thinkhard.SI

Prompt repository Small business

Work out your break-even point

You want to know how many sales a month you need to cover your costs, and how that changes with a decision or with price and cost moves.

Registry no.
SMB-020
Collection
Small business
Laid out for
Any chat model
Score
10 out of 10
Blanks to fill
7
Added

Small businessAny chat

The prompt

Score 10 of 10, Excellent

Use it when You want to know how many sales a month you need to cover your costs, and how that changes with a decision or with price and cost moves.

  • {{business}}
  • {{decision}}
  • {{prices}}
  • {{variable_costs}}
  • {{fixed_costs}}
  • {{current_sales}}
  • {{decision_changes}}
Full prompt and why it works
Prompt
Work out the break-even point for {{business}} from my figures, so I can decide whether {{decision}} makes sense. I want to know how many sales I need each month to cover my costs today, how that changes if I go ahead, and how sensitive it is to price and cost changes.

What I sell and at what price (average price per sale, or per product with the sales mix if I have a few): {{prices}}

Variable costs per sale (materials, packaging, payment fees, commissions, delivery):
"""
{{variable_costs}}
"""

Fixed costs per month today, leaving out anything that only starts if I go ahead (rent, wages including my own pay if I take one, insurance, software, loan repayments):
"""
{{fixed_costs}}
"""

Current sales per month, if I have any: {{current_sales}}
What changes if I go ahead (new costs, price or volume changes): {{decision_changes}}

Produce:
1. Contribution per sale: price minus variable costs, with the calculation, and as a percentage of the price.
2. Break-even today: fixed costs / contribution per sale = sales needed per month, rounded up, and the revenue that represents. Show the arithmetic, for example "6,000 / 24 = 250 sales a month, or 12,500 in revenue".
3. With the decision: break-even again including the changes above, side by side with today, and where my current sales sit against each.
4. What-if table, based on today's figures, with the columns Scenario, Contribution per sale, Break-even sales, Change. Include price up 10%, price down 10%, variable costs up 10%, and fixed costs up 10%. Recalculate percentage-based costs, such as card fees, at the new price.
5. Plain-English takeaways: up to 4 bullets.

Rules:
- Use only my figures. If I sell several products, use a weighted average only if I have given the sales mix; otherwise work out break-even for each product separately and say so.
- If loan repayments are in my fixed costs, keep them there and note that this is a cash break-even, since repaying a loan's principal is not a cost in the profit and loss.
- Do not give tax or investment advice, and do not tell me whether to go ahead. Show what the numbers say.

A good answer lets me check every number with a calculator in a few minutes. Keep the text outside the tables under 250 words. If a cost is listed without saying whether it is per sale or per month, ask about it, leave it out of the main figures, and show in one line how break-even changes if it is monthly. If a cost appears both in today's costs and in the changes, count it once and say so.

Variables

{{business}}
Your business in a few words, for example "my coffee cart".
{{decision}}
What the numbers are for, for example "opening on Sundays" or "taking the bigger unit".
{{prices}}
Your average price per sale, or each product's price and roughly how many of each you sell, for example "cakes 85 (40 a month), cupcake boxes 36 (70 a month)".
{{variable_costs}}
Costs that come with each sale, per sale: materials, packaging, card fees, commissions, delivery.
{{fixed_costs}}
Monthly costs you pay whatever you sell, with amounts.
{{current_sales}}
Sales per month now, or "not trading yet".
{{decision_changes}}
What would change if you go ahead, for example "rent goes from 1,200 to 2,150; expect 60 more sales a month", or "none".

Why it works

  • Who it's for. Break-even is worked out today and with your decision side by side, so the answer speaks to the choice you are actually making.
  • What good looks like. A what-if table recalculates percentage fees at each new price, which shows how far break-even really moves with price and cost changes.
  • If unsure. A cost that could be per sale or per month is asked about and its effect shown in one line, because putting it in the wrong place changes the answer a lot.

How to use it

  1. Press Fill in variables and type your details into each blank. What you type stays in this browser.
  2. Copy the filled prompt into the AI tool you already use, such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, or open it in the Grader or the Prompt Tester here.
  3. Before you rely on it, try it on three or four real examples. The Prompt Tester runs them all at once and shows which ones go wrong.
Use it from code

Get this prompt as JSON from the free REST API, with your own text in the blanks, or let an AI assistant fetch it through the MCP server. No key.

curl -s https://thinkhard.si/api/v1/prompts/break-even-point

With the MCP server added to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or VS Code, call get_prompt with {"prompt": "break-even-point"}, or just ask for it by name.