How much does it cost to start a company? Everyone has read the magazine articles about the newest millionaire who started his business with $5 and a roll of duct tape. It makes for good airplane reading. But in reality the amount of money you need to start a business highly depends on what type of business you are looking to build.

Service-based Businesses: $0. All you need is a dress shirt and maybe a printer. If you want to start a consulting business, a concierge business, a logo design or web development business, a housecleaning, staffing, accounting, or legal practice business, all you need to do is be qualified to start selling your services. You will probably also need a computer.

Web Business: $1000 - $20,000. The cost of creating a website or web-based business will continue to drop as developers create cheaper and cheaper applications that enable you to start selling something. You can develop a personal brand and an online shopping cart for around $1,000 - $2,000. You can start a networking site like facebook or linkedin for around $5k - $10k. You can even begin selling web-based software for $20k - $50k; if you find a strong niche. And prices will continue to fall.

Storefront Business: $40k - $200k. Franchises, Cafes, and Retail Outlets are a more concrete type of start-up (compared to web businesses or R&D operations). I know some people that started the right type of franchise; and expanded to dozens of locations in 2-3 years- if their finances look good.

Real Estate: $50k - $1m. Buying and selling real estate; and renting that space to tenants- is an accessible way to start a business and earn passive income, without needing to reinvent the wheel. Real Estate is a proven tactic for passive income and occasionally a way to double your money in less than a year.

Software and IT: $50k - $20m. Software, IT, Science, Medicine- these industries demand large-scale innovation; and now you start running into venture capitalists that will invest $30 million in your company; and expect your company to earn over $300 million within 10 years. At this stage; you better have an all-star team, idea, financial projections; and hopefully revenues.

Finance: I have some friends who are starting hedge funds; and I have no idea how much this costs or how they do it. Many finance start-ups are just service-based start-ups; like accounting of financial planning. But hedge funds, banks, stock brokerage firms- I have a feeling you need some real financial muscle.

All things said; there are thousands of multi-million-dollar companies you can start now for less than $5k. At least, that’s my philosophy.

How valuable is a good idea? Whenever someone tells me they would rather invest in the ‘B’ Team with a ‘C’ idea than the ‘C’ team with an ‘A’ idea; I get a bit disillusioned; since I like ‘A’ ideas. Those are the ones that keep me up at night pondering.

The value of a good idea is paradoxical. In one sense; a company only needs a good idea in order to get its foot in the door. A new marketing company might only need a single starter idea to launch it into fame; a software company might only need a single good product to keep rolling out improvements horizontally and vertically.

Yet- an idea might only materialize over the long term of a company. Often- during the first few years; a company with a good idea is indistinguishable from every other operation;and yet at year 5 or 6 its vision or strategic advantage might be manifest in reality.

I have seen the importance of a solid team, an accommodating marketplace, a good economy, a strong support network- in the creation of a new venture. Yet in order to build the next big thing; your idea must bear the bulk of the merit. 

I once read- view that which is closest farthest away, and view that which is farthest as if it were close to you. I think that is good advice for the value of an idea; sometimes it is only a matter of getting your foot in the door; and other times your idea is the backbone of your entire campaign.

Send me all your ‘A’ ideas- even if you are the ‘C’ team.

It occurred to me recently that web companies, more so than non-tech companies, need to keep in mind that the scalability of their application can go beyond its intended locale.  Facebook, for instance, was rather shortsighted when it came to scaling its product internationally.  It took several years for them to develop an international, translated version, and even then it was available only in four languages.  As a result of Facebook’s delay, millions of users in China ended up signing up for a blatantly copied Facebook clone, and who knows how many other customers were lost worldwide.

The point is, the world internet market, especially in the developing world, is growing at a slower rate than that in the United States.  For a lot of businesspeople, this means that it is a less important target market.  But look at the numbers.  There are over a billion people in China and India; sub-Saharan Africa will have 1.5 billion people by the end of 2050.  These numbers, combined with spreading internet technology and a wealth of new entrepreneurial and technical talent from these countries, mean that the future market in “Web 2.0″ is not in Palo Alto, but in Nairobi or Bangalore or Hainan.

I read a recent article that, due to the fact that cell phones are the primary communication tool for Kenyans, cell phone programming is a fast growing skill in Nairobi, Kenya, and more importantly, the Kenyans who use cell phones are a fast growing market.  Meanwhile, thousands of companies in India’s Silicon Valley compete for prominence in the Western world, trying to sell their products to American and European buyers.  But pretty soon, the Indian population will be demanding these services, too, and it is only a matter of time before the “Developing” world market explodes–and explodes big.

So, it’s really important for “Web 2.0″ companies in the States to think big as well.  Developers should consider installing translation packs into their sites–even for English–so they can scale into other language in the future.  Most importantly, they should follow the example of Google and Microsoft and recruit global talent.  The untapped global market is a sleeping giant right now, but when it gets revved up billions of people will be looking for the same level of internet reliability and satisfaction that the “modern” world has come to expect.  When that happens, make sure your company is on top of it.

This is why I like the idea of midVentures.  As a global integrator of sorts, we are not only helping ourselves bridge into a 21st century, international internet community but we are bringing the international community into the fold as legitimate–and competitive–players in the American market.