How to Calculate Startup Costs for an Exotic Pet Store

Before starting any business, you'll need to calculate the startup costs. This way, you'll know the entire amount you'll need, and have a detailed breakdown of the costs. When starting an exotic pet store, the specific costs may vary but the idea is the same.

Instructions

    • 1

      Decide how much you want to pay a building to house the exotic pet store. You can lease a place or you can get a loan to purchase a building. You need to find out how much the deposit is before you make an offer.

    • 2

      Determine the costs of electricity, water and Internet for your exotic pet storefront. Some or all of these utilities will require a down payment to make the service operational.

    • 3

      Estimate the cost of obtaining the inventory of exotic pets from the store. You will need to obtain the price and relative demand for each type of exotic pet to determine what types of animals and how much of each you need to purchase.

    • 4

      Calculate the total labor cost of running an exotic pet store. You will also need to determine the pay rate for all of the employees, and how many employees you are going to hire. In a start up calculation, you will normally estimate one month of labor expenses.

    • 5

      Obtain pricing for other services and products you'll need to operate, such as business insurance, legal fees, licenses and permits, office supplies and furnishings.

    • 6

      Establish a salary for yourself. Too many times when people calculate startup costs for a business, they forget to pay themselves. You need to determine just how much money you will need for the first few months of operation.

    • 7

      Explore how much advertising and marketing you'll need to publicize the opening of the exotic pet store. These marketing and advertising expenses can include banners, signs, commercials, ads, websites and the like.

    • 8

      Estimate what you'll owe in sales, property and other taxes.

    • 9

      Add in an extra 10% percent for unexpected expenses and petty or operating cash.

    • 10

      Compute the cost of all the equipment and supplies you'll need that are specific to exotic pets. These costs can include cages, aquariums, pet food, and other direct exotic pets costs.

    • 11

      Combine the costs you calculated in Steps 1 through 10 and add them together to calculate the total startup cost of an exotic pet store. Make sure you calculate for at least one month of operation.