The Cost To Set Up A Remote Business In 2023

With thousands of employees facing furloughs and redundancies throughout 2020 due to COVID-19, many have taken the leap to set up their own business or go freelance. But what is the true cost of setting up your own remote business?

To find the total cost to do it alone and the best businesses to set up right now, we’ve analysed all the necessary expenses involved in setting up a remote business in the UK and US, the highest-paying freelance jobs for remote workers as well as the most in-demand products to sell in your dropshipping shop.

This is the cost of setting up a remote business from scratch in the UK during the first 12 months:

One of the great perks of working remotely is that you can work from anywhere. That also means that your fees and salary doesn’t have to be tied to the city that you’re working from, so your income could be the same whether you work from London, Bristol or Manchester– creating great potential for saving big by moving to a cheaper city.

To reveal the UK’s most affordable cities to move to if you’re setting up a remote business, we have analysed the yearly estimated living costs for the UK’s biggest cities. This includes expenses such as WiFi to work from home, utility bills and average rent, as well as other living expenses like food, transport and entertainment.

These are the top 5 cheapest cities to live in to save on living costs*:

Rank	City	Yearly WiFi costs	Yearly utility costs	Estimated yearly expenses w/o rent	Median yearly rent for a 2-bedroom	Total living costs per year
1	Bradford	£321	£1,575	£6,857	£8,112	£14,969
1	Belfast	£355	£778	£6,869	£8,100	£14,969
3	Newcastle	£338	£1,284	£7,063	£9,000	£16,063
4	Liverpool	£341	£1,879	£7,762	£9,000	£16,770
5	Sheffield	£330	£1,767	£7,521	£9,336	£16,857

And these cities are the most expensive to live in, with London being twice as expensive as the most affordable city in the study:

Rank	City	Yearly WiFi costs	Yearly utility costs	Estimated yearly expenses w/o rent	Median yearly rent for a 2-bedroom	Total living costs per year
1	London	£385	£2,106	£10,111	£22,800	£32,911
2	Bristol	£382	£2,306	£7,521	£14,400	£21,921
3	Edinburgh	£365	£1,744	£8,219	£11,736	£19,955
4	Portsmouth	£384	£1,292	£7,642	£11,388	£19,030
5	Manchester	£373	£1,717	£8,032	£10,800	£18,832

Working from the US? This is what setting up a remote solo business will cost you during the first year:

Based on the best jobs for remote working, we also found the jobs offering the highest average hourly rate for freelancers in the UK and US.

These are the top five highest-paying freelance jobs for remote working in the UK:

And this is what you can earn in the highest-paying freelance jobs in the US:

For those looking for a side hustle and an extra source of income, we also found the top products to sell in your dropshipping shop. To do this, we analysed the search volume for over 100 different products in order to find the products with the highest increase in search demand since the beginning of the year.

These are the top five products to sell right now, seeing the highest increase in search volume:

Full Data Set

Total cost for first year, for a one-man business	UK cost	US cost
Registering your business	£12.00	$131.80
iCloud, 12 month subscription	£9.48	$11.88
Laptop (average)	£800.52	$652.36
WiFi for 12 months	£372.36	$783.48
Web domain (.com)	£16.14	$21.47
Website builder (Squarespace)	£180.00	$239.40
Invoicing & book-keeping software (Xero)	£120.00	$108.00
Business phone number and virtual handling of phone calls (Moneypenny)	£120.00	$159.60
Email hosting/ document software (Google Suite)	£49.68	$72.00
Total cost for first year, for a one-man business	£1,680.18	$2,179.99

Freelance Jobs

Rank	Freelance Profession	UK (GB)	US (USD)
1	Business Consultant	£51.24	$62.21
2	Software development	£39.28	$36.91
3	Information Security	£38.78	$53.93
4	Actuary	£36.67	$50.16
5	Web Development	£35.67	$34.40
6	Systems Development	£35.36	$51.48
7	Marketing	£35.25	$33.78
8	System Administration	£33.26	$39.29
9	Statistics	£32.45	$28.98
10	Market Research	£29.86	$30.55
11	Accountant	£29.83	$31.93
12	Computer Networking	£27.63	$29.60
13	IT Management	£26.90	$36.66
14	Database Administration	£21.04	$36.75
15	Mathematics	£17.26	$21.14

