Costs

1. What is this thing, exactly? How does it work?

The business plan helps answer the “get started” question by clarifying all the requirements and costs of starting up, such as

• Who to hire
• Items to purchase
• Materials and space needed
• Types of permits
• Requirements for start-up time

When generating your budget, be sure to calculate the value of in-kind donations as a revenue and an expense. The tendency in public health is to think of in-kind donations as "free" and not include those expenses (e.g., rent, utilities, support staff) into the budget. By including these values as both revenue and an expense, they cancel each other out and don't affect the profit/loss, but they do help the budget to more accurately reflect the cost of doing business.

One function of your business plan is to determine how much it will cost to get started. After you figure out what your start-up costs are, then figure out how to keep the program running. There are two equally important budgets that need to be developed: a start-up budget and an operating budget.

Having calculated how much would it cost to start up you can go to a bank, a venture capitalist, or your rich sister to get the money to get started. In public health you would probably go instead to the health director, the board, or a foundation.

In our example, the Dare County Health Department estimated that to start up their program they would need $225,000. That money would cover initial expenses for staff (a dentist, assistant, and program manager), supplies, and vehicle purchase, maintenance, and fees.