Startup Costs in Egypt: The Full List of What You Pay Before Your First Sale

The first question anyone planning a business asks is: how much do I need to start? The usual answer is the price of the equipment plus fitting out the premises. Then, after signing the lease, the owner finds there is a deposit and a broker's commission, the licence has fees, staff are paid before the first customer walks in, and the first stock alone needs money nobody budgeted for. This article goes through the startup costs of a small business in Egypt item by item, so you reach a complete figure before you commit to anything.

You will find a list of every cost group paid before the first sale, the official figures that belong in each one, and how to get prices you can rely on. Then comes an illustrative example worked out in full for a small print shop, plus a leaner version of the same shop that shows how startup costs can fall by about a third without changing the idea.

What counts as a startup cost?

Startup costs are the amounts paid once to get a business ready to sell. The US Small Business Administration (SBA) draws a clear line between two kinds of expense: one-time expenses, which are "the initial costs needed to start the business", such as major equipment, permits, licences and fees, and recurring monthly expenses such as salaries, rent and utilities. It advises counting at least one year of monthly expenses when planning¹.

The distinction matters because each kind is handled differently in a feasibility study. One-time costs go in the investment cost table; monthly expenses go in fixed costs, from which break-even is calculated. The grey area between them is the set-up period: the rent and wages you pay while fitting out are monthly by nature, but they are paid before any revenue arrives, so they belong in startup costs.

An everyday example: if you were opening a juice bar, the blender, the fridge and the counter are obvious startup costs. But the two months' rent while the builders finish, the worker's pay during the training week before opening, and the first batch of fruit and cups are startup costs too, because they come out of your pocket before you sell a single glass.

Startup costs in Egypt: the full list in 9 groups

Items differ from one activity to another, but almost any small business with physical premises in Egypt will go through the nine groups below. Use the table as a checklist: if a group does not apply to your business, write down why rather than leaving it blank.

Groups 1 to 6 are what most people remember. Groups 7 and 9 are the ones usually forgotten, and forgetting them can be why the money runs out before opening or shortly after.

Formation and licences: the legal form and the location set the items

Formation and registration

The first item depends on the legal form you choose: a sole proprietorship, a one-person company, or a limited liability company if you have partners. The government cut the minimum capital of a one-person company to EGP 1,000, down from EGP 50,000, and the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI) lets founders set one up online through its portal, uploading the documents and paying the fees by credit card².

Note that the capital you deposit is not a cost. It is your money and it stays in the business. The real cost is the fees and the charges of whoever handles the procedure: drafting the contract, entering the commercial register, getting the tax card, and registering with social insurance if you have staff. These fees vary with the legal form and with decisions by the authorities, so do not rely on a figure from a friend who set up a company years ago. Ask for a written quote that states what it includes and what it does not.

There is also an item that appears later if your sales grow: VAT registration. Under the VAT law the general rate is 14%, and registration is required once sales of taxable and exempt goods and services reach or exceed EGP 500,000 in 12 months³; check with your accountant what applies to your activity. This is not a startup cost, but it affects how you read supplier prices, as the equipment section explains.

Licences: do not assume one figure for every shop

Most premises that receive the public fall under the Public Shops Law No. 154 of 2019, whose executive regulations set licence fees by the shop's location, its area and how hazardous the activity is. According to press reports of the fee schedule in 2022 and 2023, the licence fee for a shop of up to 15 square metres with a non-hazardous activity is EGP 1,000 in villages, but EGP 20,000 for the same area in distinguished areas, with further amounts added depending on the type of licence⁴. The second figure is twenty times the first, which alone is reason enough to ask the district office responsible for the premises about current fees before you sign a lease.

If your business qualifies as a micro, small or medium enterprise, Article 44 of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Law provides that the service units set out in the law issue the owner a temporary licence within no more than 15 days of a completed form accompanied by the documents on the project's safety and fitness to operate, under controls set by the executive regulations, valid for no more than one year and renewable once, until the final licences are issued⁵. This does not remove the cost of the final licence, but if its conditions apply to you it may let you start earlier. Ask the investor service unit or Maher Consulting Firm about your case before you build your timetable on it.

Premises and fit-out: rent starts before opening

In a feasibility study rent is a monthly figure, but at the start it turns into several amounts paid at once. The main ones:

• Rent deposit: held by the landlord and returned at the end of the lease on its terms; the lease sets the amount. It is not an expense in the accounting sense, because it can be recovered, but it is money locked away that you cannot use for the whole lease.
• Broker's commission: if you found the unit through an agent, ask about the commission before the viewing, not after you agree.
• Rent during set-up: if the unit needs two months of finishing work, you pay two months' rent before any revenue. Try to negotiate a rent-free period in the lease to cover the fit-out; it cuts startup costs directly.

Fit-out is an item that can easily overrun its first estimate, because a lot of work only shows up once it begins: wiring that can carry the machines' load, plumbing, or changes to the shopfront. Ask at least two contractors for a written, itemised bill of quantities and compare them line by line, not just on the total.

Equipment and first stock: new or used, buy now or later?

