How do you manage pre-revenue startup costs?
How are you covering the monthly costs of building your B2C or B2B startup? The virtual office, phone service, domain hosting, Supabase or Firebase, and other recurring expenses add up. How do you fund these odds and ends, and what cost-saving hacks help you get the most bang for your proverbial buck before revenue starts coming in?
I have two startups, so the overhead can be overwhelming. Still, I decided long ago that it was in my best financial interest to focus primarily on my startup needs and find free workarounds for my wants. For example, Canva is a low-cost design service, but I opted for a free Affinity account for most of my immediate needs. It requires more manual labor and a bit of design skill, but I’m saving $15-$20/month. It’s minimal, but I would rather spend that $20/month on Resend for my email needs than on design extras.
How are you managing?
Replies
Jasmine, the free workaround approach is smart while revenue is not there yet. The part I would watch for with two startups running at once is not the subscription costs themselves, it is losing track of which startup a given expense or task actually belongs to once you are moving fast between both. That mixing is what used to bite me running three businesses at once, less about money and more about attention going to the wrong one. How do you currently keep the two straight day to day, one system for both, or something separate for each?
@stacywycof83995 Absolutely true, and thank you for this. I'm grateful that in business B, I am a co-founder, so I share the load with someone else. Even so, my days are scheduled and blocked according to business needs. I think founders with multiple businesses take a similar approach. It also helps that they are in completely different industries, so the overlap is non-existent. Different banking, expenses, etc. I can shift from one to the next more easily without creating any messy strings that could cause problems for both companies.
@jasminediaz Different industries with different banking is a real advantage, that alone removes most of the mixing risk. The place I would still watch for is not the normal blocked day, it is the day something breaks the block, a client message in business A landing while you are deep in a session for business B. Does that pull you out right away, or do you let it wait until the block ends, and has holding the line ever cost you something?
@stacywycof83995 Right now, no. Business B isn't quite at the point where I am being pulled in any direction. I think we're a good six months away from that being a potential issue. But I will definitely keep everything you mentioned in mind.