top of page

Budgeting

A budget outlines your organization’s financial and operational goals in order to create a business plan.

​

Budgeting is an important asset to help you measure and analyze your business’s performance. It can serve as a guide when deciding on aspects of your business such as: hiring new staff, cutting expenses, increasing marketing, etc.

​

When developing a budget, if your business is:

0-1 Year

You may refer to your financial forecast data for budget input

1+ Years

You may refer to data from previous years, noting where “you exceeded or fell short of last year’s budget”

Steps to develop a budget for your business:

​

Step 1

Write down assumptions about your business, such as what products/ services are/will be sold, their prices and volumes, the critical drivers for expenses. For example, number of staffs and locations, various marketing initiatives, etc.

​

Step 2

Once assumptions are listed, separate your budget in 3 parts:

​

  • Fixed costs: costs charged such as wages, rent, insurance, etc.

  • Semi-fixed costs: costs that can be scaled up or down depending on the state of your business, “using your monthly profit.” Therefore, if your business is doing better than expected, semi-fixed costs can be increased.

  • Variable costs: costs that are directly related to the production of a product like labor and materials, for example computers.

​

Step 3

Put your budget together (example of items you may include):

​

TIP

If you have an established business, take into consideration both income statement and cash flow statement. If you own a new business, focus solely on cash flow.

Hourly earning

​

Product sales

​

Investment income

​

Loans

​

Savings

​

Other

​

Rent/mortgage

​

Utilities

​

Government & bank fees

​

Salaries

​

Internet

​

Insurance

​

Advertising

​

Commissions

​

Other marketing costs

​

Travel & events

​

Printing services

​

Raw materials

Income Sources

Fixed Costs

Semi-Fixed Costs

Variable Costs

Computers

​

Furniture

​

Software

​

Office supplies


Download additional budget examples below:
bottom of page