How Much It Takes To Start a Business?

The answer from the survey of the Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index (on approximately 600 small-business owners nationwide) is that small-business owners spend an average of US$10,000 to start their businesses.

73% of business owners surveyed funded their businesses with their own personal savings. You can read the full report here.

Translating the above into Malaysian context, the average startup amount should be RM17,750. This is based on purchasing power parity of 1.775 deriving from Big Mac prices in US and Malaysia as at 25 March 2006.

However, this is just an average number serving as "nice-to-know" number. It is definitely not a yardstick as every business is different.