How to calculate your break-even point

What you need

• Monthly fixed costs: bills that don’t change with how busy you are.
• Average price per job, unit or sale.
• Cost per job: what each one costs you to deliver.
• The monthly pay you need, if you want the number that also pays you.

1. Add up your fixed costs

Go through last month’s bank statement. A solo lawn care business might have: truck payment $650, insurance $180, phone $90, scheduling software $30, mower payment $400 and marketing $500. Total: $1,850 a month.

2. Find what each job contributes

Contribution = price − cost per job. A mow sells for $55. Fuel is $6, trimmer line and blade wear $2, and the 2.9% card fee about $1.60: $9.60. Each mow contributes $45.40 toward the fixed bills.

3. Divide and round up

Break-even = fixed costs ÷ contribution. $1,850 ÷ $45.40 = 40.7, so 41 mows a month. Always round up; the 41st mow is the one that gets you over.

4. Add your pay

A business that only breaks even pays you nothing. Add the monthly pay you need to the fixed costs: ($1,850 + $2,500) ÷ $45.40 = 95.8, so 96 mows, about 22 a week.

5. Get the break-even in sales dollars

Useful when you sell many different things. Divide contribution by price to get the contribution margin: $45.40 ÷ $55 = 0.8255, or 82.5%. Then fixed costs ÷ that margin: $1,850 ÷ 0.8255 = about $2,241 of sales a month.

In a spreadsheet

Check your answer

Compare the number of jobs with how many you can actually do in a month. If break-even is near or above your capacity, the plan doesn’t work at this price: raise it, cut costs, or add capacity before you count on it.

Published by Groundwork Business Advisory. Updated October 19, 2026.