What is a Startup Cost? Non-recurring costs associated with setting up a business, such as accountant’s fees, legal fees, registration charges, as well as advertising, promotional activities, and employee training. Also called startup expenses, preliminary expenses, or pre-opening expenses. Let me clarify that this discussion pertains to small and medium size enterprise startup costs and not about capital budgeting. Any project that an entrepreneur wishes to undertake has four factors to be considered. Men Material Machine Money Finance is the lifeblood of any business and to be successful, one must, inject sufficient capital into it. Many businesses fail because of under-capitalization. Seed Money Requirements To determine how much seed money you need to start, you must estimate the costs of doing business at least for the first year. Expenses may be categorized as ‘one-time costs’ such as the fee for incorporating your business or the price of a sign for your building. Some will be ‘ongoing costs’, such as the cost of utilities, inventory, insurance, etc.  There is a pressing need for you to bring enough working capital to run the day-to-day business affairs. Without a projected fund flow statement and proposal, no bank or financial institution shall offer you long term loans to run the business. First of all, you need to write the business plan and ask yourself the following questions. Ask yourself these 20 questions to make sure you’re thinking about the right key business decisions: Why am I starting a business? What kind of business do I want? Who is my ideal customer? What products or services will my business provide? Am I prepared to spend the time and money needed to get my business started? What differentiates my business idea and the products or services I will provide from others in the market? Where will my business be located? How many employees will I need? What types of suppliers do I need? How much money do I need to get started? Will I need to get a loan? How soon will it take before my products or services are available? How long do I have until I start making a profit? Who is my competition? How will I price my product compared to my competition? How will I set up the legal structure of my business? What taxes do I need to pay? What kind of insurance do I need? How will I manage my business? How will I advertise my business? Courtesy – http://www.sba.gov/ See ‘Short Term Financing’ to know more about financing your business. The term finance sanctioned in the form of ‘Term Loan’ is required for Land and site development Building and civil works Plant and Machinery Installation expenses and Miscellaneous fixed assets which comprise vehicles, furniture and fixtures, office equipment, workshop and laboratory equipment, distribution of power and water supply etc. Expenditure on infrastructure facilities like water supply, power connection, roads, transportation etc., has to be particularly considered if the units are located in economically backward areas. Startup...

Double Entry System of Book Keeping Accounting is not to be feared Accounting is a subject that is intertwined with our day-to-day lives yet people think it is quite a complicated subject to deal with. The fancy of the subject is such, that many of us fail to understand that it is quite simple, un-complicated and all it talks about is balance. Rather than barging into equations that make us grip with fear, let us start with the basic question of WHAT=WHO? “What” deals with whatever we have in hand or otherwise ASSETS and “Who” deals with the claims, both other’s claims and our own claims on the product we have in hand. Other people’s claims are known as LIABILITIES and our own claim on the product is called Owner’s equity. Now if we take “WHAT=WHO”, it can be translated into the following equation ASSETS= LIABILITIES+OWNER’S EQUITY Accounting: Get Hired Without Work Experience UNDERSTAND WHAT = WHO What = Who Stuff = Who Assets = Who Assets = Who Has Claim Assets = Claims Assets = Other People’s Claims + My Claims Assets = Liabilities + My Claims Assets = Liabilities + My Equity Assets = Liabilities + Owner’s Equity Simple Equation to Remember There are two types of claims: other people’s claims and my claims. Assets = Other People’s Claims + My Claims Claims are also referred to as equities. Assets = Other People’s Equities + My Equity. Accountants have a fancy word for other people’s equities. These are known as liabilities. Assets = Liabilities + My Equity Because I am the owner, we will call My Equity Owner’s Equity. Assets = Liabilities + Owner’s Equity This is the formal equation of accounting. The structure of accounting is based on this one perspective. Accounting students memorize it. And try to decipher it. You are way ahead of the game because you understand that what = who! WHAT ARE ASSETS AND LIABILITIES Assets are on the left of the Big T. Asset accounts increase with debits. Liabilities and Owner’s Equity are on the right of the Big T. They increase with credits. Income ultimately increases owner’s equity so it behaves like owner’s equity: it increases with a credit. Expenses increase with debits. The best way to improve your expertise in accounting procedure is to practice; in due course your hand movement and thought process start synchronizing. Examples of Asset accounts – Vehicles, Furniture, Cash Examples of Liabilities accounts- Accounts payable, Owner’s equity Purchasing a TV- Example ASSETS (what) =  LIABILITIES + OWNER’S EQUITY (who) Say if you invest Rs.5,000 as down payment from your end and take a loan of Rs.20,000 from the bank to purchase the product. Now, the bank has a claim on your asset to the extent of Rs.20,000 and your claim is Rs.5000. Here liability is Rs.20,000 and Owner’s equity is Rs.5,000. On the asset side we have a TV worth Rs.25,000 You can see that the value of the asset is equal to the value of liabilities, i.e., what = who. ASSETS = LIABILITIES + OWNER’S EQUITY 25,000    =       20,000    +     5,000 Just how you see a hand with five fingered palm on one side and five fingered nails on the other side, this accounting equation has two different perspectives to strike a balance between assets and liabilities. The Big Balancing ‘T’ The Big Balancing ‘T’ BIG “T” FOR PRODUCT  PURCHASE WHAT (ASSET) VEHICLES (Rs.25,000)  = WHO (LIABILITIES) ACCOUNTS PAYABLE (Rs.20,000) +  PAID IN CAPITAL (Rs.5,000)    Do I Debit or Credit? When we receive cash for completing a consulting job we know that cash has increased so we debit cash. The corresponding account...