Free tool
Break-even calculator
How many sales does the month need before anything is profit? Your fixed costs, what you charge for one sale and what that sale costs you to deliver give the answer, and one more figure, the share of enquiries that become sales, turns it into the number of enquiries the month has to produce. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
To break even each month
- Sales
- 27
- Revenue
- 12,000
- Each sale contributes
- 300
- Contribution margin
- 67%
To reach the profit you want
- Sales
- 37
- Enquiries that takes
- 123
How the sum works, and what it is for
Every sale contributes what you charge minus what it costs you to deliver. Break-even is the fixed costs divided by that contribution: the number of sales at which the month has paid for itself and the next sale is the first profit. Add the profit you want to the fixed costs and the same division gives the sales that reach it. The revenue figure is those sales at your average, which is the number to compare against last month's takings.
The last output is why this calculator is on an SEO site. Sales come from enquiries and not every enquiry closes, so the sales the month needs divided by your close rate is the enquiries it needs. That is the number any marketing has to produce, and it is the number to hold against any promise anyone makes you about traffic, followers or rankings: a ranking that produces fewer enquiries than this figure has not paid for the month.
Two things it leaves out. Contribution is not the same on every sale, so a business that sells both cheap and expensive work should run it twice. And a fixed cost is only fixed until it is not: a second van or a second person moves the line, and the honest use of this page is to run it again before either.
From the enquiries needed to where they come from
The SEO ROI calculator takes the enquiries figure the other way: from the searches people make, through your rate, to what those enquiries are worth over a year. The conversion rate calculator is for the step in between, and is SEO worth it is the three questions that decide whether search is where the enquiries should come from at all.
Questions about break-even
What goes in fixed costs?
Everything you pay whether or not you sell anything that month: rent, salaries and your own drawings, insurance, software, vehicle finance, loan repayments, the accountant. If a cost changes with each sale, it is a variable cost and goes in the other box.
What is the variable cost of a sale?
What one more sale costs you to deliver: materials, parts, subcontractors, card fees, delivery, the hours you would not otherwise pay for. For a service business paid per job it is often small; for a shop it is most of the selling figure. What is left after it is the contribution each sale makes towards the fixed costs.
My sales are all different sizes. What do I enter?
The average. Take last quarter’s revenue and divide by the number of sales, and do the same for the variable costs. The break-even point is then a number of average sales, which is the figure you can plan a month around.
How does this connect to enquiries?
Sales come from enquiries, and not every enquiry becomes a sale. Enter the share that does and the page shows the enquiries the month needs, which is the number search work has to produce. The ROI calculator carries that on to what those enquiries are worth.
Is anything I type here sent anywhere?
No. Everything happens in your browser. There is no form submission, no analytics event and no network request of any kind, which you can confirm in your browser’s network tab.
Book a call with us
A 30-minute call in your working hours. Tell us what you sell and where, and we will tell you what we would do first and what it involves. Prefer email? Send your website through the form and the Passieon Team will reply within two working days.