Costs actually incurred to establish and operate the business: lease and deposits, software, registration and bond, insurance, equipment, initial payroll and committed working capital. Professional fees for the visa itself and personal living costs do not count.
Separate business investment from the cost of applying
Hypothetical example: the applicant adds her immigration lawyer's fee, her family's moving costs and six months of personal rent to the investment total. None of those are investment in the enterprise. What counts is what the brokerage spends or commits to become and remain operational: the office, the technology, the federal registration and the surety bond premium, insurance, furniture and hardware, the carrier-payment float in the company account, and the first months of payroll. Note that the bond itself is a guarantee rather than cash paid in, so it is the premium and any collateral the investor posts that represent money at risk. Legal and accounting fees for setting up the company can reasonably be included; the visa application fee published by the State Department and the lawyer's fee for the application cannot. Keep two ledgers, one for the enterprise and one for the family, and present the enterprise ledger.
Hypothetical example: an investor opens an independent bicycle-fitting studio and counts an unused personal credit line as money put into the business. Until drawn, transferred, and bound to genuine launch obligations, it is only available capital. The review should separate personal moving expenses from payments that place funds irrevocably at risk for the operating studio. The committed outlay must make commercial sense for this enterprise, and the plan must establish that it will not be marginal. Equipment invoices, lease terms, and payroll commitments settle the calculation better than a rounded budget.