Equipment and assets

Equipment can be the largest startup item; in the example below it alone is about 58% of the total. So every decision about it moves the capital you need noticeably. Four questions are worth answering before you buy:

1. Do you need the machine from day one? Some equipment serves demand that has not been proven yet. You can start by outsourcing that part of the work to another supplier, then buy the machine once volume is enough to cover its price or instalment.
2. Will second-hand do? Used equipment saves a lot, but count the expected maintenance, the availability of spare parts, the lack of a warranty and the time the business stands still when it breaks down.
3. Does the price include VAT? Ask the supplier directly. Under Law No. 149 of 2026 amending the VAT law, the rate on machinery and equipment used to produce goods or provide a service is 5%, except buses and passenger cars; payment of the tax on machinery and equipment imported or bought by factories and production units is suspended for a year from customs release or purchase, and it is exempted if the items are used in industrial production during that period; otherwise the tax and additional tax become due⁶. This suspension is for industrial production, so do not assume it applies to a service shop, and check with your accountant what applies to your equipment specifically.
4. Will you register for VAT? If you are registered, the law lets you deduct the VAT you paid on purchases from the VAT due on your sales, and the deduction is not limited to direct inputs but extends to indirect inputs under the law's conditions³. If you are not registered, the VAT you pay a supplier is part of your cost and is not recovered.

First stock: do not fill the stockroom before you know what sells

First stock is the goods or materials you need to start selling and keep going until the supplier's next delivery. The simplest way to estimate it: the quantity you expect to sell in the first purchasing cycle, multiplied by the supplier's current price. If the supplier delivers every two weeks, you need about two weeks of stock, plus a small margin for lines whose demand is uncertain.

The common mistake runs both ways. Some owners buy large quantities to get a discount and lock up a lot of money in goods that may not sell as fast as expected. Others cut stock so far that customers cannot find what they want in the first weeks, which are the weeks when their impression of the shop forms. If your business sells on credit or holds a lot of stock, you will need money that keeps circulating through stock and customer balances, which we explain in detail in our article on break-even and working capital.

Pre-opening wages and social insurance: mandatory figures

If you will take on staff before opening, to train them or help with the set-up, their pay is part of startup costs. This item contains figures that are not open to estimation:

• Minimum wage: the National Wages Council raised the private-sector minimum wage to EGP 7,000 a month from 1 March 2025; no new private-sector decision had been issued by mid-2026, and the draft decision announced in September 2026 contained no new figure⁷. Any estimate for a full-time worker below this figure is wrong from the start.
• Social insurance: under Law No. 148 of 2019 the employer pays 18.75% of the insurable wage and the employee 11%, and from 1 January 2026 contributions are calculated on a wage of no less than EGP 2,700 and no more than EGP 16,700 a month⁸. The employer's share is a cost on top of the salary and must appear in your study.

A simple example: two workers at EGP 8,000 each, taken on one month before opening. Wages are EGP 16,000 and the employer's social insurance share is EGP 3,000 (18.75% of 16,000), so EGP 19,000 is paid before the first sale. If opening slips by another month, the same amount comes round again.

Marketing and contingency: the two items cut first

When money is tight, many owners cut the launch marketing budget on the grounds that "people will find the shop anyway". But the first weeks decide whether the business reaches its expected sales on time or months later. Set a specific launch budget: clear signage, social media pages, a presence on map searches, printed material for the surrounding area, and a launch offer whose cost you have worked out.

The contingency reserve is a percentage added on top of all the items to cover what you do not yet know. There is no binding percentage; the example below uses 10%. The reason in Egypt is plain: annual urban headline inflation was 13.9% in September 2026, after 14.5% in August, according to CAPMAS data⁹. At that rate, if an item's price moves with the general average, today's price may be about 6.7% higher than a six-month-old quote. So ask for recent quotes, write the date of each quote in your table, and request fresh ones for anything that has been sitting a while before you commit.

Worked example: startup costs for a small print shop

Let us apply all of this to one example: a digital print and copy shop of about 40 square metres in a mixed residential and commercial area of Giza, printing documents, booklets and promotional material. This is an illustrative example: the prices are assumptions to show the method, not documented market prices, except for wages and social insurance, which follow the official rules above. Every result was calculated by a program, not estimated by hand.

Assumptions

• Rent EGP 12,000 a month, a two-month deposit, a broker's commission equal to one month, and two months of fit-out before opening during which rent is paid.
• Formation as a one-person company including fees EGP 12,000; licence and approvals EGP 6,000 (an assumption that the unit is not in a distinguished area; the real figure is set by the district office, and in distinguished areas the fee can exceed EGP 20,000 under the schedule reported in 2022⁴).
• Equipment: a production printer EGP 220,000, a wide-format printer EGP 110,000, finishing equipment (cutting, laminating and binding) EGP 40,000, and two computers with software EGP 55,000.
• Two workers at EGP 8,000 each, taken on one month before opening; utilities during set-up EGP 1,000 a month.

