SheridanWhiteside

This. I'm certainly not where you are, but I'm doing well so far outside of the standard corporate world. I spent the $7.95 or so to get blank backs on my business cards, so I was advertising myself and not Shmistaprint, I spend 20 bucks a month on accounting software that serves the purpose but definitely isn't That Accounting Package Everyone Uses, and because I work out of my home I splurge on business-class internet. You can't realistically use IP phones without it. Total business expenditures, maybe $250 a month.

TL;dr whether you're as successful as /u/WarLizzard or just a guy getting by working for himself, you don't need to spend an insane amount of money just to exist.

Tried the residential DSL. I use VoIP for customer-facing things far too much to be able to tolerate the latency or the random disconnects. That's definitely specific to my area, however. Many places, the $30 a month residential service would more than suffice. In either case, I'd like to think I keep my expenses to a minimum relative to what people think they need in order to run a business.

If you need employees (truly need), then costs are much higher. But if you're actually self-employed and you're the only one working there, you can do it on much less. The real cost is time, especially in terms of lost income from your full time job. I wasn't working full time when I started working for myself, so my total possible loss was $250 a month for however many months I tried until I decided I was a successful failure and moved on to something else.

Knowing when to call it quits is also crucial. I've lurked here quite a bit, and I've seen a constant theme from successful people - they all have failed at a small or medium level, often many times, before succeeding on a large level. I failed many years ago because I had no idea how to market (this was when dialup was still the norm, for reference, and no one had any idea how to market online). I went back to wage slave mode, learned, and learned some more. I don't know everything, and I'm not where I want to be, but I'm getting there.

I will also admit to having assistance in the form of limited living expenses and family who will buy us a few pounds of meat if we're short until a client pays up. Fairly small stuff, but it's the difference between success and failure. You don't need a line of credit, you just need to be able to eat for a week or two until someone pays you.