but necessary costs.

Luckily – apart from costs that come with replacement or unexpected failures – these costs can be regular and planned into a budget.

Employee Costs

A small business might start with a very small number of employees – it may even start as just you. But as the business grows, and work grows, more employees will need to be brought in to manage the workload.

The cost of employees shouldn’t be unexpected. However, what may come as a surprise is all the added extras that involve employee pay.

All businesses will require in part a level of training for their employees. The intensity and cost of this will depend on the type of business, but this is a cost that affects everyone. On top of training costs, there is the cost of taxes and benefits. These costs can often slip unnoticed until they are glaring you in the face.

By making yourself aware of costs which might hit others unaware, you can plan for and move around such costs, hopefully saving yourself money in the process.