How To Do a Small Town Business Break Even Analysis
How Soon Can Your Business Stand on Its Own?
Image by Lucia Grzeskiewicz from Pixabay
The following article on break-even analysis is paraphrased from my book, "How to Market, Advertise And Promote Your Business or Service In Your Own Backyard.”
When you have your costs under control you need to consider a break-even analysis for each product or service you provide.
Major items — not every screw, nail, and bolt in a hardware store.
The break-even analysis assumes that average variable costs are going to remain constant for each product or service.
This analysis is strictly internal. It doesn't consider things like competition or market demand.
Fixed Costs & Variable Costs
Fixed costs are things like the rent or equipment leases that are the same each month.
Variable costs might be monthly shipping charges, cost of supplies, sales commissions; any expense that changes from month to month.
If you aren't sure which they are, consider them fixed.
Don’t forget other things like insurance, maintenance, payroll, utilities, automobile, and advertising costs to name just a few.
What's The Formula?
Are you sure you're ready for this? OK, stay with me here.
Total profit equals the number of units sold multiplied by the selling price less the number of units sold multiplied by the total variable cost minus the total fixed cost.
Pretty simple, huh?
If capital P is profit, small p is price, U is units sold, V is variable costs and F is fixed costs the equation would look like this:
P=U(p-V)-F
So, assume we have a product we want to sell for $10.00 and we want to sell 1,000 of them.
For this example, our total fixed costs are going to be $7,700 and our total variable costs are $4.50/unit. Our formula would look like this:
P=1,000($10.00-$4.50)-$7,700=$5,500-$7,700 = - $2,200
What Happened?
Instead of making money we’ve just lost $2,200. At break-even the $2,200 number should be $0.
We can't make money at 1,000 units so how many must we really sell to break even?
We know our fixed costs (F) are $7700, and the price (p) is still $10.00, and our variable costs (V) are $4.50/unit, so we do this:
(p) price minus (V) variable costs divided into (F) fixed costs or
$10.00 - $4.50 = $5.50 divided into $7700 = 1,400 units.
If we maintain our price and expenses, we need to sell 1,400 units of our product to break even.
If we raise our price or reduce expenses, we can sell less.
The Last Word on Breaking Even
Some points to remember. The break-even analysis does not show profitability. It will show some levels of profit at various levels of sales but sometimes profits must be thrown at company problems.
Even though a product breaks even (or makes a profit) if all other goods and services don't, you could still be in trouble.
This is a guide to get you started. Good accountants are worth their weight in gold.
Take this basic information to them and have them tailor it to your business.
Once you have the information as to how much it will cost to keep the doors open and the business viable, you can move on with your marketing and advertising plans.