You're running a cybersecurity consultancy; operating costs are defintely dominated by fractional engineer wages and include fixed monthly rent ($8,500), SaaS ($4,200), marketing retainer ($6,000), legal retainer ($3,000) and sales commissions (8% in 2026). Also capitalized dashboard development requires $650,000 cash acrosss 2026-2027 and plan runway against the stated minimum cash of $2,122,000.
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Operating Expense
Description
Min Amount
Max Amount
1
First Operating Expense Fractional Engineers
Retained engineering hours tied to client projects and variable by utilization.
$120,000
$360,000
2
Second Operating Expense Office Rent
Fixed monthly lease for a physical collaboration space.
$102,000
$102,000
3
Third Operating Expense Marketing Retainer
Recurring spend to drive pipeline and brand presence.
$72,000
$72,000
4
Fourth Operating Expense Dashboard Development (capitalized)
Multi-period capital build for the proprietary security maturity dashboard.
Recurring software costs for internal tooling and client integrations.
$50,400
$50,400
6
Sixth Operating Expense Legal Retainer
Fixed monthly cost for contracts, compliance, and audits.
$36,000
$36,000
7
Seventh Operating Expense Sales Commissions
Variable commissions tied to new retainer and success fee bookings.
$40,000
$120,000
8
Total
$1,070,400
$1,390,400
Key Takeaways
Budget $650,000 for dashboard development across 2026-2027
Reserve $8,500 monthly rent plus $4,200 SaaS
Shift delivery to remote fractional engineers to cut burn
Tie marketing retainers to performance or milestone payments
What Does It Cost To Run Cybersecurity Consultancy Each Month?
You're paying delivery first: fractional engineer wages are the largest monthly outflow, and they determine delivery capacity so read on. Monthly fixed cash needs include office rent of $8,500 and internal SaaS subscriptions of $4,200, while growth spend is a marketing retainer of $6,000 plus sales commissions (modeled at 8% starting 2026). For setup and process steps, see How to Start a Cybersecurity Consultancy?
Where Does Most Of Your Monthly Cash Go In Cybersecurity Consultancy?
You're tracking monthly burn; here's where cash actually leaves the business and why you should care - keep reading for quick actions and links to planning. The single largest line is fractional engineers, followed by salaries for core staff, fixed rent, and growth spend such as the marketing retainer and partner referral fees. Cloud, tooling and hosting support client integrations and add steady operational spend, so include them in monthly forecasts. For cash-plan details and assumptions, see How to Write a Business Plan for a Cybersecurity Consultancy?
Where monthly cash goes
Fractional Engineers - largest cost line
Core staff salaries - CEO and product head
Fixed rent - predictable monthly cash, defintely
Marketing retainer & partner fees - growth spend
How Can Cybersecurity Consultancy Founder Reduce Operating Expenses?
You cut monthly cybersecurity consultancy operating expenses by shifting delivery to remote fractional engineers, renegotiating the marketing retainer, trimming SaaS subscriptions, and automating dashboard work - so cash burn falls fast. Read practical startup numbers here: How Much Does It Cost to Start a Cybersecurity Consultancy? Keep changes aligned to client SLAs and retention.
Cost reduction checklist
Shift delivery to remote fractional engineers to lower bench and office rent exposure
Renegotiate the marketing retainer to performance-based or lower fixed fee
Consolidate and cut overlapping SaaS subscriptions for consultants
Automate dashboard development and tie partner referral fees to client milestones
What Costs Are Fixed, And What Costs Scale With Sales?
Fixed costs are your steady monthly obligations - office rent, insurance, legal retainer, and fixed SaaS subscriptions - while scaling costs rise with sales, such as fractional engineers, sales commissions, and partner fees; read on and see how this affects runway and pricing, or check revenue context at How Much Does a Cybersecurity Consultancy Business Owner Earn?. One clear rule: capitalized dashboard development is a one‑time fixed investment over two years, not a recurring overhead. Here's the quick split - defintely use it when sizing forecasts.
Fixed vs Scalable costs
Fixed: office rent, insurance, legal, fixed SaaS
Scales with sales: fractional engineers, sales commissions
One‑time fixed: capitalized dashboard dev (2 years)
Grows per client: VSAQ templates, cloud and tooling
What Are The Most Common Operating Costs Founders Underestimate?
You're likely undercounting integration, monitoring, audits, and support - these drive hidden monthly operating costs for a cybersecurity consultancy and change your runway. Read on and see why these push up cybersecurity consultancy costs, and how that affects How Profitable is a Cybersecurity Consultancy?
Give a header name
Dashboard integration: Time and cost to embed the security dashboard into client workflows.