Most In-Demand Products

Rank	Keyword	% increase/ decrease from Jan - November 2020
1	Throw Pillow/ cushion	2900
2	Reusable Face Mask	900
3	Pulse Oximeter	500
4	Leaf Blower	417.65
5	Baking equipment	290
6	Laptop Stand	215
7	Spin Mop	212.5
8	Pajamas	208.33
9	Outdoor Solar Lights	175
10	Loungewear	166.67
11	Office chair	151.35
12	Scalp Scrub	150
13	Balance Bike	144.12
14	Ring Lights	140.74
15	Lumbar Pillow	140
16	Touchscreen Gloves	136
17	Jewelry organizer	110
18	Playstation	108.82
19	Dog Bowls	107.69
20	Sewing machine	93.94
21	Golf Shoes	91.67
22	Shower Brush	80
23	Xbox	76.09
24	Desk	75.44
25	Matcha Tea	72.41
26	Trail shoes	69.49
27	Cat Bed	66.67
28	Kitchen Stove	66.67
29	Fishing Rod	63.16
30	Dog Collar	54.55
31	Sofa Cover	53.49
32	Projector	53.13
33	Resistance Band	50
34	Wall paint	48.72
35	Pet Carrier	47.73
36	Lamp Shade	44.93
37	Measuring Cup	44.44
38	Yoga Mat	44.44
39	Dry Dog Food	42.11
40	Houseplants	41.67
41	Broom Holder	37.84
42	Stun Gun	37.5
43	Brewing kit	33.33
44	Monitor	32.31
45	Indoor Plants	31.82
46	Door Mat	30.77
47	Waffle Maker	30.36
48	Can Opener	26.79
49	Exercise bike	26.47
50	Pendant	24.24
51	Jewelry Cleaner	22.5
52	Legging	18.64
53	Dog Pen	17.19
54	Wireless Security Camera	16.98
55	Armchair	15.85
56	Denim Jeans	15.79
57	Ink Cartridges	15.79
58	Sofa Bed	14.29
59	Baby Carrier	14.08
60	Curtain Rod	12.77
61	Car Vacuum	11.94
62	Dog Brush	10.34
63	Tripod	10.29
64	Green Powder	10.14
65	Baby Play Mat	10.11
66	Mouthwash	8.93
67	Solar Panel	8.33
68	Tights	8.33
69	Pregnancy Pillow	7.79
70	Neck Pillow	6.67
71	Crossbody Bag	2.94
72	Phone Cases	2.47
73	Baby Monitor	2.41
74	Can Organizer	0
75	Crop Top	0
76	Washing Machine Cleaner	0
77	Baby Swing	-3.23
78	Dishwasher Detergent	-4.35
79	Shower Curtain	-4.94
80	Power Adapter	-7.14
81	Seat Cushion	-8.57
82	Lip Balm	-9.76
83	Cup Holder	-11.76
84	Baby Bibs	-12.12
85	Pop Socket	-13.48
86	Clogs	-15.19
87	Breast Pump	-17.39
88	Sportswear	-20.27
89	Baby High Chair	-20.45
90	Hot Air Brush	-22
91	Baby Gate	-24.36
92	Baby Bouncer	-25.58
93	Eyelashes	-27.66
94	Protein Powder	-30.34
95	Mattresses	-30.77
96	Electric Longboard	-31.03
97	Posture Corrector	-31.25
98	Diaper Bag	-35.09
99	Avocado Oil	-35.63
100	Baby Bath Tub	-35.71
101	Vegan Shoes	-37
102	Blue Light Blocking Glasses	-37.88
103	Fitness Tracker	-46
104	White Sneakers	-49.45

Methodology:

* Yearly WiFi and utility costs are included in the estimated yearly expenses w/o rent.

The jobs used in this data was based on US News’ list of the “15 Best Jobs for Remote Work”.
To find the cost of a laptop, the study used an average cost of new laptops listed on Amazon, using UK and US sample postcodes for a representative figure.

For the cost to register a business in the US, an average of the cost of an LLC filing fee in all US states was used.

Average hourly freelance salaries are from PeoplePerHour. The average yearly employee salary for each profession was found on PayScale.

Living costs for each location are from Numbeo. The average cost to rent a 2-bedroom is taken from Home.co.uk.

To find GBP values in USD, the exchange rate used was 1 GBP = 1.33 USD.

To find the search volume increase for products, a percentage increase was found by comparing the search volume for January and November 2020 using Google Trends.

All data was correct as of 15 February 2021.