Starting a business for $1000

Please note that the price information in this article was based on data from 2010 and may now be outdated.

Starting a business for $1000 doesn’t sound possible, does it? A brand new plasma? Maybe. Seven nights in Fiji? Not a problem. But a whole business? So what’s it going to be? Trip of the year or business of a lifetime?

Unless you’re a freckly-faced 10-year-old with dreams of a lemonade stand empire, surely you’ll have to sink more than last year’s Rudd money into your start-up, right? You’ll be surprised to learn that with a little hard work and lots of know-how, you can actually get any great business idea off the ground for under $1000.

In this series, we’ll show you just how far you can stretch a grand. Smart spending – without cutting any corners – will give your business the best possible start. We reveal what should be at the top of your business shopping list – what’s a must-have item and what’s an optional extra.

Decide on a business name = $0
Once you have the right mindset, it’s time to decide on a business name. Again, this costs nothing (until you register it – we’ll cover this next time) but can be crucial to the success of your business. You need to come up with an informative name that encompasses your brand in a couple of words so customers know straight away what your business is about. You also need it to be memorable – something people will talk about without being too obscure. You want your customers to be able to find you easily, so resist the urge to get really clever with catchy puns and metaphors.

Secure a URL = $40
There are some expenses you should never skimp on when starting a business, so before cracking open your piggy bank, it’s essential to identify your immediate business needs to ensure you’re targeting your cash on something worthwhile. With so much business being driven by the internet these days, securing a domain name should be a top priority. 40 bucks should be enough to cover the cost of a “.com.au” URL for around two years. While it might be tempting to opt for a cheaper domain name, the “.com.au” suffix is widely known and only given to businesses that are legitimately Australian, so it will help boost the credibility of your business.

Splurge = $$$ If a rich relative pops up unexpectedly to invest in your business, it’s a good idea to splash the extra cash on a varied menu of URLs. While a little pricier than local domains, the “.com” suffix is useful for blocking competition. You could also capture extra traffic by taking advantage of the common misspellings of your URL and securing “typo”  domains, then re-directing traffic back to your site.

Secure web & email hosting = $80
The next step is to find someone to host your website and set up an email account. There is a range of free email services available  – such as Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo Mail –  which offer plenty of storage and effective spam filtering. To further enhance your business’s credibility, it’s worth spending money to establish an email account that’s consistent with your domain name. You can usually save a few dollars by finding a deal for both your email and web hosting; a basic package will cost around $80 per year.

Splurge = $$$ If you have the funds to get a web developer or web designer on board, then they may be happy to host your website for a limited time – normally 3 to 12 months – free of change. But to receive this perk, you’ll have to spend big initially. A web development expert costs an average of $59.68 per hour, while the average website development job costs $1,605– almost double our start-up budget!

Let’s take a look at our loot so far – the first stage has been more about elbow grease than hard-core spending. We’ve only broken a couple of notes (albeit one green one) and have managed to settle on a business name, secure a domain name and lock in reliable email and web hosting. And we still have $880 of pocket money left to play with before it’s time to head through the checkout!

Next time… Decide on a business structure and register your business name.