Monitoring & hosting: Ongoing cloud hosting and per-client monitoring costs scale with integrations.
SOC 2 audit fees: Third-party audit fees required for SOC 2 readiness and certification.
Customer success: Support capacity rises nonlinearly as client count grows, increasing retention costs.
What Are Cybersecurity Consultancy Operating Expenses?
Operating Cost: First Operating Expense Fractional Engineers
Fractional engineers are retained contract engineers hired to deliver client projects for the cybersecurity consultancy, and they matter because this is the largest variable delivery cost that directly drives monthly cash outflow and gross margin pressure.
What This Expense Includes
Retained fractional engineer hours on client retainers
Contractor payroll taxes and benefits pass-through (when applicable)
Onboarding and ramp-up billing for new engineers
Bench or guaranteed minimum hours for critical skills
Subcontractor costs for specialized assessments or integrations
Biggest Cost Drivers
Staffing level - number of retained engineer hours
Vendor rates - hourly rates for senior vs junior engineers
Client mix - complex integrations need more specialist time
Typical Monthly Cost Range
Cost varies by client load, engineer seniority, and retained hours
Variable drivers: average hourly rates, bench commitments, and onboarding time
How to Reduce This Expense
Shift work to remote fractional engineers to lower office-related bench costs
Align hiring cadence strictly to retainer bookings to avoid paid bench time
Use junior+senior mix and pair-programming to keep senior hours minimal
Common Budget Mistake
Hiring ahead of retainer bookings - causes sustained bench payroll and burns runway
Ignoring ramp-up time - underestimates onboarding cost and delays billable hours
Operating Cost: Second Operating Expense Office Rent
Office rent for a cybersecurity consultancy is a fixed monthly lease payment that secures a physical collaboration and client meeting space and matters because it is a predictable cash outflow that must be covered before scale; the plan specifies $8,500 monthly starting January 2026.
What This Expense Includes
Base lease payment (monthly rent)
Common area maintenance and utilities tied to the lease
Office furnishings and amortized fit-out costs
Meeting-room and client-facing space upkeep
Security and building access fees required by lease
Biggest Cost Drivers
Office location and local market rent rates
Headcount and required square footage per employee
Lease terms: length, escalation clauses, and sublease options
Typical Monthly Cost Range
$8,500 monthly starting January 2026 (assumption)
Cost varies by location, required desk count, and lease term flexibility
How to Reduce This Expense
Shift to remote-first and reduce desk count; renegotiate headcount clauses
Sublease unused space or move to a smaller hybrid office to cut fixed rent
Negotiate lease milestones and break options tied to revenue or hiring
Common Budget Mistake
Signing long fixed leases before hiring plans finalize → reduces runway and increases fixed burn
Failing to include escalation and CAM fees in forecasts → underestimates monthly cash need
Operating Cost: Third Operating Expense Marketing Retainer
The marketing retainer for your cybersecurity consultancy is a recurring growth investment that fuels pipeline and GTM partnerships and matters to monthly cash flow because it is a fixed outflow starting $6,000 per month from February 2026.
What This Expense Includes
Agency or consultant monthly fee of $6,000
Content production for thought leadership and GTM plays
Paid ads and account-based marketing (ABM) campaigns
Partner and VC outreach programs for deal referrals
Analytics and attribution tools tied to campaigns
Biggest Cost Drivers
Scope of agency services and campaign volume
Use of paid media and cost-per-click rates
Intensity of partner/VC GTM engagement
Typical Monthly Cost Range
Fixed retainer specified: $6,000 per month starting February 2026
Cost varies by campaign spend and paid media buy levels
How to Reduce This Expense
Convert retainer to performance-based fees tied to qualified leads
Scope monthly deliverables to core GTM tasks and drop low-ROI items
In-source repeatable content and automate reporting to cut agency hours
Common Budget Mistake
Keep a high fixed retainer without tracking lead-to-retainer conversion - wastes cash if pipeline conversion is low
Ignore linking spend to partner referrals - leads to unexpected referral fees and higher customer acquisition cost
Operating Cost: Fourth Operating Expense Dashboard Development (Capitalized)
You're building a proprietary security maturity dashboard for your cybersecurity consultancy; the work is a multi-period capital investment of $650,000 across 2026-2027 that delays expense recognition but requires cash, so it materially affects monthly cash outflow and runway.
