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For me, it was very important that the basic infrastructure was put in place for
what I wanted to do. So, at the beginning, I invested a significant amount of
money in ensuring that the lab was well equipped so I didn't need to invest
down the road. When did that pay off? Last year, I encountered a drought in
funding, which happens every now and then. I was waiting for my grant to be
renewed, and because of federal budget issues, the waiting period was a little
longer than anticipated. Because we were so well-equipped, we pretty much
ran for almost 6 months with no money. We essentially came down to 500
dollars, which we didn't touch for six months. It was tough, but we were
able to do it because everything was set in place—supplies and equipment.
Otherwise it would have been impossible.
Miljan Simonovic
From the budgeting point of view, my advice is to buy
things at the end of the calendar year because majority
of the companies have discounts. Even discounts for
beginner investigators are bigger in December. Another
thing is you need to budget for your personnel salaries.
I would suggest that everybody should budget for at
least 2 or 3 years. You want to be sure that you have
money to pay them for at least three years.
Sergej Djuranovic
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