What the table tells you

First, equipment and fit-out together are about 70% of the total (EGP 515,000), and that is what most people count. But the remaining 30%, about EGP 220,900, includes EGP 154,000 of items that will actually be paid and EGP 66,900 of reserve, and anyone who starts from the equipment and fit-out figure alone will face a shortfall of at least EGP 154,000 before opening.

Second, the rent deposit (EGP 24,000) can be recovered at the end of the lease, but it is paid now and stays locked up. That is why it counts in the money you need to start, even though it is not an expense in the income statement.

Third, every month of delay adds cost. In this example one extra month of rent, wages, social insurance and utilities means EGP 32,000 (12,000 + 16,000 + 3,000 + 1,000) paid with no revenue at all.

From startup costs to the capital you need

Total startup costs get you to opening day, but they do not cover the following months, when sales are lower than expenses. This shop's fixed costs after opening are EGP 46,000 a month (rent 12,000, wages 16,000, social insurance 3,000, utilities 5,000, ongoing marketing 5,000, accountant 1,500, maintenance and software subscriptions 3,500). As a quick first estimate, adding a reserve equal to three months of these costs (EGP 138,000) puts the funding that should be available at about EGP 873,900. The three months here is only this article's quick rule of thumb, not the reserve calculated from a cash flow.

This first estimate is good for the question "am I in the right range?", but it is not the final figure. The precise figure comes from a monthly cash flow table: start with the startup costs, then each month add expected revenue and subtract expenses, find the deepest point the cumulative balance reaches, and add a safety reserve on top. We walk through this method with a full example in our feasibility study guide for Egypt 2026.

How to cut startup costs without killing the idea

Once you see the full figure, it may be more than you can raise. Before you drop the idea or look for a loan, ask the question differently: what is the smallest version of this business that can test real demand? Applying that to the same example with four changes: a used production printer at EGP 140,000 instead of a new one; postponing the wide-format printer and outsourcing that work to another print shop at first; simpler fit-out at EGP 70,000; and taking on only one worker before opening, with the second joining at opening.

The lean version saves EGP 241,450, about 32.8% of startup costs, and the funding needed on the same first estimate (with a three-month reserve of fixed costs) falls to about EGP 632,450 instead of 873,900. The saving has a price that your study should state: a lower margin on wide-format work because you are paying someone else, and a higher risk of breakdowns with the used machine. But it lets you buy the second machine later on demand that has actually been proven, not on a forecast.

Other approaches work for many businesses: negotiating a rent-free period to cover the fit-out, buying equipment on instalments from the supplier if the total cost of the instalments is reasonable, starting in smaller or shared premises, and testing demand before committing to any large cost. We set out practical ways to do that in our article on how to test your business idea before spending your capital.

7 common mistakes when working out startup costs

1. Counting only equipment and fit-out, and forgetting the rent deposit, the commission, the first stock and wages during set-up.
2. Assuming you will open on schedule, when fit-out and licensing often run late, and every month of delay has a definite cost.
3. Leaving out the employer's social insurance share, or assuming wages below the private-sector minimum.
4. Relying on old prices, or on a supplier's verbal figure with no written quote saying whether the price includes VAT.
5. Signing the lease before checking the unit can be licensed and what the licence costs at that address.
6. Buying all the equipment on day one, including machines that serve demand not yet proven.
7. Treating startup costs as the whole of your capital, and starting the first month with no money to carry the months before break-even.

Where startup costs appear in a feasibility study

The startup cost table is not a separate appendix; it is the starting point for all the numbers. It appears in a feasibility study in three places:

• In investment costs: the one-time items, grouped and with the dates of their quotes.
• In the cash flow: startup costs are the first cash out in the monthly table, after which monthly revenue and expenses begin. The deepest cash point and the recommended capital are taken from that table.
• In the payback period: the higher the startup costs, the longer it takes to get back what you spent. That is why a lean version of a business can shorten payback considerably, even if its monthly profit is a little lower.

If you will apply for finance, you will need a startup cost table built on written quotes for any lender, because it sets the amount requested and what it is for. See our article on feasibility studies for a business loan in Egypt for what lenders ask for. If your business is in printing specifically, you will find more detail on the printing press feasibility study page.

How Kleverz helps

Kleverz is an AI-powered feasibility study platform. If you are still at the idea stage, the free idea check takes about 5 minutes and gives you a verdict (proceed, adjust, validate first or avoid), a Kleverz Score out of 100 across five dimensions, the top 3 risks, and a first step for the next 48 hours.

If you are ready for the numbers, the detailed study is built on the figures you enter: price, direct cost, expected volume, team, city and capital. It calculates startup costs and fixed monthly costs including the employer's social insurance share, a month-by-month cash flow for the first 12 months and a yearly summary over three years, break-even, the payback month, the deepest cash need and a recommended capital that adds a two-month reserve, with three scenarios and a week-by-week plan for the first month, delivered within 24 hours of payment confirmation in Arabic or English. When you decide to go ahead, Maher Consulting Firm, the human consulting arm, handles company formation.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). Calculate your startup costs (2026-09-08). Checked 15 October 2026.
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