What This Expense Includes
Core engineering hours for dashboard MVP and integrations
Frontend and backend product development sprints
Third‑party API and integration licensing during build
Project management and QA tied to the build phase
Initial cloud hosting and staging environment costs for development
Biggest Cost Drivers
Engineering staffing levels and hourly rates
Scope of integrations required per enterprise client
Choice to build in‑house vs outsource vendor rates
Typical Monthly Cost Range
Approximate monthly cash outlay while capitalizing: $27,083 per month ( $650,000 / 24 months )
Maintenance and support become operating expense after capitalization ends and will vary by client load
How to Reduce This Expense
Prioritize an MVP: cut scope to the features that speed deal velocity and defer others
Use fixed‑price sprint contracts with offshore or vetted shops to cap monthly burn
Reuse open APIs and templates to reduce integration hours per client
Common Budget Mistake
Underestimating integration complexity + unexpected cash drain during client rollouts
Capitalizing build costs but not reserving cash for post‑launch maintenance + sudden operating expense spike
SaaS subscriptions are the recurring software bills a cybersecurity consultancy pays for internal tooling and client integrations, and they matter because they are a steady monthly drain that scales with active integrations and monitoring needs.
What This Expense Includes
SIEM/monitoring licenses for client integrations
Internal productivity and ticketing tools
API access and connector fees for cloud platforms
Log storage and retention charges
Support and premium SLAs for critical tools
Biggest Cost Drivers
Number of active client integrations and log volume
Service tier (enterprise vs. standard plans)
Per-connector or per-seat licensing rates
Typical Monthly Cost Range
The plan specifies $4,200 per month starting January 2026 as internal SaaS spend (approximate baseline).
Costs rise per client with additional connectors, retention and monitoring needs.
How to Reduce This Expense
Quarterly review: consolidate overlapping tools and cut duplicate licenses
Negotiate enterprise terms as client count grows to lower per-client rates
Shift high-volume logs to cheaper storage tiers and hot-path only to reduce retention costs
Common Budget Mistake
Not tracking per-client usage: leads to surprise overages and higher monthly bills.
Keeping redundant tools: doubles SaaS spend and squeezes runway.
The legal retainer for a cybersecurity consultancy covers ongoing contract work, data processing agreements, and compliance support and matters because it is a fixed monthly cash outflow that protects enterprise deals and audit readiness.
What This Expense Includes
Monthly retainer fee for outside counsel and advisory
Contract drafting and review for client retainers and SLAs
Data processing agreements and vendor privacy reviews
Support for third‑party audit coordination (SOC 2 evidence requests)
Transactional work: NDAs, MSA amendments, and integrations
Biggest Cost Drivers
Volume of new client contracts and integrations
Frequency of audit support for SOC 2 and third‑party certifications
Complexity of data processing arrangements and cross‑border rules
Typical Monthly Cost Range
Assumed monthly retainer: $3,000 starting January 2026
Cost varies by deal volume and audit frequency (more clients = more ad‑hoc fees)
How to Reduce This Expense
Standardize contracts and templates to cut outside counsel hours per deal
Negotiate a capped hourly rate for transactional work and audit support
Shift routine compliance tasks in‑house once processes stabilise to lower retainer reliance (defintely plan training)
Common Budget Mistake
Underestimating transactional legal spikes during integrations → unexpected cash burn
Not budgeting extra for audit‑specific work (SOC 2 readiness) → delays and higher one‑time fees
Sales commissions are the variable payouts tied to new retainer and SOC2 success-fee bookings and matter because they directly raise the marginal cost of each new client and hit monthly cash flow as revenue is recognized.
What This Expense Includes
Commissions on new monthly retainers and one‑time SOC2 success fees
Payouts to external partners or referral partners per closed deal
Sales accelerators or bonuses tied to quota attainment
You need sufficient runway to cover fixed costs and capital investments Include the $650,000 capitalized dashboard development and monthly fixed costs such as $8,500 rent and $4,200 SaaS subscriptions Plan runway to cover at least until revenue ramps to Year 2 levels when revenue reaches $3,090,000 per core metrics
Breakeven is reached in Year 3 per the provided metrics Use the modeled revenue trajectory of $1,220,000 in Year 1 and $3,090,000 in Year 2 as the ramp, then expect positive EBITDA in Year 3 when breakeven is realized
Yes, the plan capitalizes dashboard development across 2026-2027 with $650,000 total Capitalization defers expense recognition but requires cash; factor this into minimum cash planning and the estimated minimum cash of $2,122,000
Use tiered fixed-price monthly retainers plus success fees for major milestones The assumptions show separate retainer lines and a SOC2 success fee beginning June 2026, which aligns incentives and preserves predictable cash flow
Budget third-party audit fees as a percentage of revenue per assumptions starting at 60% in 2026 and declining thereafter Combine that with the SOC2 success fee revenue line and integration costs to estimate total compliance spend
