If you’re going to start a business this year, you probably have come up with a plan already. Having a comprehensive plan in place is one of the most critical things you can do if you’re going to find success within your niche.

However, while you might have thought about expenses such as employee salaries and what it will cost to rent a brick-and-mortar location, you might have forgotten about certain other potential expenditures.

We’ve compiled a possible expense list for you to peruse. It’s probable that you won’t need everything on this list, but it’s more than likely you’ll need at least a couple of the items we’ll mention.

Network Security Monitoring

Depending on your business model, it’s possible that your employees might use an exclusive or proprietary network. They’ll log onto it, either from one central location, from several remote ones, or both.

It’s vital that you have network security monitoring. You can hire a company that can give you 24×7 detection and response. That way, if anything ever goes wrong, you’ll know about it immediately.

The company you hire can deal with compromised accounts. They can identify and fix malicious scripts. They can look out for bot or web application attacks.

They can also keep your products up to date. Hackers often use out-of-date products to gain network access. They can make upgrade recommendations and inform you when the industry develops a new product or security protocol that might benefit you.

Various Insurance Types

You should also know that most businesses need insurance policies. Which ones you need will depend on your exact business model.

You will probably need premises liability insurance if you have a brick-and-mortar location. This will protect you against slip-and-fall injuries and similar incidents.

You might require vehicle insurance if you have company cars or trucks that deliver your merchandise around the city, state, or country. You may need business interruption insurance. If something interrupts your business for a while, such as the pandemic did, you can use it to pay employee salaries, rent, etc.

Employee Training

You may need to set some extra cash aside for employee training and education. If you’re in a fast-moving industry, you can only stay competitive if your employees know all the latest techniques and can use the most modern tools.

You might use the money to send your employees to seminars periodically. You could bring in industry experts to talk to your workers about how your niche is changing. Your employees can ask questions about topics that concern them, and when they resume working, they’ll have new skills they can implement that should help your bottom line.

Credit Card Processing Fees

If you have a business model where you’re selling products or services, you’ll need to figure out the best way for your customers to pay. If you have an eCommerce setup, you’ll probably want to accept all major credit cards, as well as cryptocurrency. You might accept Apple Pay, PayPal, Google Pay, and others.

You should remember, though, that there are credit card processing fees. You’re the one who pays for that, not the customer.

You might find this onerous, but you have to deal with it, or else you can’t accept the most common payment methods. The more of those you can take, the more likely it is that you can get your website or store visitors to convert, which means buying a service or product.

An Employee Benefits Program

You probably have an idea in your business plan of what you’ll pay your employees. However, there’s generally more to it than just payroll.

If you want to keep your employees and avoid unnecessary turnover, you need to keep your workers happy. Benefits are one way you can do that.

You’ll have to think about what benefits you feel are appropriate. Look at your competitors. You should expect that your employees will want the same package that similar companies would give them.

For instance, they might want stock options or a 401K program. If you do offer a 401K plan, you should match contributions up to whatever amount you can afford. You might pay for gym memberships or company vehicles.

You also might need to pay for equipment rentals or regulatory and license fees, depending on your business model. You may need to pay various legal fees.

Unexpected expenses are always possible when you start a business. The more money you’ve set aside in reserve, the better your success chances.