Start with the expected case

Download the launch-budget worksheet, open it in Excel, Google Sheets, or Numbers, and replace the expected column first. The populated figures are fictional teaching inputs, not market rates, supplier quotes, recommendations, or Setka prices.

Choose one currency. Record the basis used for revenue and costs. Then replace each input with a quote, contract term, operating record, or explicit internal assumption. Once the expected case works, build credible low and high cases. The final column contains an illustrative actual case only to demonstrate the formulas; replace it before using the sheet as a record.

For the broader reasoning behind each cost, read how much it costs to start an online store.

What the worksheet separates

The model keeps five ideas apart because combining them produces misleading totals:

  • Launch cash covers one-time purchases such as setup, outside help, assets, and controlled test orders.
  • Cash timing covers opening inventory, supplier deposits, recoverable-tax timing, and delayed payouts. It affects liquidity but is not automatically an economic cost.
  • Monthly fixed cash is owed even when no order arrives: platform, tools, recurring help, and the chosen demand-generation budget.
  • Order economics starts with merchandise revenue and customer-paid shipping, then subtracts product, carrier, packaging, payment, return, and other variable costs.
  • Internal labor values founder or employee time separately from cash spending.

The result block calculates cash required before opening, contribution per order, two break-even boundaries, first-month cost, first-year cash cost, and first-year economic cost. It also shows what remains after fixed and launch costs at the stated volume. That number is not accounting profit; taxes and business costs outside the sheet still matter.

Use low, expected, high, and actual as separate claims

Every column uses the same formula structure:

  1. Low is a credible lower case, not the cheapest number you can imagine.
  2. Expected is the plan you are prepared to manage.
  3. High is a plausible upper case for scope, volume, fees, and operating effort.
  4. Actual is what happened. Replace the fictional example in that column, and do not overwrite the forecast later to make it look accurate.

These are scenarios, not optimistic and pessimistic labels. A high-volume case can carry more revenue and more product, payment, fulfilment, support, and return cost. A low-volume case may reduce variable spending while making the fixed commitment harder to cover.

Mark the source and date of every supplier, platform, payment, carrier, and internal-time assumption in the Notes column. Current Setka pricing belongs on /pricing/, not frozen in this article.

Keep tax basis and cash timing explicit

Do not multiply the final total by one tax rate. Some amounts may include recoverable tax, some may not, and owner time is not an invoice. Enter each cash cost at the amount the business expects to bear. For contribution, keep customer revenue and per-order costs on one comparable basis. Put recoverable tax timing or delayed payouts in the cash-buffer row rather than calling them permanent cost.

Opening inventory works the same way. It can create a large pre-launch cash need, while product cost is also recognized as orders are sold. The worksheet therefore shows opening inventory under cash timing and keeps it out of the first-year cost formula. Do not add the same stock twice.

Read contribution before the annual total

The key formula is:

Contribution per order = merchandise revenue + customer-paid shipping − product cost − carrier cost − packaging − payment cost − return reserve − other variable cost

Payment cost is calculated from customer revenue using separate percentage and fixed inputs. The sheet then multiplies contribution by order volume and subtracts monthly fixed cash. One break-even row asks how many orders cover monthly fixed cash; another adds one twelfth of launch cash. Both assume contribution remains positive and the modeled basket stays representative.

Customer-paid shipping and carrier cost stay separate. If the customer pays 5 and the carrier costs 8, the store funds the remaining 3 before packaging. If shipping is free, enter zero customer shipping rather than hiding the full carrier cost inside a blended margin.

Test the assumptions that can reverse the decision

Run at least four checks:

  1. Halve order volume without reducing fixed cost.
  2. Lower basket value while leaving product and fulfilment cost unchanged.
  3. Increase carrier, return, or payment cost.
  4. Increase owner hours when the build or ongoing workflow needs more intervention than planned.

For a seasonal business, copy the monthly block twelve times instead of pretending one month repeats exactly. Before finalizing payment assumptions, review the checkout guide. Keep an acquisition budget in both marketplace and owned-store comparisons; a platform subscription does not include demand.

Where Setka changes the cost structure

Setka is our product. In a conventional theme workflow, a merchant may have to coordinate the commerce system, theme, page builder, apps, storefront changes, and outside help. Setka generates the storefront inside the commerce platform from the merchant’s brief and catalog. The merchant can refine it, edit exact copy, preview, publish, and return to earlier storefront-wide versions without maintaining a separate theme codebase.

For a suitable launch, that can remove a separate theme-build and theme-maintenance line. It does not remove product work, commercial decisions, payments, delivery, testing, or demand generation, and it does not guarantee the lowest total. Put the current Setka price in the platform row, then compare owner time and future change costs on the same scope. Map the remaining work with the complete store-building sequence and the custom-domain guide.

Make the worksheet yours

Replace the expected inputs, then inspect contribution and both break-even rows before polishing the high scenario. If the result depends on a sales volume you cannot yet explain how to reach, change the plan rather than the spreadsheet.