What has your startup venture financially cost you?
sid: I see it like this. To start a business, whatever it is you need time, money and skill. However if you have 2 of the 3 your still capable of succeeding.If you have money and time, you can pour in those 2 aspects to get the best managers, engineers and designersIf you have money and skill for whatever industry your in you are able to be the visionary, the lead, be in control and are able to fill in your short commings with the funds you have. If you need the best materials, resources you can get them. You dont need to think twice about making do ... (to a certain extent)If you have skill and time then you yourself can build and design whatever it is your out to achieve, you can manage and you can empower the people you think can help you to make your business succeed even though you are not yet paying them. However you need to think more carefully, negotiate more because money is not in abundance so in a way its a good thing cause it forces you to be more resourceful.So far we have spent, money on servers (1 year upfront), test equipment, business registration and various other paper work costs to get a business started. This has probably all totalled to about $7000, not so much i guess.But my partner and i have negotiated a pay cutt (cause we still need our day jobs but we also need the time aspect so we dont do a full 5 day work week) with our managers so that when im at my 9-5 my partner is working on our business and when his at his 9-5 im working on our business and that we also get a day where we can catchup on the work we have done.There is also the 3-4 hours everday after the 9 to 5 that we spend working into the night (which means we cut down on alittle bit of sleep)There are times when we cant go out when we want to cause we are close to a milestone and its just not a good time to leave even if we want to. These are not finacial costs but arguablly some are more important. I guess we have spent alot and in terms of time its been quite abit.But i guess thats the sacrifice of starting a business. If its not money and time, its going to be skill and money and if its not skill and money its going to be skill and time.Its got to be one of those combinations.I guess