Guides
Profit and margins
Four tests that tell you if a food product is really profitable: per unit, per kitchen hour, per sales channel and after your own pay. Worked example.
Read the guide: How to know if your food product is profitable
- How to know if your food product is profitableFour tests that tell you if a food product is really profitable: per unit, per kitchen hour, per sales channel and after your own pay. Worked example.→
- Contribution margin explained with examplesWhat contribution margin is, how to work it out per unit and as a percentage, and why it decides your prices, discounts and channels. Jam jar example.→
- Break-even point for a small food businessHow to work out how many units you need to sell each month to cover your fixed costs and your own pay, for one product or several. Step-by-step example.→
- Profit per kitchen hour: the metric that ranks productsHow to work out what each product brings in per kitchen hour and use that number to rank what you make. Example with brownies, hot sauce, bread and meal prep.→
- Which products to keep, push or dropA simple way to decide which food products to keep, push, fix or drop, using two numbers per product and a worked example from one month of sales.→
- Gross profit vs net profit for a food businessWhat gross profit and net profit mean, what goes into each, and how to work out both from one month of numbers in a small food business. With an example.→
- Why you can be profitable and still have no moneyWhy a small food business can show a profit with an empty bank account: unpaid invoices, stock, loan repayments and owner draws. With a worked example.→
- What profit margin is good for a small food businessWhy the margin benchmarks you read online mislead, and how to work out the margin your own food business needs from your fixed costs, your pay and your sales.→
- Signs a food product is losing you moneyThe warning signs that a product in your small food business is losing money, and the four checks to run to confirm it. With a worked brownie example.→
- How to pay yourself from a food businessHow to build your own wage into your product costs, how much to take out and when, and what to do when the business cannot pay you yet. With a worked example.→
What does it really cost you?
Put your recipe into the free calculator: ingredients, packaging, your time and the gas. You get the cost per unit and your margin in two minutes, no account needed.