A budget doesn’t come our of thin air, so before you start you must be clear about exactly what you’re going to do and how you intend to do it. That will help you create a list of project expenses.
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Expenses
Can include fees for a photographer or designer, hire of gallery space, promotion (such as advertising or fliers), catalogue printing costs, travel, refreshments and freight charges.
Don’t make a stab at these costs – get quotes from suppliers.
This can take time, but the effort will help improve the quality of your application and it will make budgeting easier in future.
Don’t forget to include your fee.
Make a realistic estimate of the time it will take you to carry out the work and multiply that by your hourly, daily or weekly rate. Once you have a full list of expenses, add them up.
Then turn to income.
Generally you will need to find income from more than one source, such as grants, sales of work, entry costs, catalogue sales and even contributions from family or friends.
Income should include the grant you are applying for. Once you have a full list of income, add it up.
If the income is lower than expenditure (i.e. you are projecting a loss), you will have to find additional sources of income or reduce your costs.
Presentation counts
Simple is best. Set out the budget out clearly, with income first, followed by expenditure and a heading (in bold) for both.
Using a table is a good way to present a budget, with each income and expenditure item listed in the left-hand column and the figures on the right.
Include totals for income and expenditure and a final figure showing the balance (income minus expenditure). Again, it’s a good idea to show these in bold.
Triple check your sums and do a spell check: typos are death!
