Sit down and list what you will need to pay for before you start generating any business. Some examples are given in the table below . . .
|
Cost Item
|
Estimated Cost
|
|
Office equipment (Desks, pens and computers etc) excluding application software
|
£1,000
|
|
Office Lease Deposit
|
£2,000
|
|
Sales and Marketing Literature
|
£1,000
|
|
Your Salary – for the period while you set up the business. Your salary then becomes a fixed cost once the business is running.
|
£2,000
|
|
Web Site construction
|
£5,000
|
|
Guarantees and trade association memberships (as per section 4 on regulation and legalities)
|
£5,000
|
|
Software eg back office booking system
|
£5,000
|
|
Legal costs
|
£500
|
|
Retail space signage
|
£1000
|
As you work through the rest of this section, you may well decide to defer whatever start up costs you can. If this is the case, consider the following:
- Leasing rather than buying. While this is almost always more expensive in the long run, it will lower initial costs.
- Negotiate every deal you can as a “pay as you go” monthly charge rather than a start up cost.
- Home working – TTA offers all the infrastructure needed to run your business. They can also run your back office for you. All you have to provide is the office space for yourself, sales skills and your time.
- As you will read in the section on regulation and legalities there are some significant start up bonding costs to creating a travel business. The trust account system run by TTA reduces these costs significantly.