Self-Funded Search Budget Guidance

searcher profile

January 08, 2020

by a searcher from The University of Chicago - Booth School of Business in Rice Lake, WI, USA

I'm about to begin a self-funded search and am hoping the community can provide insights on budget building for the next few years' search process: is anyone willing to share examples of self-funded search budgets?. I've seen several in my research for funded searches, but am curious if experience has indicated a material difference in the self-funded route.

Additionally, I'm curious for areas where searchers have found budget categories to end up higher or lower than original expectation (whether that be marketing, administration, benefits, even personal expenses).

Any guidance or examples here would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

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commentor profile
Reply by a searcher
from Stanford University in Houston, TX, USA
To Martin's point, if you're doing a very regional search that's all day-trippable by car, then it can be done relatively inexpensively. (HBR Guide estimates $13.5K/yr in non-travel expenses, which is definitely on the high side in a non-high cost city).

That said, regardless of whether you overspend or underspend: most of the expenses you listed aren't going to make-or-break you. The higher cost items are perhaps industry events/meetings and higher-priced databases/deal sourcing websites.

However, by far the biggest budget expense might be for broken deals. If poorly managed, a broken deal could set you back well more than any administrative expense.

And as for your own personal budget: less Capital Grille, more Chipotle :)
commentor profile
Reply by a searcher
from Dartmouth College in Seattle, WA, USA
If you are searching for a business close to where you currently live you can do it pretty cheaply.

I am doing a self-funded search for a company within 2-hour radius of where I currently live, and my expenses are about $400 / month for a WeWork desk, $###-###-#### / month for a web page and various apps. (CRM, etc) and $###-###-#### on travel. I was stingy with expenses on lead generation in the beginning, but recently spent $5k on 1 year access to a database. (& glad I did). DD & transaction cost are hard because it depends on deal size, how you stage it, complexity and how scrappy you are.
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