incorporate and CPA fees to establish your business     contingency reserve.             Now assign specific dollar amounts to each item on this list. If youre unsure about the cost of an item, ask the person from whom youll buy the item for an estimate or a quote. Try for plus or minus 10%. Remember that youre trying for an accurate estimate here, so use the numbers you think are right. Most experienced businesspeople will add another 10% to 20% of the total as a contingency to allow for poor guesses and other foul-ups. If you think you need such a contingency and havent included it already, add it in now. Add up all the items youve listed to get an estimate of the cash you need to open your business.     Your capital spending plan should reflect the exact amounts you will spend as accurately as possible. For example, it was okay for Antoinette to use estimates of costs when she thought about her business in general terms, but now she needs to be precise. She should have shopped around for the best deals by now and know them. If a potential lender asks her why shes spending $3,000 each for dress racks, she can say, "The used ones from the auctioneer are terminally rusty and the discount ones are shoddy. I want my image to be high quality, and this is the best deal on good racks." As the accompanying example shows, Antoinette knows the business she is about to open.     Although she doesnt include an itemized list of fixtures, office equipment and leasehold improvements in her summary, she has detailed lists available.     Capital Spending Plan: Antoinettes Dress Shop         Fixtures in selling area includes cash registers, sewing machines, dress racks (see list) $ 30,000     Leasehold improvements, bid from Jones Construction includes signs, lights, decorations 80,000     Rent deposit, two months rent 7,500     Opening inventory 30,000     ntingency 15,000   otal capital required to open $ 162,500 For a second example, heres a one-man consulting firms opening cash needs. As you can see, he plans to start with extra cash; he has allocated $10,000 for working capital.