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.