Original tutorial
Build your first pilot budget
Leave with a worksheet that states scope, cash spending, labor and unknowns, so you can decide where to start.
- Guide & worksheet
- Free
- Software
- Use an existing text editor
- Prerequisite
- A device that can edit text
- Business execution cost
- Calculate separately
Completion time depends on how many prices you check and has not been user-tested. This is a budgeting workflow, not proof of business viability.
1. Choose one bounded deliverable
For example: one short pilot video, one static website demo, or one client visual sample. Specify quantity, format and acceptance criteria, not an open-ended goal like “build a channel”.
2. List the costs and prerequisites
Separate learning, execution and ongoing operating costs. Mark only the items necessary for this pilot as required. State existing equipment, subscriptions and free-credit assumptions explicitly.
3. Check prices; a blank is not zero
Check official pricing and record currency, unit, payment period, allowance and check date. Record the full annual upfront payment, not just the monthly equivalent. Note trial limits and post-trial pricing. Leave unchecked values unknown.
4. Calculate cash, then record time
Count each subscription once and do not double-charge included usage. Record overages, failed generations and rework. Separate new-user spending from existing-user incremental cash. Keep labor time visible.
5. Set a stop rule and record the result
Before starting, set a cash and time cap and the question you want answered. If you exceed the cap, record why before deciding to continue. Compare planned and actual spending, and distinguish output, user feedback and sales.
Worked example: check the arithmetic
Assume CNY 200 for software, CNY 20 for other fixed costs and CNY 40 in variable costs for 10 accepted outputs. Total cash is CNY 260, or CNY 26 per output. If the software subscription is already held, incremental cash is CNY 60, but business accounting still needs an allocation policy.
These are hypothetical values, not product prices. Recalculate if output falls or retries or acquisition add costs. Labor and tax are excluded from this example.
Completion check
- Every cost has a scope, currency, period and source; unknowns remain unknown.
- Annual monthly equivalents are not upfront payments; included usage is not counted twice.
- Budget and actuals, cash and labor, and production and sales remain separate.
Open the download in a text editor, or copy the table into your existing notes app. The template has no automatic sum formulas. Total each currency separately instead of adding CNY and USD.